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24 June, 2011
Hutchison wins specials prologue
Former South African champion Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen took full advantage of four-wheel-drive on their Motorite Revo to win the Special Vehicle category on Friday's Prologue, to determine grid positions for the Toyota 1000 Desert Race which got under way on Friday.
The race, the only marathon event on the Absa Off-Road Car Racing Championship calendar, is round four of the series. Hutchison and Stassen have had a disappointing season so far, but bounced back to form to finish 36 seconds ahead of reigning South African champions Kallie and Quintin Sullwald (Elegant BAT).
Next up were two more father-and-son teams in Nick and Ryan Harper (Motorite BAT), and Hermann and Wichard Sullwald (Sullwald SVR). In a tight situation the two Sullwald teams are tied at the top of the overall championship with the Harpers just two points in arrears.
"The championship is interesting and I think all of us are just looking to consolidate this weekend," said Kallie Sullwald. "This is a tough race and the most important thing is simply to make it to the finish. The secret on this event is to know when to push hard and when to take it a little easier."
Only 26 seconds separate the Harpers, the second Sullwald crew and Jimmy Zahos and Stefan Coetzee, who took their Cobalt Porter into fifth place. Pace has never been a problem for the colourful Zahos, but the team has been hampered in recent seasons by reliability troubles.
Former TDR winner Mark Corbett and Rudi Balzer (Century CR4), were sixth fastest and had only seven seconds to spare on Class P pacesetters Don Thomson and Wayne Foster. Thomson and Foster, a KwaZulu-Natal crew, currently top the Class P championship standings and were 12 seconds ahead of Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau (Varigo BAT) who are aiming at a fourth consecutive victory in Botswana.
Thomson and Foster had a comfortable lead of just over a minute ahead of Atlas Copco 400 winners Archie Rutherford and Mike Lawrenson (Regent Jimco). Third in Class P was the husband-and-wife team of Marius and Jolinda Fourie (PHB BAT) who led the championship in the early part of the season.
The rest of the Class P contingent were a long way in arrears and it would appear the category is going to develop into a three-way fight.
With just one second separating the first two cars there is no doubt that Class B will get off to a ferocious start. The father-and-daughter combination of Coetzee and Sandra Labuscagne (Raysonics Zarco) edged out brothers Keith and Andrew Makenete, in another Zarco, in a closely-contested prologue.
"We won here last year and are hoping for a repeat," said Labuscagne. "We haven't had much luck so far this season, but the car has been rebuilt and we are hoping for a good result."
The first leg of the race will start at Kumakwane at 08:00. The start/finish and the designated service point are all situated at Kumakwane.
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