The Pretoria-based Retirement Fund Solutions team of Hannes Grobler/Hennie ter Stege and Christiaan du Plooy/Henk Janse van Rensburg travel to the Western Cape for the opening round of the 2011 Absa Off Road Car Championship, the Adenco 400, in the Darling area this weekend (March 11 and 12) buoyed by their excellent season last year.
Grobler, one of the most experienced off road drivers in South Africa and certainly the most popular, drove the privateer RFS BMW X3 diesel to a remarkable second overall in the 2010 Production Vehicle championship and won the marathon Toyota Kalahari 1000 Desert Race in its first season.
The unique in South Africa racing X3 was designed and built in Gauteng and has been completely stripped and rebuilt for the new season. It will appear in a striking new, predominantly orange colour scheme with black highlights – the colours of RFS and the reverse of last year’s livery.
“In addition to the rebuild, we’ve given particular attention to the tuning of the engine and the cooling system,” said the congenial multiple former champion. “We had a great debut year in 2010 and although we honestly didn’t expect to win a race in the diesel’s first season, we were not that surprised. We just didn’t expect it in the longest and toughest race of the year. It’s a very efficient and strong off road vehicle and we expect to improve our performance in this year’s series.
“We had hoped to have the new petrol-engined V8 BMW X3 ready for Christiaan to drive in the Darling event, but we still have quite a bit of work to do. He will start the season in the Toyota Hilux in which he and Henk finished a great third in the Free State round last year and fourth in the season-ending RFS Magalies 400. We’ve also completely stripped and rebuilt the Hilux and I expect Christiaan and Henk will be very competitive. They improved their performance with each round last year and now have another year’s experience behind them.
“Our plan with the new M3-engined BMW X3 is to test it with Christiaan and benchmark it against the diesel car. We’re looking forward to the new season. It will be a tough and interesting year ahead with a lot of very competitive rivals to beat – fast and furious, just how I like it,” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Off road racing is looking very healthy.”
The RFS team was awarded the Milestone Award at the 2010 Absa Off Road Car Championship prize-giving earlier this month for finishing second in the championship with an untested new car that was designed and built locally and also for winning a round of the championship in the car’s first season.
– Credit: Peter Burroughes Communications.