The Special Vehicle war talk surrounding the Sun City 400, round six of the SA Off Road Championship presented by Absa does not faze Atang Makgekgenene and Mike Stangl. Makgekgenene and Stangl (Total SAM Racing Jimco) is the only Special Vehicle crew to have won two races this season and there quest for victory on the other three events was halted prematurely by frustrating technical problems.
The pair won the season opening Nissan Dealer 400, only managed to complete 600 metres of the Nissan Sugarbelt 400 when the electronic management system failed, were leading the Toyota 1000 when a gearbox spigot shaft sheared and then made good by winning the Oven Fresh Biscuits 500 only to have their hopes of another win dashed when a valve spring broke while second on the Queen Motor Spares Tarka 400.
“What frustrates me is that good money is spent on the very best components and then they fail,” said Makgekgenene. “If it was a case of bad preparation I could accept it but to have brand new components fail is unacceptable.”
“Our aim is to be crowned the Class A champions and to achieve that we have to win the Sun City 400 and hope that our championship leading rivals Gerald Mundell and Billy Bond in the Prolong BAT, who have a 46-point lead over us, score as few points as possible,” added Makgekgenene. “We’ll also have to be careful of Tarka 400 winners Gary Bertholdt and Brandon Harcus in the BAT because they’re only five points behind us.”
The Botswana businessman faces a tough task on the Sun City 400 with no fewer than twelve Class A teams all out to prevent him from scoring a hat trick of wins.
The Sun City 400 gets underway with a 40km Prologue at 13:00 on Friday, September 26. The main event, which consists of three laps of a 130km route, starts at 08:00 on Saturday, September 27 with the first car expected at the finish at the Sun City Sports Complex at 13:00.
