Earlier in the season Ford Motorite backed the Limpopo 400, an event which broke new ground in the Absa championship. Now Ford, who have twice won the event via Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer, have provided the Carnival City 400 with a financial boost – much to the delight of chief organiser Willie Prinsloo from the Koepel Club.
“Additional funds from Ford have allowed us to spread our horisons this year,” said Prinsloo. “Around 75 percent of this year’s route is new, and we could not have managed to do that without extra funds being available.”
Apart from the financial input from championship sponsors Absa and the manufacturer partners – Ford, Nissan and Toyota – a number of other sponsors and privateer teams have again participated in a unique marketing and television partnership in this year’s championship.
“We last season presented a select group of privateers and their sponsors with a package that guaranteed them media exposure, and were overwhelmed by the response,” said commission president Piet Swanepoel. “This year we have again worked with a group of sponsors and privateer teams, and the success of the scheme is indicative of the team spirit that exists in off road racing.”
Among sponsors who are contributors to the TV and marketing fund, are Motorite and Castrol. Motorite, who back new Class B champion Evan Hutchison, stepped into the breach to ensure the success of the Ford Motorite Limpopo 400, and Castrol regularly contribute to the cost of printing and producing spectator guides distributed at each event.
Other contributors are veteran Richard Schilling who campaigns the Plastotech entry alongside Chris Davies, and the two-car Century Property Developments team of Mark Corbett and Juan Mohr and Ernest Corbett and son in law Warwick Goosen. The younger Corbett has had to miss a couple of races this season through business commitments, but father Ernest and Goosen lie fifth in Class B.
Class D championship contenders Henri Zermatten and Bodo Schwegler, in the Ryobi Play Station Mitsubishi, are again part of the privateer group, as are Coetzee Labuschagne and Johan Gerber in the Raysonics entry.
Thomas Rundle and Barden Tyre Services, Bevan Bertholdt, and veteran Giel Nel, along with sponsors Bosal, ATE and LUK, have also made full use of the scheme’s benefits. They have also been joined by brothers Mark and Stuart Moffat, who started the season in the Class D Bosal Land Rover, and now compete in Class F.
For Cliff and Louis Weichelt, the Ford Carnival City 400 will be a welcome return to action. The pair were involved in a mighty accident on the Nissan Dealer in Cape Town early in the season, and will be making their return in a new Bosal Toyota in Class D.