Grobler dominates

Multiple former South African champion Hannes Grobler was back to his winning ways when he won the Production Vehicle category on the Sun City 400, round five of the Absa Off-Road Championship on Saturday.

The popular Grobler and Juan Mohr, in a factory Sasol Nissan Navara, dominated the weekend’s proceedings from start to finish and gave Nissan their fourth win in five outings this season. They set the fastest time on the Friday prologue to determine grid positions, and then led the race from start to finish in a faultless drive.

The winning margin of five minutes 33 seconds ahead of Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer, in the factory Ford Racing Ranger, was an indication of just how much Grobler and Mohr were in control of proceedings. For the Ford pair it was their fifth podium finish in five outings and an overdue win continues to elude the experienced former SA champions.

“That was a timely win,” said Grobler. “I haven’t won in a while and this was just what Juan and I needed.

“We had a nice clean run today and now we are ready to pick up a few more wins over the rest of the season.”

A solid performance took Hugo and Jaap de Bruyn, in the Micaren Exel Toyota Hilux, into third place. For the father and son combination it was their best performance of the season with the pair upstaging the Toyota factory entries, which fell by the wayside, of Mark Cronje/Chris Birkin and Anthony Taylor/Robin Houghton.

Fourth and fifth were the two other factory Sasol Nissan Navara’s in the hands of Ivar Tollefsen and Quin Evans, with the Norway/Great Britain combination coming in ahead of reigning drivers champion Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford. It was Vos/Pitchford who provided most of the drama.

After a horrendous prologue when they broke a sideshaft, Vos and Pitchford started 52nd on the road. By the end of the first of two loops that made up the race the pair had picked up 30 places in dusty conditions, and fifth was a heroic effort that keeps Vos at the top of the overall and premier SP Class driver’s championships.

Vos’ charge bumped Mark Ferguson and Craig West, in the second Ford Racing Ranger, out of the top five. Behind the KwaZulu-Natal crew a steady performance saw George Barkhuizen and stand-in navigator Ockie Fourie seventh overall.

After a disappointing season reigning Class D driver’s champion Cliff Weichelt, partnered by Nico Els on this event, finally came good. The pair, in the N1 4x4 Toyota Hilux D4D, cruised home around six minutes clear of Henri and Maurice Zermatten (Ryobi Nissan Hardbody) with championship leaders Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber (Raysonics Nissan Hardbody) among the race casualties.

Third in Class D went to the husband and wife team of Ramon and Maret Bezuidenhout in a Toyota Hilux. For the Delmas pair it was their best result of the season.

Rookie Dewald van Breda, partnered by Johan du Toit in the Potch Plastics Toyota Hilux, scored his second win of the season in Class E. They came in around four minutes ahead of championship leaders Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux who had to make up a 15 minute penalty for starting late on the prologue.

Early casualties were reigning drivers champion Jack Peckham and Lucio Santoro in the Ford Racing Ranger. A broken engine mounting saw them in an early role as spectators.