The perennial battle between Nissan and Toyota in the prestige South African Manufacturers Championship is again delicately poised, and Ford joins the two Japanese manufacturers in a head-to-head battle in the premier Super Production Class. Add to that the battles that have developed in Classes D and E of the series, and then throw in a route that will be giving crews sleepless nights and you have the ingredients for a great race.
Toyota currently lead the manufacturers championship but have yet to win this season. The overall wins and SP Class honours have gone to Nissan, with three wins, and Ford and the long knives will be out in the Mountain Kingdom.
Hannes Grobler/Francois Jordaan, with two wins, and Duncan Vos/Ralph Pitchford, winners of the recent Ford Motorite 400, will again spearhead the Proudly South African Nissan Navara challenge, with support from privateers Mark Corbett/Juan Mohr in the Century Property Development Navara. Neil Woolridge/Kenny Skjoldhammer will have back up from Rob Gurney/Graeme Stainbank in the factor Ford Racing Rangers and Mark Cronje/Chris Birkin and Bevan Bertholdt/Robin Houghton will again carry the Castrol Toyota Hilux flag.
Grobler/Jordaan, Woolridge and Skjoldhammer – who also won the event on two wheels – Birkin and Houghton will all recall heady and not so heady days on the Roof of Africa. They will all, however, also know that simply making it to the finish on the Lesotho Sun 400 is likely to put you in line for some silverware.
The Castrol Toyota Hilux entries have suffered from reliability problems this season. They might just choose one of the toughest events of the season to spring a shock, but many of the experts will have money on Woolridge and Skjoldhammer.
Most of the credit for Toyota’s current slender lead in the manufacturers championship must go to privateers in Classes D and E. Crews in both classes have come up trumps time and again, and Toyota will be looking for more of the same in Lesotho.
Reigning Class E champions Chris Visser/Japie Badenhorst, (Tyco Trucks Toyota Hilux), former Class E champions Hugo and Jaap de Bruyn (Castrol Toyota Hilux) and the father and son pair of Cliff and Louis Weichelt (Bosal Toyota Hilux) deal Toyota a powerful hand in Class D.
Visser/Badenhorst have won three times this season and will start as favourites. The Weichelt’s have won once, the de Bruyn’s have shown good form in recent outings and a close contest looks to be on the cards.
The Toyota crews, however, will come under sever pressure from Nissan teams who would like to get into the winners enclosure. Coetzee Labuschagne/Johan Gerber (Raysonics Nissan Hardbody), with a 100 percent finish record, have been models of consistency but have been unable to convert reliability into wins.
The BB Auto Nissan Hardbody crews, Arnold du Plessis/Johan Knox and Jurie and Andre du Plessis have had their moments. By and large, however, they will be disappointed with results so far this season and Lesotho would be a great place to get their seasons back on track.
KwaZulu-Natal crew Manfred Schroder and Ward Huxtable are running away with Class E in the factory diesel powered Ford Ranger. The pair have a clear lead over a horde of Toyota crews, and will be heavily favoured in Lesotho.
Brian Martin and Ockie Fourie (Castrol Toyota Hilux) will spearhead the Toyota challenge and after winning the first event of the year will be looking for a return to form. Former track racer Fabio Tafani, accompanied by Mike Baron in the Club Refrigeration Toyota Hilux, finds himself in second place in the championship.
Tafani and Jaco Swanepoel, another former track racer who shares the IDM Cement Toyota Hilux entry with Grayham Bishop, have an interesting experience ahead of them in Lesotho. Mark and Stuart Moffatt (Bosal Toyota Hilux) are due a good result, and George/Sharon Barkhuizen in the Ruwacon entry will also want to come up with good results.
Apart from Schroder/Huxtable in Class E, championship positions in the other classes are tight. Lesotho could be a make or break event for the other championship hopefuls.
