Grobler and Ter Stege 2nd in Sun City 400
The four times national off road champion brought the Retirement Fund Solutions BMW X3 across the finish line near the North West gambling and holiday resort 4 min 48 sec behind the winning factory Toyota Hilux of Duncan Vos and Rob Howie. Third, a further 4 min 58 sec in arrears was the privateer Toyota Hilux of Malcolm Kock and Johan Burger.
Grobler and Ter Stege had an uncharacteristically subdued Donaldson Prologue on Friday, completing the 55-km time trial that determined the start order for Saturday’s 340-km race in eighth place, 1 min 35 sec behind the winning Toyota Hilux of Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen. “It was a very tough and rocky route with lots of twists and turns and it really didn’t suit the diesel-engined BMW,” explained Grobler.
“We also didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks so early in what is a traditionally very tough race weekend. However, we were a little surprised to find ourselves as far back as eighth. It left us with a lot of work to do on Saturday,” he said ruefully.
The race route was run over two identical loops of 170 km with a compulsory service stop at the halfway point at the Sun City monorail car park and included 100 km of roads not previously used on the event.
“We made good progress on the first loop and passed a few cars before reaching the service stop in fifth place.
“At the start of the second loop we experienced clutch problems and struggled at the road crossings, where we had to stop, and through the (dry) river crossings. For a long time we were also stuck in second gear, but we hung in there and were relieved to see the finish arch at Sun City.”
The pair is now 8th in the championship, 22 points behind leaders Vos and Howie with three rounds and a maximum of 75 points remaining, and Grobler is still in with a chance of taking his fifth drivers’ title since his first in 1986.
Team-mates Christiaan du Plooy and Henk Janse van Vuuren in the petrol-engined RFS BMW X3 were less fortunate. After a promising start in the prologue, when they were leading eventual third-placed Willem and Dana Vos in a Toyota Hilux, they hit a rock, puncturing a tyre and damaging the power steering. They made it to the finish, but dropped back to 16th place among the production vehicles and nearly seven minutes behind the winning Hilux of Bertholdt and Vermeulen.
They started the race in 30th place among the combined field of production and special vehicles and were steadily making up places in the thick dust when they hit a concealed ditch in a flat-out grassy area under powerlines next to the tar road.
“It was at about 58 km into the first loop and the impact broke a tie-rod end. It was a disappointing end to what was a tough but enjoyable event,” said Du Plooy. “The new car is coming along nicely and is getting better with each race. We’re waiting for better gear ratios, then the car will be perfect.”
The next round of the championship is the 4x4 Mega World 400 in Gauteng on September 10.
Issued on behalf of Retirement Fund Solutions Racing Team by Peter Burroughes Communications, telephone 082 899 0101.