Nissan Motorsport
12 June 2009

Nissan aiming for eighth successive win in Toyota 1000 Desert Race

Nissan will be aiming for a record eighth successive victory in the three-day Toyota 1000 Desert Race in Botswana this weekend (June 19 to 21) as the Absa Off Road Car Championship reaches the halfway stage of the eight-race series.

The all-conquering Donaldson Nissan Navara team comes off a dominant 1-2-3 in the most recent round, the Nissan Sugarbelt 400 in KwaZulu Natal five weeks ago, and occupies the first three positions in the championship.

Reigning champion Duncan Vos currently leads the drivers’ championship with 65 points and is hoping to become the third driver to achieve a hat-trick in the year’s longest event.  He won in 2007 with Richard Leeke and again last year with Louis Weichelt.  Vos’ co-driver and joint championship leader Ralph Pitchford is aiming to win his second Desert Race after missing the last two.  He won in Botswana in 2005 with Alfie Cox in a Nissan Hardbody and the pair went on to take the championship. 

Donaldson Nissan team-mate Hannes Grobler has already achieved the hat-trick, with Leeke from 2002 to 2004 in a Nissan Hardbody, and will be aiming to record his sixth Desert Race victory.  This time he will be partnered by Juan Mohr, who navigated the four-times SA off road champion to victory in KZN in May.  Grobler and Mohr are joint third in the championship with 44 points.

Currently second in the points standings with a score of 46 after three rounds are the Norwegian/British pairing of Ivar Erik Tollefsen and Quin Evans in the third factory Donaldson Nissan Navara.  The visitors are enjoying their best season in off road racing after starting the year with a remarkable fourth overall in the international Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile in January in their South African-designed and built racing Navara.

The three Donaldson Nissan crews also occupy the first three places in the hotly contested Super Production class, with Vos and Pitchford in front with 53 points from two wins and a third, followed by Tollefsen/Evans on 41 points (a fourth, a third and a second) and Grobler/Mohr on 36 points (a second, a DNF and a win).  
 
Despite being heavily outnumbered in terms of entries by Toyota, Nissan leads the prestigious manufacturers’ championship by 17 points.

 “We expect a searching test of our resources and resolve this weekend,” said Glyn Hall, general manager of Nissan Motorsport.  “The Desert Race is always a tough test of both man and machine and it will be no different this year.  The competition in the premier class is very strong and we will have to be on top of our game to win again.”

The formidable factory trio will be backed by the privateer Regent Racing Nissan Navara of former special vehicle champion Terence Marsh and Pieter Groenewald, who have had a steady start to their first season in the production vehicle category in the ex-Duncan Vos pickup.
   
The factory team will also be supported by privateers in both classes D (for near-standard six-cylinder production vehicles) and E (near-standard four-cylinder production vehicles).  Reigning class D champions Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber (Raysonics Nissan Hardbody) have endured a troubled start to the new season, uncharacteristically failing to finish any of the first three events. 

Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie, competing in their first season together, have shown that they have the pace to win in class E in their Nissan Motorsport-prepared Ferodo Hardbody.  Poulter, a former circuit racing champion for Nissan and a current world karting champion, has made a smooth transition from the tarmac to the dirt.  He and Howie were fastest in the Nissan Sugarbelt 400 prologue and led the race before being slowed by a broken leaf spring.

The 29th Toyota 1000 Desert Race starts in Gaborone on Friday (June 19) with a 70-km prologue to determine the start order for the race itself, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday, finishing at Game City in the Batswanan capital.

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).