Donaldson Cross Country Rally a huge success

The Motorite BAT Viper pair of Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen limped home in fifth place on the Atlas Copco Gold 400, final round of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship, to clinch back to back Special Vehicle category championships.

Interim scoring saw a maiden victory for Philip de Vries and Johan Viljoen, in the Conqueror Porter, lift the pair from fifth to second in the overall and Class A championships.

De Vries and Viljoen finished more than six minutes ahead of Quintin Sullwald and cross country debutant Janine Lourens, in the Elegant Fuel BAT Venom, with halfway leaders Marius and Jolinda Fourie completing the podium.

Fourth place went to Neil Meyer and Joseph Lewis, with Hutchison and Stassen surviving a string of scares on the second of the 170 kilometer loops that made up the race.

Punctures, alternator problems and a broken fan belt all added up to a nervous finish for the Motorite crew, who also completed the last three kilometres with a flat tyre.

Meyer and Lewis lost time stuck in a deep ditch, and Hutchison and Stassen eventually finished just 12 seconds clear of KwaZulu-Natal crew Clint Gibson and Gary Campbell in the Dirt Sport Component Porter.

Gibson and Campbell started the weekend second in the championship and 12.5 points behind Hutchison and Stassen. They were hit by a spate of punctures and after running out of wheels were bailed out by Hermann and Wichard Sullwald who lent them two spares.

A solid seventh overall clinched the Class P championship for Swaziland based driver John Thomson and Maurice Zermatten in a Zarco. Zermatten clinched the co-driver title at the previous event with the pair having another steady outing with no histrionics.

Thomson took a tight grip on the Class P driver title when closest rival Colin Matthews, partnered by Rodney Burke in the Century Racing CR3, retired from the qualifying race with a broken side shaft. Starting from the back of the field effectively ended any hope Matthews had of winning the overall and Class P driver titles.

Thomson and Zermatten were followed home by the Zeelie brothers, Daniel and Louw, who came up with another solid performance in the Maxxis/Liqui Moly/Rockstar Porter and Keith Makenete and Peter Hlutwa (Zarco) who completed the top 10 and were second in Class P. For Makenete and Hlutwa it was their best result of the season.

Rustenburg crew Willem Vos and Werner Weiss produced the shock of the season when they won the Atlas Copco Gold 400, the final round of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship.

Making only their second appearance of the season in the Vossies BMW X3, the pair also overcame a five minute penalty – for a qualifying race start infringement – to complete an unlikely win.

Vos and Weiss eventually held a one minute 39 second advantage over newly crowned South African champions Anthony Taylor and Dennis Murphy in the factory Team Castrol Toyota Hilux.

Taylor and Murphy, who clinched the title last time out, had an adventurous day. They completed the first of the two 170 loops that made up the race without a windscreen, and were then hampered by a puncture.

The podium was completed by the Atlas Copco Nissan Navara pair of Gary Bertholdt and Siegfried Rousseau. It was their first podium finish in the Navara after finishing second on the Nkomazi 400 in a Toyota Hilux earlier in the season.

Fourth and fifth went to outgoing South African champions Duncan Vos and Rob Howie, in the second factory Team Castrol Toyota Hilux, and Deon Venter/Ian Palmer who produced their best result of the season.

For multiple champion Vos it was a disappointing end to what is likely to have been his last race for the Toyota team.

When Vos/Howie led at the halfway stage it looked as though Vos’s Toyota career would end on a high. On the second loop, however, the pair were hit by two punctures.

There was further disappointment for Vos/Howie and the Team Castrol Toyota squad when Ford Racing pair Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst fought a rearguard action to finish sixth.

It was enough to give Visser/Badenhorst second in the overall championship ahead of Vos and Howie – although the Ford crew missed out on an eighth successive podium finish.

A faultless drive took Mpumalanga brothers Johan and Werner Horn into the top eight. Their only problem en route to a fourth win this season was a single puncture on the first loop.

The Horns came in comfortably ahead of Dana Vos and Hendrik de Kock in the Vossies Toyota Hilux with former champions Jack and Sarel Oosthuizen third in the LMC Land Rover Defender.

The win, however, was not enough to give the Horns the Class D title ahead of Jason Venter and Vincent van Allermannwho wrapped up the title on the previous event.

Down in Class E there was a maiden national win for Toyota Hilux pair Johan Pretorius and Gesina Dauth. In only their fourth event the pair came home ahead of Douglas Fear and Kurt de Villiers, who were looking for a fourth win this season, in the Brytons Removals Toyota Hilux.

The Class E championship was settled earlier in the season with Dirk Putter and Koos Claasens taking back to back titles in a Ford ranger.