Team members have been hard at work repairing the damage to the 5,9 litre V8 powered vehicle, which was driven by Scott Abraham at the time of the accident.
“Apart from the fact that there wasn’t a single body panel left intact the roll cage above the driver’s head was moved back 37cm, some of the blades in the rear spring packs were bent beyond repair, the pinion gear shaft on the rear differential snapped and the rear A-arm that locates the differential and suspension was destroyed,” said Stratford Voogt, who has been helping the team repair the damage. “It all sounds rather terminal but we were able to jack the chassis back into position, fabricate a new A-arm, replace the damaged components and fit new body panels and we are ready to race.”
The Atlas Copco/Chicago Pneumatic Jeep will be driven by Scott Abraham and Richard Carolin, who each take a stint behind the wheel during the race, and the team is confident that they can once again finish in the top ten as they did in last year’s event where they also won Class F.
“The Jeep is well suited to the terrain in the Tarkastad area and we are confident that we can do well and hopefully retain second place in the Class T championship,” said Abraham. “Not finishing in Mafikeng dropped us from fifth in the Special Vehicle Championship to joint ninth with Neil Woolridge and Ken Skjoldhammer in the Team Ford Racing Ranger so we have a lot of catching up to do.”
The Queen Motor Spares Tarka 400 gets underway with a 40km Prologue on August 22. The main event, comprising three laps of a 130km route starts at 08:00 on August 23 and the first car is expected at the finish at 13:30.
