There was disappointment for the Motorite Racing team of Evan Hutchison and Elvene Coetzee in the penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship in the Western Cape last weekend. A cracked gearbox housing put an end to their promising start in the Swartland Rally, which got underway on Friday and ended at the Killarney motor racing circuit on Saturday.
Driving the Motorite Racing class S2000 Volkswagen Polo 2.0-litre 16V, the pair had made a confident start on Friday, completing the first two of the event’s nine stages in eighth place overall.
“We’d noticed a vibration as we drove to the start of the first stage on Friday afternoon,” said Hutchison. “There was nothing we could do about it until we completed the first two stages, when we had the first scheduled service stop at Killarney.
They were 11th in the first stage, a testing but short 5,5-km gravel sprint near Killarney that caught out some of the top drivers. Hutchison had put in some practice at Zwartkops Raceway in Gauteng in preparation for the tarmac stages at Killarney that characterise this Western Cape event and this paid off as he recorded the eighth fastest time over the 8,14 km.
“Then we discovered that the gearbox casing was damaged and that was that. It was very disappointing. We’d prepared well for this event and our pace in the first two stages was good despite the vibration. We could have been a few positions better off than eighth without it.
“It’s very frustrating putting in so much effort and travelling all that way only to have to call it a day after only 13 km of racing. That’s the challenge of national championship rallying. It’s a tough sport and takes its toll on the equipment.
“We really do need a bit of a break and we’ll be hoping we get this in the final round in Gauteng in October. In the meantime, we’ll be going through the usual exhaustive preparation process and making sure the car is in the best possible shape,” said Hutchison.
Motorite Racing is the motor sport division of Motorite Insurance Administrators, the largest independent mechanical breakdown insurance and full maintenance plan service provider and administrator in South Africa.