Vos’s win on the fourth round of this year’s Absa Off Road Championship was also his second in a row with a stand-in co-driver and gave Nissan their seventh consecutive victory in Botswana. Last year Vos won with veteran Richard Leeke who was standing in for Ralph Pitchford who again missed this year’s race because of overseas commitments.
Provisional results saw Vos and young Weichelt coming in three minutes ahead of Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin in the factory Castrol Toyota Hilux. An intriguing battle raged between the two crews after a storming day two performance by Cronje and Birkin took them from 12th place into a 17 second lead ahead of the Nissan.
Cronje and Birkin finally threw in the towel 60 kilometres from the finish and decided to settle for second place. The Castrol Toyota lost rear brakes and then picked up a puncture which decided Cronje and Birkin to concentrate on finishing well up in the points.
On the final run to the finish the Toyota was being chased down by former winners Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer in the factory Ford Racing Ranger. Cronje and Birkin managed to hold on by around two minutes with the Ford crew hampered by rear suspension damage.
“That was as tough as it gets,” said Vos. “There was huge pressure throughout the race and this was a route where you could not afford the slightest mistake.
“Louis did a great job and the technical crew also deserve a pat on the back for keeping the vehicle in one piece.”
Fourth place went to veteran Hannes Grobler, a multiple Desert Race winner, and Juan Mohr, in a second Sasol Nissan Navara who came in around 12 minutes behind the Ford. They made up wads of time to come in five minutes ahead of circuit racer Anthony Taylor, having only his second outing in the factory Castrol Toyota Hilux, and Robin Houghton.
Among the notable retirements were Alfie Cox and Hennie ter Stege (Motorite Ford) with electrical problems, Chris Visser/Japie Badenhorst (Castrol Toyota Hilux) and prologue winners Hugo and Jaap de Bruyn in the Micaren Exel Toyota Hilux. The second factory Ford Ranger in the hands of Marc Ferguson and Craig West was also a casualty along with the third Sasol Nissan Navara of Norwegian Ivar Tollefsen and Briton Quin Evans.
What looked like developing into a tight Class D battle finally ended with Henri and Maurice Zermatten, in the Ryobi Nissan Hardbody, taking their second Desert Race win in a row. They came in more than 15 minutes ahead of championship leaders Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber, in the Raysonics Nissan Hardbody, who gradually fell off the pace.
Third place went to young Chris du Plooy junior and Henk van Vuuren in the RFS Toyota Hilux. They hung in against two highly experienced crews and kept up their Class D championship challenge.
The Team Barberspan Toyota Hilux pair of Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux scored their third win of the season to take Class E honours. They came in ahead of the Ford Racing Ranger pair of Jack Peckham and Lucio Santoro who were hit with a 25 minute penalty for missing drivers briefing and an indiscretion on the convoy to the start.
That dropped Peckham/Santoro down to third in class behind Toyota Kalahari Botswana Desert Race 1000 rookies Dewald van Breda and Johan du Toit who did a sterling job in the Potch Plastics Toyota Hilux .
