Other rally

Mpumalanga: Series Production prologue summary

SURPRISE DONALDSON PROLOGUE VICTORY FOR BEZUIDENHOUT'S Lydenburg, Friday - The husband and wife team of Ramon and Maret Bezuidenhout sprang a major surprise today when they took the Production Vehicle honours in the Donaldson Prologue at the ...

Published: Apr 17, 2010, 4:32 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

SURPRISE DONALDSON PROLOGUE VICTORY FOR BEZUIDENHOUT'S

Lydenburg, Friday - The husband and wife team of Ramon and Maret Bezuidenhout sprang a major surprise today when they took the Production Vehicle honours in the Donaldson Prologue at the Toyota Dealer 400, round two of the Absa Off Road Championship, here today.

The Donaldson Prologue, to determine grid positions for the race, produced more than its share of drama with a number of competitors hit with time penalties after deviating from the route. The Bezuidenhout's, in only their second outing in the Red Star Raceway Toyota Hilux in the premier SP Class, stayed out of trouble to upstage some high profiled crews.

The Delmas based crew finished 11 seconds ahead of Adenco 400 winners Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst in the RFS/Visser Transport Toyota Hilux. Visser/Badenhorst were just two seconds ahead of former South African champion Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege in the RFS Toyota Hilux.

The top five were rounded out by the Castrol Toyota Hilux factory entries of reigning South African champion Duncan Vos and Rob Howie and Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton. Taylor/Houghton were a little unlucky when they arrived at a river crossing a kilometre from the finish only to find a Special Vehicle stuck in the exit from the stream.

"There was nothing we could do but wait until they were pulled out the stream," said Houghton. "It was frustrating because it dropped us from first to fifth."

The Bezuidenhout's, delighted with their first Donaldson Prologue success, reported a clean run. The pair finished fourth on the Adenco 400 in the Western Cape, the first event of the year, and were looking forward to another good result.

"We had a good day," said Maret, "but the race is tomorrow. Starting first on the road is going to put a little extra pressure on us but we are looking forward to the challenge."

Visser/Badenhorst, Grobler/ter Stege and Vos/Howie also reported runs free of major problems. Crews were, however, caught out by the unexpected amount of water on the 125 kilometre route.

"The amount of water out there took a lot of us by surprise," said Houghton. "Moving the event forward by a couple of months also meant the grass was a lot longer and made life a little more difficult."

Among the high profile crews who ran into trouble were Gary Bertholdt/Andre Vermeulen (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux) and the Regent Racing crews Terence Marsh/Buks Carolin and Mike Whitehouse/Mathew Carlson. An overheating problem saw the Atlas Copco crew stop before they blew the motor, while the Regent racing crews were among those hit with 40 minute penalties for deviating from the route.

A solid run also took Thomas Rundle and Juan Mohr, in the first outing in the ex Vos Nissan Navara now running in Barden Tyre Services colours, into sixth place. They were around a minute ahead of former SA champions Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer in the Ford Racing Ranger, with privateers Kobus van Tonder and Freddie Kriel (Uni Freight Ford Ranger) closing out the top eight.

There were no Class D starters with Class E crews Michael Griffith/Frikkie Tennant (Toyota Hilux), Johan de Lange/Gert Ochse (Nissan Hardbody) and Lance Woolridge/Ward Huxtable (Ford Racing Ranger) all falling by the wayside. All three Class E cars are, however, eligible to start tomorrow from the back of the field.

The race will start outside Lydenburg Toyota in Voortrekker Street at 08h00. The designated service point and the finish will be at the Lydenburg Rugby Club with the first cars expected at around 13.30.

There are a number of spectator points along the route within easy access of Lydenburg. Entrance to the start/finish, designated service point and spectator areas is free of charge.

-source: saorc

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Mpumalanga: Series event summary

Next article USRC: Rally New York USA summary

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 2 h

The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season

‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 2 h

‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes

BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

4 h

BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC

The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

6 h

The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts