27 Jun 2016

Reigning production vehicle champions Leeroy Poulter and mate Rob Howie over the weekend led Toyota Gazoo Racing SA teams to win the epic heat two of the Toyota 1000 Desert Race and round three of the Donaldson cross country championship.

Anthony Taylor and Dennis Murphy and Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz all from Toyota crew, came second and third respectively.

Another Toyota team of Jason Venter and Vince van Allemann in the 4x4 Mega world Toyota Hilux finished fourth.

Poulter and Howie who had a rather slow start to the competition, finishing second to Taylor and Murphy in the qualifying race which determined first heat positions, came from behind to take pride of place.

They dominated the second lap and were separated from team mates with a space of ten to 13 minutes. 

The Ford crew of Chris Visser and Ward Huxtable came fifth while Luke Botha and Andre Vermeulen of Red-Lined Nissan Navara took sixth position.

In the special vehicle category, Australian Dave McShane and former Australasian Safari with co-driver Leander Pienaar became the first foreign driver to win the race.

In the motorcycles category, Botswana’s Ross Branch became the overall victor. Ross started the race on fire from the time trials on Friday, 490km on Saturday and 374km on Sunday. Defending champion Kenny Gilbert and Altus de Wet came second and third respectively.

Another local Vincent Crosbie who competed in the Botswana off-road motorsport championship came third in the OR2 (B2) race. Dartagnan Lobjoit also a Motswana rider won OR3(200CC)/B1 while Schonfeldt finished further made the nation proud by finishing on the second spot and Eduan Bester third respectively.

Defending champion Juan van Royen came tops in the Senior Class/B6 ahead of Wynand Kleynhans and Bruce May respectively.

Meanwhile, Yanke Pieterse was the only lady who managed to complete each of the three days in the ladies Class/B8, and registered three wins in the process.

In the quads category, Hannes Saaijman who finished the Dakar Rally in the top ten last year won the Open quad Class/B3 followed by his brother Attie and Andre Park.

Another Dakar Rally finisher Brian Baragwanath won the first heat on Saturday, but crashed and injured his elbow on Sunday.

Furthermore, George Twigge was the only finisher in the Master Class (b7/B5). Ends