A 4th win for city’s top rider

POLOKWANE’s Brian Baragwanath of Team Rhide SA Yamaha became the first winner of the inaugural Vryburg Stella 400 national off-road championships, which was held in the North West on Saturday.

Baragwanath has now been victorious in the quad category at all four rounds of the 2014 South African National Off-road Championships.

The dry and dusty 360km desert-type race proved to be quite challenging, with tight battles raging in the various class championships.

On four wheels, the defending champion, Jurie “Botter” Meyer (Yamaha Race Support), who could not complete the previous two national races, was the 13th quad off the starting line, but he hunted Baragwanath down and finished second, only 02:19 later, despite a flat tyre and having to remove wire from his quad.

Fellow Polokwane rider, André du Plessis (Yamaha) was riding hard in second place, but had to call it a day due to a broken frame.

The Tzaneen teenager, Jaco Moller (PS Extreme ATV Tzaneen Yamaha) raced consistently to claim his second national podium result this season.

Baragwanath, Meyer and Moller claimed the podium positions in the Q1 Championships.

André Park (Yamaha) fought his way to fourth place overall (he was also fourth in Q1), with David Hollis (Yamaha) rounding off the overall top five, as well as the Q1 championships. Stuart Freeman (PS Diamond Trailers Yamaha) finished only 15 seconds behind Hollis to claim his third senior class victory, with his teammate and the senior class leader, Russell Ferreira (Honda) finishing second in the class and eighth overall.

Jaco Venter (Honda) missed the last two national races, but made up for it by finishing seventh overall (sixth in Q1), with Hoedspruit’s, Paul dos Santos (Factory Racing Suzuki) ninth overall and third in the senior class and Hannes Annandale (Boesman Racing Suzuki) 10th overall and the Q2 winner.

The race took its toll on the quad competitors and only three more Q1, Q2 and senior class riders managed to complete the full race. Hannes Saaijman (Team Rhide SA Suzuki) finished second in Q2 and 11th overall after numerous problems with fuses, Peter Walter (PS Diamond Trailers Yamaha) was 12th overall and fourth in the senior class and Ted Barbier (Yamaha) was the third of the Team Rhide SA riders and fifth in the senior class championships.

The fifth and penultimate round of the national off-road championships will take place in the Free State on August 23.