Reigning champion Duncan Vos and co-driver Ralph Pitchford won the Sun City 400 in North West Province on Saturday when they brought their class SP Donaldson Nissan Navara home 6 min 34 sec ahead of the Toyota Hilux of Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen. 

It was the pair’s fourth victory in the first five rounds of this year’s Absa Off Road Championship and extends their championship lead to 60 points over Donaldson Nissan team-mates Ivar Erik Tollefsen and Quin Evans with three rounds remaining.  The win also extends Nissan’s winning streak to 11 since the Eastern Cape 400 in April last year.

Third was the Ford Ranger of Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer, who finished 9 min 9 sec behind the winning Nissan and 8 min 8 sec ahead of Nissan privateers Terence Marsh and Pieter Groenewald (Regent Racing Navara).

Nissan scored a clean sweep of the three production vehicle classes, with privateers Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber taking the class D honours in their Raysonics Nissan Hardbody and Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie earning an impressive debut class E win in their Nissan Motorsport-prepared Ferodo Hardbody.

Vos and Pitchford showed their class once again with another come from behind performance.  They started Saturday’s race in seventh place among the production vehicles after a disappointing prologue, but reached the halfway compulsory service stop in the lead. 

“We struggled in the dust in the early stages and were slowed with a puncture,” said Vos.  “But we pushed hard and took advantage of the fact that many of our rivals ran into problems.  Apart from another puncture early in the second loop, we had a clean run throughout the rest of the race.” 

Norwegian Tollefsen and Briton Evans had a troubled weekend, finishing 17th among the production vehicles and 11th in the Super Production class after damaging their steering and losing 23 minutes at the halfway service point having the steering rack replaced.

Hannes Grobler and Juan Mohr, winners of the event last year, were out of luck in the third Sasol-fueled factory Donaldson Nissan Navara.  After finishing second in Friday’s 70-km prologue, they dropped back to sixth in the first of the two 180-km loops that made up Saturday’s route after losing seven minutes when they went off the route.

Things didn’t get better as they struggled with brake problems throughout the event and finally finished ninth overall and eighth in class SP with no front brakes after stopping to try and repair a broken caliper.  “It was not a great day for us,” said a rueful Grobler.  “We started well but then got lost a couple of times and also had two punctures.  I had to pump the brakes and eventually we stopped to remove the caliper 100 km from the finish.”

Nissan privateers Marsh and Groenewald were delighted with their best outing to date in their first year campaigning the ex-Duncan Vos factory Navara.  Marsh, a former champion in the special vehicle category, credited a test session with Vos before the event with a new-found confidence.  “This was my best drive of the year.  We had no problems at all,” he said.

Poulter and Howie’s performance in the class E Ferodo Nissan Hardbody was particularly impressive in their first season together in off road racing.  They were quicker in the prologue than all their class D and class E rivals and led the standard production category throughout the race, finishing eighth overall and 19 minutes ahead of the next class E vehicle. 

Glyn Hall, general manager of Nissan Motorsport:  “Overall we had a good day today.  Winning all three classes in which we compete is a first for us and extending our winning streak to 11 is very satisfying.  The competition is getting tougher all the time and we are proud of our finishing record.”

Nissan Acknowledges Its Sponsors and Specialist Official Supplier and Technical Partners
Nissan Motorsport enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with Atlas Copco (pneumatic tools), Bosch Automotive, Champion (spark plugs), Donaldson (air filters), Edgecam (machining software specialists), Eibach (springs), Ferodo (brake pads), First Car Rental, LUK (clutches), Mastercraft (tools), Pro Engineering, Sasol Oil (fuels and lubricants) and SKF (bearings).