The Motorite Racing team of Evan Hutchison and Trevor Ormerod are highly motivated to get their Special Vehicle class B challenge back on track when the fourth round of the Absa Off Road Championship takes place at Sun City this weekend (July 1).
Following their dream debut in their Nissan-engined Motorite BAT in the opening round of the championship in the Nissan Sugarbelt 400 in KwaZulu Natal in March, when they dominated class B and at times ran with the more powerful class A special vehicles, Hutchison and Ormerod have been frustrated by unexpected mechanical problems and have seen their class B rivals take full advantage.
After the first three rounds of the eight-round series, they are currently lying second in the class B championship with 17 points from their win in round one and their fifth place in round two, the Nissan Dealer 400 in the Western Cape in April. Reigning class B champions Marcus Taylor and Marc de Chalain (JRE) lead the class with 21 points.
“We put a lot of time and effort into preparing ourselves for each event and it’s very disappointing when unforeseen problems, sometimes beyond your control, frustrate your efforts to perform at your best,” says Hutchison.
Fuel pressure problems slowed them during the Nissan Dealer 400 after they were involved in an exciting battle with eventual winners Ernest Corbett and son-in-law Warwick Goosen in their Century Property Developments Audi-engined BAT.
A freak engine failure caused by a small screw finding its way into the cylinder head prevented them from starting the recent Toyota 1 000 Desert Race.
“But that’s motor racing and the bad luck is spread around. We’ve completely rebuilt the Nissan engine and we’re now ready to have another clean run like we did in KwaZulu Natal and get our class B championship challenge back on track.”
Class B points standings (after three rounds):
1 M Taylor/M de Chalain (JRE) 36; 2 E Hutchison/T Ormerod (Motorite BAT) 31; 3 R and P van Graan (Zarco Lite) 28; 4 J Thomson/C McNamara (Zarco Lite) 26; 5 David White (Truggy) 23; 6 E Corbett/W Goosen (BAT) 20.
