Sun City 400 triumph for the Sullwalds
The father and son combination of Karl-Heinz and Quintin Sullwald in the Elegant Fuel BAT romped home in an impressive victory this weekend in the Pilansberg. The former South African Champions led from start to finish to record their first victory of the season. Friday saw the start of the event with a tough and challenging 60km Donaldson Prologue to determine start positions for the race proper on Saturday. The Elegant Fuel BAT performed faultlessly and the duo recorded the fasted time on the day. “Today we enjoyed another clean run bar a couple of overshoots and we are happy to be at the front as dust will be a major factor tomorrow” stated Karl-Heinz. Saturday morning saw a cold and early start with a daunting 380km of racing ahead for crews and their vehicles. At the designated service point the Elegant Fuel BAT had a handy 2min40sec advantage over their closest rivals. The Sullwalds managed their advantage on the final loop not taking any unnecessary risks and finished a comfortable 1min20sec ahead of the hard charging Total Motorsport team.
“Today was a real challenge, being the first vehicle on the road meant finding the route and sweeping for chasing crews. We kept our heads and didn’t do anything silly. We had a great run and the Elegant Fuel BAT was unbelievable today. All the credit should go to the technical crew back home who prepare the car to the highest standards.” concluded Quintin.
The result has lifted the team well up the championship leader board and the former champions know exactly what needs to be done in the next half of the season to go all the way to the top. “We are really pleased to have been in the position to win our first event for Elegant Fuel.
We are extremely grateful for the backing we receive from them and their support at the event. It’s a real pleasure to be involved with such a professional company. ” concluded Karl-Heinz
The Elegant Fuel BAT is further supported by Sullwald Racing, Rockstar Energy Drink, Leatt-Brace and Bravery Clothing.
A solid performance by the Castrol Team Toyota Hilux of Duncan Vos and Rob Howie as well as charges by a brace of privateer Hilux SPs further extended Toyota’s lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship in the ABSA Off Road Championship. With four of the eight events now completed Toyota’s lead is backed up by first and second places in the Driver’s championship as well.
Delayed by punctures in the final kilometers of the prologue for the Sun City 400, Vos and Howie started the event on Saturday with a three-and-a-half minute time deficit to make up on the leaders. True to form the Sun City event produced its notoriously dusty conditions in the early part of the event to frustrate the progress of Vos but he was able to close down the qap to finish as fourth overall in the Production Vehicle category after starting 13th on the road. The points scored in this event saw Vos and Howie move from fourth in the series up to second place with a total of 46 points.
Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst had a similar charge through the field to recover from a 26 minute penalty incurred when they rolled their Hilux SP in the prologue. In the process of working his way up to seventh in the SP category Visser set the fastest racing section time, four minutes clear of any other competitor on the day. This against the odds recovery saw Visser increase his points total to 59 as the Championship leader.
Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton in the second of the Castrol Team Toyota Hilux SPs had to retire from the event whilst firmly in command of the SP category when one of the Special Vehicle competitors misjudged an overtaking move in the dust and collided with the Hilux side-on with the full force of the impact taken by the right front wheel.
“True to form the Sun City 400 delivered an exciting event with changing fortunes for many of the competitors as the dust and punctures took their toll,” says Castrol Toyota team principal, Glyn Hall. “Anthony and Robin were really unlucky. They had the event pretty much under control until they were forced out through no fault of their own or the vehicle for that matter. It was a racing incident, but a pretty cruel one. The vehicle that crashed into them wasn’t a direct competitor. After they fell out the event turned into a lottery with the SP as punctures took their toll on the leaders in turn.”
Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen eventually ended up as the lead Hilux in second place in the SP category behind Terence Marsh and Buks Carolin. Berthold missed out on the win by just 23 seconds after four punctures in the racing section.
The Team Ford Racing crew left the Sun City 400 with mixed emotions. Teenager and national racing newcomer Lance Woolridge took his second Class E victory of the year with Ward Huxtable calling the notes. The pair now lead Class E championship and are proving a dominant combination despite their newcomer status. Lance and Ward lead home the privateer Ford pair of Gerald le Roux and Willem Pretorius making it a one-two for the blue oval in class E.
“It was a great result for us,” commented Lance. “It was a tough event for everyone and that only makes the victory that much more rewarding. We’d like to thank everyone in the team for their efforts. We have a great package and we are determined to fight for the class E championship title.”
While Lance and Ward’s result was a welcome one, a difficult outing for Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer illustrated the extreme highs and lows of Off Road Racing. Neil and Kenny’s Ford Racing Ranger TDCi suffered three punctures on what was an extremely difficult outing with a number of the leading SP cars suffering a variety of maladies.
“It was a difficult event for us. We made some adjustments to the car prior to the event and unfortunately it didn’t play to our favour, having said that the car once again proved reliable. In the end all was not lost, a lot of the championship contenders struggled to finish so we are pleased that we managed to pick up some valuable points.”
The next round of the championship, the 4×4 Mega World 400, will take place on the weekend of August 27 and 28 at Carnival City.
Credits: SA Offroad Racing – ABSA Off-Road Championship
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This post was compiled by Memin Pinguin
