Nissan Motorsport on top in Adenco 400 in Western Cape

Nissan Motorsport got the new Absa Off Road Car Championship off to the almost perfect start when the team’s three Donaldson Nissan Navara pickups finished first, second and fourth in the production vehicle category in round one in the Western Cape on Saturday.

Winner of the event, now called the Adenco 400 after many years as the Nissan Dealer 400, for the second year in succession was reigning champion Duncan Vos and co-driver Ralph Pitchford.  They completed the 400-km route in the Darling and Mamre areas in a time of 5h 54m 9s and crossed under the familiar red Absa finish arch in Darling a slim 41 seconds ahead of team-mates Hannes Grobler and Juan Mohr.

Norwegian Ivar Erik Tollefsen and Briton Quin Evans, in the third red and blue Donaldson Nissan Navara, were lying a comfortable third with just 30 km to go when they were forced to stop and change a flat wheel.  They were overtaken by Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst (Toyota Hilux) just as they were refastening their seat belts and finished fourth in their dust, just 24 seconds in arrears.

“We took a wrong turn shortly before we had the puncture when we were about two and a half minutes ahead of Chris,” said Tollefsen, who finished fourth in the Dakar Rally in January in his Nissan Navara.  “Had it not been for this, we would have had enough time to change the wheel and get going again before Chris caught us.

“I can’t complain, though, that’s off road racing.  I drove well today and Quin and I are happy with our result.  It’s a good start to the season.”

Vos, who gave Nissan its 52nd win in 65 events since the Pretoria-based manufacturer entered national championship off road racing in 2001, described the event as one of the toughest he’d raced  “The route was very rough and good navigating was critical.  I was lucky to have Ralph next to me today.  We had no problems whatsoever and just concentrated on keeping out of trouble.  Hannes put pressure on us all the way – every time we looked, he was right behind us!”

Leeroy Poulter, former national production car champion and a world karting champion, had an impressive off road racing debut in a class E Nissan Hardbody prepared by Nissan Motorsport.  The track racing star, partnered by Nissan Motorsport’s Rob Howie, led his class during Saturday’s first loop before the halfway service point, until a tie-rod end broke.  “We stopped to fix it and lost a few minutes,” said Poulter.  He and Howie were second into the service point, just seconds behind Deon Venter and Ian Palmer in a Toyota Hilux, winners of last year’s Limpopo 400.

“We were stuck behind Deon as we started the second loop as the dust was so bad you couldn’t see a thing and overtaking was a dangerous manoeuvre.  Then, when we were about 20 km into the loop, the engine went.  It turned out that an engine mounting had broken and punctured the oil filter.

“This was a real eye-opener for me.  It was a tough baptism into off road racing, but I really enjoyed myself and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and learning how to drive fast in the dirt,” said Poulter.

Glyn Hall, general manager of Nissan Motorsport: “This was the almost the perfect way to start the season.  For a while it looked like we’d get a Nissan 1-2-3 and Ivar and Quin were very unlucky to get a puncture at a critical stage.  Leeroy’s debut was very impressive.  If he carries on like that, he can look forward to a great career in off road racing.”

Nissan privateers Terence Marsh and Pieter Groenewald had a successful debut in the production category in their ex-Nissan Motorsport Navara, finishing a creditable sixth overall and in class SP in their Regent Racing pickup.

Not so fortunate were Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber in the Raysonics Nissan Hardbody.  The class D winners in last year’s event, they broke a conrod 20 km into Friday’s 70-km prologue and were unable to start Saturday’s race.

Thanks to their 1, 2, 4 result, Nissan won the manufacturers’ award for the event and celebrated the team’s fourth successive win in the season-opener (Grobler won in 2006 and 2007).