There has been a changing of the guard at the top of the table with privateers Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst jumping into the overall lead in the Production Vehicle category in the Absa Off Road Championship.
Victory on the Atlas Copco Sugarbelt 400 in KwaZulu-Natal, round three of the Absa series, did the trick for Visser and Badenhorst. For the RFS/Visser Transport Toyota Hilux pair it was their second win of the season after a maiden national victory on the Adenco 400 in the Western Cape.
The KZN win has taken Visser and Badenhorst ahead of former South African champions Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege in the RFS Toyota Hilux. Grobler and ter Stege lost around 12 minutes on the Donaldson Prologue on the Sugarbelt race, but fought back to rescue important championship points.
Grobler/ter Stege are one of two crews with a 100 percent finish record this season and now trail Visser/Badenhorst by five points. Former champions Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer (Ford Racing Ranger TDCi) are third in the overall championship, and made history on the Toyota Dealer 400 when they became the first team to win a national event in a diesel powered vehicle.
The top five in the overall championship are completed by reigning SA driver’s champion Duncan Vos and Rob Howie (Castrol Toyota Hilux) and the ultra consistent Mike Whitehouse and Mathew Carlson in the Regent Racing Nissan Navara. Brothers-in-law Whitehouse and Carlson are the only other leading crew to have finished all three events this season.
Anomalies between points awarded for overall and class positions see a different slant on matters in the premier SP Class. Here Visser/Badenhorst and Grobler/ter Stege are tied at the top of the championship standings.
The two crews have an eight point advantage over Woolridge and Skjoldhammer who missed the first race of the season. Whitehouse/Carlson and Vos/Howie complete the top five with just three points separating third, fourth and fifth.
Two wins in three events have also given reigning champions Dewald van Breda and Johann du Toit (Northam Toyota Hilux) a tight hold on the Class D championship, while on the Class E front another Woolridge has burst onto the scene. Lance Woolridge, son of Neil, and Ward Huxtable (Ford Racing Ranger) hold an eight point lead over Atlas Copco Sugarbelt 400 winners Pikkie Labuschagne and Rikus Erasmus in the 4×4 Megaworld Hilux.
On the manufacturer front Toyota, after fighting rousing battles with Nissan for nearly a decade, are simply running away with matters. Toyota (250) lead Ford (87) by a huge margin with Nissan, who withdrew from off road racing at the end of last season, in an unaccustomed third place.
The ABSA Off Road Championship now goes into limbo top accommodate the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup with the next event the Sun City 400 in the Pilanesberg on July 16 and 17.
– Credit: www.saoffroadracing.co.za