Nissan Motorsport
22 June 2009

Eight in a row for Nissan in Toyota 1000 Desert Race

Nissan celebrated its eighth successive victory in the Toyota 1000 Desert Race, round 4 of the Absa off road championship in Botswana on Sunday when Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford took the chequered flag in their Super Production class Donaldson Nissan Navara 4.0 V6.

For Vos, the reigning national drivers’ champion, it was his third successive triumph in the most gruelling round of the championship, but his first with regular co-driver Pitchford, who missed the last two editions of the Botswana marathon, because of oversees commitments.

Vos and Pitchford have now extended their lead in the drivers’ and co-drivers’ championship, over Donaldson Nissan teammates Ivar Tollefson / Quin Evans and Hannes Grobler / Juan Mohr, who occupy second and third places respectively.

Nissan have now won each of the first four rounds of this year’s championship, with Vos victorious on three occasions and Grobler once.

Nissan is unbeatable in the last ten races.

Norwegian Tollefson and Britain Evans finished fifth while Grobler and Mohr, who won Friday’s 70km prologue to earn the right to start Saturday’s race from pole position, retired after 138 km while leading after hitting a rock and damaging the front suspension.

Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie were impressive prologue class winners with the 10th best time overall in the Nissan Motorsport prepared Class E Ferodo Nissan Hardbody, but they were stopped in their tracks while leading their class with a broken front stub axle, just 12 km into the route.

Vos and Pitchford recovered well from a poor prologue result which saw them start in 13th place on Saturday. A puncture and a problem fitting the spare wheel cost them 5 minutes.

A strong performance on Saturday saw them complete the first half of the race in the lead, 33 minutes ahead of the Toyota Hilux of Chris Visser and Jappie Badenhorst and 34 minutes in front of the Toyota Hilux of Christiaan du Plooy and Henk Jansen van Vuuren. A trouble-free run on Sunday saw the championship leaders take their third win of the year, 43 minutes ahead of Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton (Toyota Hilux). Third, a further 12 minutes in arrears, was the Toyota Hilux of Du Plooy and Jansen van Vuuren.

Duncan Vos: “To win the Desert Race is always a big achievement, but to do it with Ralph alongside me is very pleasing. I have to thank my team for all their hard work and for preparing a great car. Apart from the puncture in the prologue we didn’t have any problems at all.”

Tollifson and Evans, who are having their best season so far in South Africa had a good prologue and started Saturday’s race in third place behind Grobler / Mohr and Visser / Badenhorst. When Grobler started having problems seeing out of his windscreen after the wiper motor failed, Tollifson briefly took the lead only to be re-passed by his teammate. Later, arriving at the scene of Grobler’s altercation with the rock, Tollifson also failed to see the obstacle in time and damaged his front suspension.

Unlike Grobler, they were able to repair the damage, but lost over an hour in the process. They lost more time assisting two fellow competitors who were stuck in mud and then a further 8 minutes having their suspension fixed at the half-way designated service point. At the end of the day they were 7th, over an hour behind leaders Vos and Pitchford.

A clean run on Sunday was spoilt by a hole in the radiator that lost them over half an hour as they stopped several times to fill up with water.

Grobler, five times a winner of the Desert Race, explained his incident: “Our windscreen wiper motor failed and we had to keep stopping to clean the windscreen after the muddy sections caused by recent rains. We came over a blind rise and I couldn’t see the rock through the dirty window until it was too late.”

Nissan privateers Terrance Marsh and Pieter Groenewald finished 6th in their class SP Regent Racing Nissan Navara after an eventful Desert Race. They lost over 2 hours stuck in mud on Saturday and recovered well from a Sunday start position of 13th.

Veteran privateers Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber experienced fuel pressure problems on their class D Ray Sonics Nissan Hardbody in the prologue and retired on Sunday when the problems persisted.

A delighted Glyn Hall, General Manager of Nissan Motorsport, said; “We are very happy to have kept our unbeaten record in this great race since we came into Off-Road Racing in 2001. The competition this weekend was very strong and Duncan and Ralph did the team proud, with Ivar and Quin recovering well to keep themselves in second place in the championship. Hannes was unlucky, but it was a great team effort.”

The next round of the Absa Off-Road Championship is the Sun City 400 on July 24 and 25.

Nissan Acknowledges Its Sponsors and Specialist Official Supplier and Technical Partners
Nissan Motorsport enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with Atlas Copco (pneumatic tools), Bosch Automotive, Champion (spark plugs), Donaldson (air filters), Edgecam (machining software specialists), Eibach (springs), Ferodo (brake pads), First Car Rental, LUK (clutches), Mastercraft (tools), Pro Engineering, Sasol Oil (fuels and lubricants) and SKF (bearings).