Cape Town, South Africa (Mar 17, 2007)
South Africa Nissan Motorsport made the perfect start to the 2007 ABSA Off Road Championship when reigning national off road champions Hannes Grobler and Francois Jordaan won the Nissan Dealer 400 in the Darling area near Cape Town on Saturday in their Proudly South African Nissan Navara.
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| Copyright © Nissan South Africa |
It was Nissan's 37th win in 49 starts and saw Grobler, the winningest driver in off road racing, take his tally to 21 in 49 starts. He led from start to finish after winning Friday's 16km prologue by just four seconds from teammate Duncan Vos.
The Midland-based team, off road champions for the past six years, was robbed of a certain 1-2 finish when the sister class SP Proudly South African Navara of Vos and Ralph Pitchford suffered two punctures on the third and final loop of Saturday's 350km while comfortably lying second. This cost them nearly 10 minutes and they were eventually classified third.
Nissan won the manufacturers' team prize for the day and, benefiting from having seven finishers in the top 15, leads the manufacturers' championship from Toyota and Ford.
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| Copyright © Nissan South Africa |
"We had a trouble-free run," said a beaming Grobler surrounded by well-wishers and fans at the finish at the Darling Club soon after 1 pm, four and a half hours after the start. Francois and I have been coming under a lot of pressure from our younger rivals and we're delighted to show them that we can still win despite our combined age of over 100!"
Nissan privateers gave the works team excellent support, with Polokwane brothers Jurie and Andre du Plessis (BB Auto Nissan Hardbody) finishing eighth overall and first in class D and Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber 10th overall and second in class D in their Raysonics Nissan Hardbody.
Next round of ABSA, round 2 " Nissan KZN 400" will be taken place on 13-14 April.
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