A gritty performance against the odds saw Barden Tyre Services Racing team’s Thomas Rundle and Juan Mohr finish 14th overall and 10th in class SP in the RFS Magalies 400, final round of the 2010 Absa Off Road Car Championship, in Gauteng on Saturday.
The pair started Saturday’s 350-km race in the Tarlton area in 41st place among the combined special and production vehicle field of 62 after failing to finish Friday’s 79-km prologue as a result of a broken shock absorber.
They were the first car in the mass start, half an hour behind prologue winner Duncan Vos (Toyota Hilux). Thick dust and traffic jams at tricky water crossings made progress through the field particularly challenging, but by the halfway point at the compulsory service stop at the Tarlton International Raceway they had pulled themselves back to ninth with the third-fastest time over the 176-km loop.
“We had a very good lap one,” said Rundle. “Overtaking was not easy in the conditions, but we were determined to pull ourselves back into contention. We made no mistakes and had a completely trouble-free run.”
They were particularly pleased to have pulled back six minutes on new champions Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst (Toyota Hilux), who started 28 minutes ahead of them in fourth place and led at the halfway stage.
“It was important that we finished today after a very disappointing season that saw us complete just one round, the Sun City 400, where we were third,” said Rundle. “We knew we had the pace to finish in the top three again and were confident we could achieve this and end the season on a high note.”
There had been a hint of a fuel pressure problem towards the end of the first loop and this became a reality in the second half of the race. Any chance of repeating the heroics of lap one disappeared with the pair forced to stop on at least six occasions. “The engine would fire up again after a little while, probably as it cooled, and we would continue. It was very frustrating as we sat on the side of the route with cars we had passed earlier going past us.
“Under the circumstances, we were very pleased to finish and I must congratulate my entire team on all their hard work throughout a long and difficult season.”
The first round of the 2011 season will be the Adenco 400 in the Western Cape on March 11 and 12.
While Barden Tyre Services is the principal sponsor, the team also enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with other partners and suppliers like Dunlop tyres, Autozone, Hausberger and Associates, Maxwell Design and Advertising, Willard batteries and Cedar Chem.
– Credit: Peter Burroughes Communications.