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27 June, 2011
Second TDR win for Sullwalds
Reigning South African off-road car racing champions Kallie and Quintin Sullwald produced a copybook performance to win their second Toyota 1000 Desert Race in Botswana on Sunday.
The father-and-son team from Phalaborwa, racing an Elegant BAT, outlasted former SA champion Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen (Motorite Revo) with the final margin between the two teams just over five minutes. In the process the Sullwalds consolidated their position at the top of the Special Vehicle and Class A championships, and added to their success on the 2007 Toyota Desert Race.
The Sullwalds finished second to Hutchison and Stassen in Friday's prologue to determine race grid positions, and thereafter fought a cat-and-mouse game with Hutchison. The scales gradually tipped the way of the Sullwalds on the last of the two 200 kilometre loops that made up Sunday's race distance of the Four Wheel Drive Club-organised event which took place in the Kalahari Desert.
"We never had to get out of the car on the route, and that is the secret to success on this race," said Sullwald senior. "Our only problem was a gearbox cooler hiccup which was quickly sorted out. We maintained a steady pace throughout and it was the near perfect race."
There was a touch of déjà vu for Hutchison and Stassen at the finish. Their car died on the line and had to be pushed into the post-race parc fermé.
Former Class P champions Johan van Staden and James Rossouw (Atlas Copco BAT) picked up their best result of the season with their first podium since moving into Class A. In a close finish they were only 22 seconds ahead of Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau (Varigo BAT), who were looking for a fourth TDR win in a row.
A fine performance took Brett Parker, partnered by VZ van Zyl who won this race in 2002 with Greg Daus, into fifth in a Jimco. It was Parker's first top-five finish and he and van Zyl held off Class P winners Archie Rutherford and Mike Lawrenson (Regent Jimco).
It was a second win in a row for the Regent Racing team after coming from behind for victory on the recent Atlas Copco 400. Nick Goslar and Andrew Massey (Men's Health Zarco) were the only other Class P finishers.
Jimmy Zahos and Stefan Coetzee (Cobalt Porter) produced their best result of the season to finish seventh overall, with Hermann and Wichard Sullwald right behind them in the Sullwald SVR. The two Sullwald crews arrived in Botswana tied at the top of the championship with Nick and Ryan Harper (Motorite BAT) two points adrift.
The Harpers were day two casualties with the Sullwalds, by contrast to their sister team, going through a weekend of pain. They were plagued throughout by suspension and other problems but held on to salvage valuable championship points.
The conditions also took a heavy toll on Class B competitors with no finishers in the category.
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