Le Roux wins off-road title
Veteran North West privateers Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux shook the establishment when they won Production championship at the RFS
Magalies 400, the final race of the Absa Off Road Championship, at Tarlton on Saturday.
You could have named your own odds at the start of the season against Visser and le Roux winning the championship but second place was
enough to clinch the title for the pair who limped across the finish line in their International Toyota Hilux with two flat tyres. The team
failed to win a single race during the season but solid finishes with three podiums saw them home.
They were passed four kilometres from the finish by another veteran crew, Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege (RFS BMW) who won first
time out in a car now fitted with a V8 petrol engine. Grobler won the opening event of the season in the Western Cape, and ended the year on
the same high note.
The final podium place went to Wolmaransstad crew Pikkie Labuschagne and Rikus Erasmus (Ruwacon Toyota Hilux), who won Friday's prologue
to determine grid positions. The first three cars were covered by just under six minutes. Visser and le Roux were one of seven teams who
started the day with a mathematical chance of lifting the championship.
Included among them were Visser's brother Chris and Japie Badenhorst, the reigning champions, in a Ford Ranger. They were the first of
the title challengers to fall away with a blown engine on the first of the two loops that made up the race. One by one the other title
contenders also fell behind but the two flat tyres, one 10 kilometres out and the other four kilometres from the finish, gave Visser and le
Roux a late scare.
"We would have loved to have won this race, but we'll take the championship as compensation," joked a delighted Visser
afterwards. "We knew that if we put together a solid run we had a chance of keeping the championship in the Visser family. When we were
leading at the halfway mark there was a little extra pressure, and the punctures gave us a late scare."
Grobler reported a clean run but in hot and dusty conditions only got past Visser four kilometres from the finish. His BMW was only
completed the day before the race with a 'test session' turning into a convincing win.
The drive of the day, however, belonged to former champion Duncan Vos and Rob Howie who brought one of the two Castrol Toyota Hilux
entries home in fourth place. After a disappointing prologue Vos and Howie, who will compete in the Dakar Rally next year, started 11th
among the Production Vehicles and 26th on the road.
They were also part of the championship mix at the start of the day, but the leeway proved too much for the pair from a title point of
view. Mike Whitehouse/Mathew Carlson (Regent Nissan Navara), Thomas Rundle/Juan Mohr (Barden Nissan Navara), Terence Marsh/George Smalberger
(Regent Nissan Navara) and Malcolm Kock/Johann Burger (Kock Toyota Hilux) also gradually dropped out of title contention.
The top five were completed by outgoing Class D champions Deon Venter and Ian Palmer (Mega World Toyota Hilux), who came in ahead of
Louis Weichelt and Francis Boersma (N1 Toyota Land Cruiser). Team mates Cliff Weichelt and Johan Smalberger were third in Class D ahead of
champions Jack and Sarel Oosthuizen (LMC Land Rover). The Oosthuizens finished every race this season.
The Class E honours went to Dirk Putter and Koos Claassens (Zizwe Toyota Hilux) ahead of Diederik Hattingh/Buks Cilliers (Transcor Toyota
Hilux), and teenagers Jason Venter and Vincent van Alleman (Mega World Toyota Hilux). Unofficial scoring gives the drivers' championship to
Hattingh and the co-driver title to Claassens.