The highest placed Toyota team was the Chris Visser/Japie Badenhorst combination in the Castrol Toyota Hilux who claimed their first podium place of the season with a solid third place. Visser and Badenhorst were in the picture throughout the weekend and set the second fastest time in the Friday prologue to determine start positions. On the second of two loops that made up the race Visser and Badenhorst lost power steering. “It was tough going over the last stretch,” Visser said, “but it was a good result for us.”
The factory Toyota Hilux entry of Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin came home fourth but also ran into problems on the second loop. A mystery electrical fault saw them lose wads of time.
“We were looking good for a podium place when the engine would suddenly cut out,” said Cronje. “It was very frustrating and Lady Luck has had it in for us this season.”
The other factory Castrol Toyota entry in the hands of Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton was out of the running early on the first loop. They hit a submerged rock in a watersplash with severe damage to the front suspension. Further down there were solid performances from Hugo and Jaap de Bruyn (Micaren Exel Toyota Hilux), George and Sharon Barkhuizen (Ruwacon Toyota Hilux) and Jaco Swanepoel and Keith Solomon in the IDM Cement Toyota Hilux. The de Bruyn’s fought back to finish sixth in the SP Class after an unhappy prologue saw them start from the back of the field.
They were also forced to overcome a string of niggling problems during the race and arrived at the finish with no clutch. The Barkhuizen’s were slowed on the first loop by loss of power steering and then ran into an overheating problem, while Swanepoel/Solomon also encountered a string of minor problems.
There was also no luck for the new RFS Toyota Hilux, running in the SP Class, in the hands of Chris du Plooy and Ewald van Rensburg. They were also part of the mass start at the back of the field and later retired when a CV joint broke.
An unhappy prologue also saw reigning Class D drivers champion Cliff Weichelt and Nico Els start from the back of the field in the N1 4×4 Toyota Hilux D4D, but they fought back to take a solid second place in Class D. The husband and wife team of Ramon and Maret Bezuidenhout, in the Team Barberspan Toyota Hilux, were in the same boat but perseverance saw them into third place for their third podium finish in as many races.
There was more disappointment, however, for the RFS Toyota Hilux team. Christiaan du Plooy junior and Henk van Vuuren were forced out of the running with a gearbox problem.
Down in Class E another solid performance saw the experienced Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux, in the Team Barberspan Toyota Hilux, virtually make sure of the championship. They took a comfortable second in class with a broken control arm shortly before the end of the first loop of the race their only problem.
Rookies Dewald van Breda and Johann le Roux also produced a solid performance to finish fourth in Class in the Potch Plastics Toyota Hilux, with Malcom Kock and Johan de Klerk fifth in another Toyota Hilux.