The defending class A and overall Special Vehicle champions will be fielding a strong three-car team in this year’s Absa Off Road Car Championship, which begins with the Nissan Dealer 400 in the Western Cape this weekend (February 29 and March 1). In addition, Motorite Racing will contest class A7 of the Sasol Rally Championship for the first time, starting with the Hitachi Tour Natal on March 7 and 8.
Motorite’s Team of Champions, which took two of the top four places in the Special Vehicle category of the 2007 championship and won the Goodyear racing team of the year accolade for the second successive year, will consist of reigning class A and overall champions Evan Hutchison and Achim Bergmann in the BAT Spec 3 that carried them to victory in last year’s championship. Brandon Harcus, the original creator of the South African designed and built BAT space frames, and Richard Leeke, a multiple SA rally and off road co-drivers’ champion, will take over the BAT Spec 3 in which Alfie Cox and Hennie ter Stege finished fourth in last year’s championship.
Cox, the 2005 national off road production vehicle champion in a Nissan Hardbody, and Ter Stege will campaign the ex-works Ford Ranger of Manfred Schroder in Motorite Racing colours in class SP.
Team manager Hutchison will lead the team’s first assault on the national rally championship in an ex-works class A7 Toyota Conquest, to be bodied as a Toyota Auris. His co-driver will be the experienced Greg Gericke.
"We have undertaken an ambitious programme for 2008 and are very excited at the prospect of contesting the very competitive class SP in off road racing and the equally competitive class A7 in rallying," said Hutchison. "I have no doubt Alfie and Hennie will more than hold their own in the Ford Ranger – after all they won the Special Vehicle title together in 2006 in a Motorite BAT Spec 2 and Alfie won the 2005 production vehicle title in a works Nissan Hardbody.
"It’s in the rally championship that we will be entering unchartered waters," added Hutchison. "However, I will be at the wheel of a proven class winner in the Toyota and will have the services of one of the best navigators and co-drivers in rallying in Greg. I have a lot to learn, but I’m confident we will be competitive. We have a proud record to defend – Motorite Racing has won each class it has entered in motor racing since we made our debut in class B of the off road production car championship in 2005 – that’s three championships in three years.
"With the continued generous backing of Motorite Insurance Administrators, Motorite Racing will again be a force to be reckoned with in the Absa Off Road Championship and, hopefully, also in the Sasol Rally Championship," said Hutchison.
For the record, Motorite Racing won five of the eight rounds of the 2007 championship. Hutchison and Bergmann won the opening round, the Nissan Dealer 400 in the Western Cape in March, and the final three rounds, the Ford/Motorite Limpopo 400 in September, the Toyota Dealer 400 in Mpumalanga in November and the Carnival City 400. Cox and Ter Stege gave the Spec 3 BAT a dream debut when they won the Sun City 400 in May.
