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25 May, 2011
Vos leads Toyota 1-2 in KZN
In historic battlefield country in the Biggarsberg Duncan Vos and Rob Howie led home their Castrol Toyota Hilux team mates to win the Atlas Copco 400 near Dundee on Saturday.
Former champion Vos and co-driver Howie crossed the line ahead of Anthony Taylor and Chris Birkin to give the factory team a crushing one/two victory. Vos took control of matters on the second of four loops that made up the race and at the finish was around six minutes ahead of Birkin.
The two crews fought an early cat-and-mouse game before a puncture slowed Taylor and handed Vos an advantage he never relinquished. It gave Vos/Howie their first win of the season while Taylor/Birkin got a monkey off their backs by scoring their first finish of the season.
Taylor won the prologue that determined start positions, with Vos coming in behind reigning SA champions Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst (Ford Ranger). An engine overhaul for the Vos vehicle saw Toyota technicians burn the midnight oil, but the car never missed a beat.
"It was a tough and very technical route," said Vos. "You had to be on your toes for every second, but the race organisers and the landowners in this area did a tremendous job."
Toyota 400 winners Mike Whitehouse and Mathew Carlson (Regent Nissan Navara) produced another workmanlike performance to take the final podium place. Fourth went to the father-and-son pairing of Hugo and Jaap de Bruyn (Micaren Toyota Hilux) who were having only their second outing after a lengthy sabbatical.
The top five were completed by Thomas Rundle and Juan Mohr (Barden Nissan Navara) produced a tigerish display in the. After a troubled prologue the pair was part of the mass start at the back of the field but, according to unofficial scoring, salvaged enough points to stay two points ahead of Whitehouse and Carlson at the top of the overall championship.
Vos's win takes him into third place in the championship ahead of former SA champion Hannes Grobler. The veteran Grobler and Hennie ter Stege (RFS BMW X3) were among the casualties along with Visser and Badenhorst who were forced to call it a day with power steering problems.
A broken suspension saw Toyota miss out on a possible top-three clean sweep when Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux) retired late in the race with a broken suspension. That let in Whitehouse/Carlson and Rundle/Mohr with Malcolm Kock/Johann Burger (Toyota Hilux) and Jannie Visser/Joks le Roux (International Toyota Hilux) next up.
The top eight was completed by Louis Weichelt and Francis Boersma who won Class D in the N1 Toyota Land Cruiser first time out this season. A long way back in second were Jack and Sarel Oosthuizen, in a Land Rover, who increased their championship lead after mechanical problems sidelined reigning champions Deon Venter and Ian Palmer (Mega Toyota Hilux).
The tough conditions saw a high rate of attrition in Class E with Diederik Hattingh and Kristo Bosman (Transcor Toyota Hilux) the only finishers. They now join Dirk Putter/Koos Claasens, who were among those who failed to see out the distance, at the top of the championship.
The next event on the calendar is the Toyota 1000 Desert Race in Botswana from 24 to 26 June.
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