Locals drive straight to victory in Mpumalanga 400
Local motorsport crews counted among the top competitors at the weekend's Mpumalanga 400 in Dullstroom.
Lance Trethewey and Onderberger Adriaan Roets in the LT Earthmovers BAT Venom won the special vehicle category in the Mpumalanga 400 in Dullstroom over the weekend and Johan and Werner Horn in their Malalane Toyota Hilux took fourth place in the class T.
Defending champ Giniel de Villiers and navigator Dennis Murphy won the race’s FIA class in their Toyota Hilux for the second consecutive year. This despite losing time with punctures, like class teammates Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. The latter had to settle for second place, 34 seconds behind the winners.
Reigning champions Lance Woolridge and co-driver Ward Huxtable of the Ford Castrol Cross Country Team also earned their second consecutive class T win. They were followed a minute and seven seconds later by teammates Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer.
Despite the challenge of punctures, mechanical and navigational problems, the opening round of the SA Cross Country Series (SACCS) proved an even bigger success than last year, according to organisers Malalane Toyota.
Crews roared off onto the dust roads on Friday afternoon for the 64-kilometre qualifying race. Toyota Gazoo Racing SA’s Lategan and Cummings ended up leading the field, with De Villiers and Murphy in the second slot. The Horn brothers were in third place with a 17-second lead over defending class T champs Woolridge and Huxtable.
On Saturday morning crews took on the main race of two 160-kilometre loops. The Horn brothers lost time due to issues with their GPS system during the first loop and a flat tyre in the second.
They came in fourth place, just 27 seconds after Gary Bertholdt and Geoff Minnitt in the Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux. The latter finished only 17 seconds behind the Ford Ranger team for an overall fifth place.
Lance and Ward had to deal with smoke inside their cabin that appeared to be from the air-conditioning unit, but added a class win and third place in the overall production vehicle category to their scorecard.
Trethewey and Roets celebrated their class A win, which followed two victories at the end of the 2018 season. The team also struggled with punctures, dealing with two in the first 30 kilometres of the first loop.
They made it through with no spare wheel and enjoyed a clean second loop for the overall and Class A win. Roets stated that several navigators also struggled with motion sickness due to the surroundings.
The action was not just limited to the road. Malalane Toyota and several sponsors and partners donated over 200 pairs of school shoes and goodie bags to local children as part of the Thuma Mina Project.
READ about last year’s event: Horns race to fifth place in muddy Mpumalanga 400
Crews will take on the second round of the SACCS near Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal on May 17 and 18.
