Thomas Rundle and Juan Mohr’s great start to the 2011 Absa Off Road Car Championship continued in the Toyota Dealer 400 in Mpumalanga on Saturday when the pair claimed their second successive runner-up result in the Barden Tyre Services Racing Nissan Navara. They now lead the championship by a healthy 13 points from former multiple champion Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege.
In one of the toughest Toyota Dealer 400 races in many years, the Barden Tyre Services Racing team overcame water crossings, deep mud and fast forest roads that caught out many of their rivals to be among just eight production vehicles that survived out of a field of 30.
They got their weekend off to a solid start with fourth place in Friday’s 53-km prologue in the Lydenburg area and were 11th car flagged away from Lydenburg Toyota in a combined field of production and special vehicles on Saturday morning.
They were stopped by a puncture 10 km into the 354-km route and lost about three minutes and five places with the race just 10 minutes old. They were later further delayed when the windscreen washer pump failed, making life difficult for them in a busy morning filled with water crossings and muddy sections. They stopped several times to clean the windscreen, but then realised they had a spare pump and were on the way after fitting it.
Like many others, they were delayed for a long time by a massive traffic jam at a deep muddy section below a small dam about an hour into the race, at the 44-km mark. While just a few competitors managed to cross the hazard on their own, including Rundle and Mohr, a local farmer and his tractor came to the rescue of many.
At the compulsory service stop at the end of the first two loops of the three-loop race, at the Lydenburg Rugby Club, the Barden Tyre Services Racing pair found themselves some 35 minutes behind eventual winners Michael Whitehouse and Mathew Carlson in another ex-factory Nissan Navara. They closed the gap in the final 120-km loop, recording the second fastest time after reigning champions Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst in a factory Ford Ranger, but their chances of a maiden victory were dashed when they wrong-slotted in a tricky forest section some 35 km from the finish and lost a few more minutes.
“Once again the car performed faultlessly,” enthused a happy and mud-spattered Rundle. “It was a tough race with a lot of physical challenges, but we’re very encouraged by our pace and the Nissan’s reliability. I can’t wait for the next event and another chance at our first win. It can’t be far away.”
The next round of the Absa Off Road Car Championship is the Atlas Copco Battlefields 400 in KwaZulu-Natal on May 20 and 21.
While Barden Tyre Services is the principal sponsor, the team also enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with other partners and suppliers like Dunlop tyres, Autozone, Hausberger and Associates, Maxwell Design and Advertising, Willard batteries, Cedar Chem and Hi Tech Mag Repairs.
STORY COURTESY OF PETER BURROUGHES COMMUNICATIONS
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