Nissan 1-2-3 brings up seven consecutive wins in Nissan Sugarbelt 400

Nissan Motorsport hit the jackpot in the Nissan Sugarbelt 400 on Saturday with all the right numbers coming up: 1-2-3 overall, 7 consecutive wins in the popular annual KwaZulu Natal off road race and No 1 in the manufacturers’ team challenge for the event. The victory extended Nissan’s winning streak to nine in the Absa Off Road Car Championship.

It was an impressive demonstration of the power and professionalism of the most successful team in off road racing. Multiple former champion Hannes Grobler and reigning co-drivers’ champion Juan Mohr led a trio of Donaldson Nissan Navaras at the end of the two-day, 400-km event among the canefields around Eston, crossing the finish line in a time of 6h 36m 19s.

Second was the Norwegian/British pairing of Ivar Erik Tollefsen and Quin Evans, 9m 31s in arrears, followed by reigning drivers’ champion Duncan Vos and former co-drivers’ champion Ralph Pitchford in the third blue and red class SP Donaldson Navara, a further 6m 48s behind.

Nissan, bidding for nine successive drivers’ and co-drivers’ championships and a seventh manufacturers’ championship in nine years, is now well on track to achieving these goals after the first three rounds of the eight-event series.

Grobler and Mohr, who were second in Friday’s 42-km prologue that determines the start order for the race proper, quickly fought their way past the top three special vehicles that separated them from prologue winners Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton (Toyota Hilux) and closed the gap to the leaders to 1m 20s shortly before the halfway point. They then lost a minute when they found themselves on the wrong side of a fence and were 2½ minutes in arrears at the halfway designated service point.

Despite nursing a suspect clutch, Grobler stayed in touch with the Toyota and took over the lead when Taylor was forced to retire with gearbox problems.

Tollefsen and Evans, who finished fourth overall in the marathon Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile in the same Navara in January, kept cool heads and drove a faultless race to improve from fifth among the production vehicles at the start to equal their best-ever result of second.

Vos and Pitchford suffered a flat wheel in Friday’s prologue and lost over eight minutes to Taylor and Houghton when they battled to replace the wheel. They ended up starting on Saturday in 55th place overall (behind 20 production vehicles and 34 specials).

Undaunted, the form pairing in this year’s championship after winning the first two events and taking an early lead in the title chase, steadily picked off the vehicles ahead of them until they were 17th overall and 10th among the production vehicles at the halfway point.

Glyn Hall, general manager of Nissan Motorsport and the driving force behind Nissan’s total dominance of off road racing since 2001 following four years’ of domination of circuit touring car racing, commented: “It is obviously very satisfying to have all three of our cars on the podium again – this is our fourth clean sweep – and to do this in one of the toughest Sugarbelt 400s in recent years underlines the strength and power of the Nissan Navara and the skill of our drivers, co-drivers and back-up crew.”

Only 15 of the 31 starters in the production vehicle category completed a gruelling day’s racing with former circuit racing champion and reigning European and world Rotax Max DD2 karting champion Leeroy Poulter and co-driver Rob Howie finishing 14th and fourth in class E (for near standard four-cylinder vehicles) in the Nissan Motorsport-prepared Hardbody pickup.

Poulter, in his first year in off road racing, and Howie, a key member of the Nissan Motorsport team responsible for the design and build of the racing Navara, delivered another impressive performance. They were fastest in their class in the prologue despite a loose gearbox mounting which slowed them down and led the race until they lost time with a broken leaf spring, which was replaced by the Nissan service crew at the DSP.

They were delayed further with a broken shock absorber, which they stopped to replace, and finally finished the event in two-wheel drive after problems with the diff.

Privateers Terence Marsh and Andries Groenewald finished 13th overall and ninth in class SP in the Regent Racing Nissan Navara, while reigning champions in class D (for near-standard six-cylinder production vehicles) Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber (Raysonics Nissan Hardbody) were non-finishers after experiencing fuel pump problems.