Bertholdt and Kirstein (Atlas Copco Porter), who earlier in the season won the Ford Motorite 400, came in ahead of Motorite BAT crews Evan Hutchison/Achim Bergmann and overall Special Vehicle championship and Class A leaders Alfie Cox and Hennie Ter Stege. Bertholdt and Kirsten finished the 30 kilometre prologue – run to determine start positions for the race proper tomorrow – 14 seconds ahead of Hutchison and Bergmann with Cox/Ter Stege a further 11 seconds adrift.
All three crews reported troublefree runs and the scene is set for a terrific battle up front in what is the penultimate race of the season. Cox leads the drivers championship ahead of another Motorite BAT entrant, Brandon Harcus, who ran into a gearbox problem in today’s prologue and who will start from the back of the field tomorrow.
“We had a good run with the road book and the route marking earning top marks,” said Hutchison. “From a team point of view Brandon’s problem was unfortunate, but we are looking forward to what should be a good race.”
Fourth overall in the Special vehicle category were Gerhard and Kobie du Plessis in a privately entered Jimco. They edged out Colin Matthews and Bodo Bertholdt, father of Gary, by just 10 seconds.
The first of the Class B contingent were veterans Ernest Corbett and Warwick Goosen (Century Property Development BAT) who will be looking for their third win on the trot. They were only two seconds ahead of the Bosal Zarco pair of Marius van Vuuren and Johan Coetzee.
Third were Adenco BAT pair Johan and Etienne Bezuidenhout with the prologue a disaster for drivers championship leader Jan Kraaij and son Jan Jnr in the Keymax BAT. They finished well down the pecking order and will start from near the back of the field tomorrow.
Arch rivals Archie Rutherford/Craig Doubtfire (Nashua Mobile Raceco) and reigning champions Richard Schilling/Chris Davies (Plastotech Aceco) set the pace in Class S. Drivers championship leader Nic Goslar, paired again with Richard Carolin in the Kopanong Hotel Superteam Raceco, was third.
The race starts at 08h00 at Lydenburg Toyota and is made up of three loops of approximately 130 kilometres each. A designated service point will operate from the Lydenburg rugby fields, with the first car expected at the finish at around 15h00.
