Nissan Motorsport, six times winners of the popular KwaZulu Natal round of the Absa Off Road Championship that Nissan has sponsored for the past eight years, start this weekend’s (May 15 and 16) Nissan Sugarbelt 400 as firm favourites following their victories in the opening two rounds of the 2009 Absa Off Road Car Championship.
Reigning champions Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford showed their class with a come-from-behind win in their Donaldson Nissan Navara in the Eastern Cape 400, round two of the Absa SA Off Road Championship, which finished in Jeffreys Bay on Saturday afternoon.
Magaliesberg, Saturday – In what is thought to be the closest title fight in the history of off road racing in this country, Duncan Vos clinched his second successive South African Production Car championship here today on a count out from Sasol Nissan Navara team-mate Hannes Grobler.
Lydenburg, Saturday – Veteran former South African champion Hannes Grobler and Juan Mohr scored a hat-trick of wins this season and gave Nissan their sixth successive win on the Toyota Dealer 400.
The chips are down in the Production Vehicle championship and there will be some white knuckles around at the Toyota Dealer 400, penultimate round of the Absa Off Road Championship, in Lydenburg on October 10 and 11.
After seasons of near total domination in the Production Car category of the Absa Off Road Championship, the Sasol Nissan Navara team is coming under increasing pressure and will again be under the whip on the Limpopo 400, round six of the series, on September 12 and 13.
GABORONE, Sunday – South African champion Duncan Vos made it two in a row when he and Louis Weichelt, in a Sasol Nissan Navara, won an enthralling Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race which ended here yesterday.
Victory in the Production vehicle category on the recent Nissan Sugarbelt 400 in KwaZulu-Natal, round three of the Absa Off Road Championship, has taken reigning South African champion Duncan Vos back to the top of both the overall and Super Production Class championships.
A Production Vehicle category dog fight is almost certain to develop on the Nissan Sugarbelt 400, round three of the Absa Off Road Championship, in the Eston area of KwaZulu-Natal on May 16 and 17.
Round two of the Absa Off-Road Championship for production cars, the Eastern Cape 500 which ended in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, produced a string of trials and tribulations for the Sasol Nissan Navara factory team.