JWANENG, Friday – Jimmy Zahos and Zaheer Bodhanya got their weekend off to the perfect start when they won the Special Vehicle qualifying race to determine start positions for the opening heat of the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race, round three of the Donaldson Cross Country Motor Racing Championship, which starts here tomorrow.
Atlas Copco Gold 450
Zahos and Bodhanya, in the Cobalt Racing Stryker, crossed the finish line with 83 seconds to spare over Australian Dave McShane and South African navigator Leander Pienaar in the Fox Racing BAT. Zahos and Bodhanya have a single victory in the Donaldson series to their names, and currently lie second in the championship to Quintin and Kallie Sullwald.
The Sullwalds (Motorite BAT Venom) were late withdrawals from the weekend’s activities, and Zahos and Bodhanya were given a further boost when reigning South African champions Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen (Motorite BAT Viper) were forced to retire from today’s qualifying event. Behind McShane and Pienaar only 23 seconds separated Sarel van Biljon and Philip Herselman (Atlas Copco BAT), who nursed the car home over the last six kilometres with a puncture, with a hectic start to the race on the cards for both crews.
McShane, however, was delighted with the result. It was his best performance since committing himself to the Donaldson series. “It was awesome,” he said. “We had a lot of fun out there and these are the conditions for which the car was built.”
Desert Race veterans Mark Corbett and Juan Mohr in the Century Racing CR 5 were handily placed in fourth position. The pair, who are competing in their 19th Desert Race and won the event in 2000, reported a clean run with “no hassles.”
Stefan van Pletzen and Jaco Pieterse, in a Chenowth, continued their impressive start to the second round with fifth place. The pair had a couple of minutes to spare over Deon Venter and Jaco van Aardt, who have temporarily made the switch from Production Vehicles to the Special Vehicle brigade in the 4×4 Mega World Porter.
Sixth place was a pretty impressive debut for the pair. They came in ahead of the likes of the highly experienced Marius and Jolinda Fourie (PHB BAT) and, in another impressive performance, John Telford and Victor Ntsekhe (Hellcat) topped the list of Class P entries in eighth place.
Keith Makenete and Taelo Mochebelele (BAT) were next up with Nic Goslar and Andrew Massey (SA Clinics Zarco) continuing their good start to the season in Class P by rounding out the top 10. They were followed in 11th place by Guy Henley and Martin Hermida (Century Racing CR-T) with third place among the Class P brigade.
The biggest losers – on a weekend where there are 60 points up for grabs – were Hutchison and Stassen and Class P champions John Thomson and Maurice Zermatten, in a Zarco Magnum, who have yet to fire on all cylinders this season. A broken steering arm put paid to Hutchison and Stassen who will start tomorrow from the back of the field, while Thomson and Zermatten only reported a puncture 80 kilometres into the route, the pair were only seventh in Class P and around nine minute behind the leaders.
Race headquarters, the start/finish and the designated service point are again located at the Jwaneng Sports Club and adjoining showground facility. Public access to these areas will be controlled, but there is free entry into spectator viewing points along the route. Tomorrow’s race is scheduled to start at 08:30. (Source: http://www.sacrosscountryracing.co.za/)
