Hutchison and Bergmann, in the Motorite BAT, put an end to a dreadful run of non finishes to score a win that restores a little pride for the team. The pair are not a factor in terms of the championship – but the overall and Class A title chases look like going all the way to the wire at the final event of the season in November.
Former South African champion Karl-Heinz Sullwald and son Quintin, in the Sullwald Racing BAT, were second overall and in Class A with a magnificent performance taking KwaZulu-Natal crew Don Thomson and Gary Campbell to third overall and first in Class P.
Mike Whitehouse/Mathew Carlson were fourth with the top five completed by Hendrik Kraaij and Tiddo Voogt, in the Keymax BAT.
At the start of the event, the penultimate round of the championship, four crews were in with a chance of taking the titles. A second place for the Sullwald’s did their title hopes no harm but the same could not be said for former champions Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau, and Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen in the Atlas Copco Porter.
Variawa and Rousseau (Total Porter) and Terrence Marsh and Pieter Groenewald (Regent Racing BAT) had an unhappy time on the Friday prologue that determines start positions for the race proper. Both crews had to start towards the back of the field, with further woes awaiting Variawa and Rousseau.
The Total crew were non finishers while Marsh and Groenewald battled their way to ninth overall and fifth in class. Marsh and Groenewald were also among the back of the field starters and their race was one of damage control.
Bertholdt and Vermeulen were in the lead at the end of the first of two loops that made up the event. The Porter, however, had suffered suspension damage and despite some rapid welding repairs they pulled out before the start of the final leg.
The Kraaij/Voogt result in Class B gives Voogt, who this season has sat alongside Hendrik and his father Jan, a tight hold on the co-drivers championship. Second were the Free State crew Louw de Bruin and Rudi Britz, in the Ruwacon BAT, who were six minutes in arrears.
De Bruin leads the driver’s champion but Britz missed an event earlier in the season, which cost him in the co-driver stakes. Third in class, and also still in the championship mix, were veterans Giel Nel and Deon de Kock in the Luk Afrika Zarco Truggy.
Thomson’s win in Class P brings him back into the picture in the driver’s championship. Also still in the frame going into the last event are brothers Johan and Etienne Bezuidenhout, in the Adenco BAT, who were 11 minutes behind the KZN crew.
Another set of brothers, David and Gary White (Ruwacon BAT) were also confined to damage control. An electrical problem slowed them on the prologue and they salvaged third in class after also starting from the back of the field.
