October 28, Lydenburg (South Africa) - Hannes Grobler and Francois Jordaan, driving the Proudly South African Nissan Navara, clinched their second Absa Off Road Championship with one round remaining when they crossed the finish line of the Toyota Dealer 400 in Lydenburg on Saturday in second place, 18 seconds behind the winners, team-mates Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford.
In a stunning display of controlled performance and rugged reliability the three-car class SP Nissan Motorsport team of Vos, Pitchford, Grobler/Jordaan and Mark Corbett/Juan Mohr (Century Property Developments Navara) finished a commanding 1-2-3 after more than 400 km of bruising cross-country racing in the Mpumalanga highveld.
Vos, the 2002 drivers champion, and Pitchford, the defending co-drivers champion, started Saturdays 374-km race in second place, 19 seconds behind team-mates Grobler and Jordaan, who won Friday’s 32-km prologue.
They assumed the lead when Grobler encountered problems with his power steering 20 km out of the compulsory stop at the Lydenburg designated service point. The Nissan Motorsport team replaced an oil pipe that had rubbed through on the steering rack causing Groblers loss of power-assisted steering. After grueling 406-km event, Vos and Pitchford won this race in a time of 6 hr 1 min 54 sec. With its second all-Nissan podium in three years, Nissan won the manufacturers team prize.
It was the company's 36th win from 47 events since Nissan turned to off road racing after dominating the South Africa touring car championship for four years, and it was the company's sixth successive national off road championship.
For the genial Grobler, who has been competing exclusively in Datsuns and Nissans for almost 30 years and is something of a motor racing legend in his own lifetime, it was his fourth national off road championship and his second with good friend Jordaan (they also won in 2004). Jordaan was also champion in 2001 when he partnered Giniel de Villiers in a Proudly South African Nissan Hardbody.
"Congratulations to Hannes on his fourth championship win and also to Duncan on a great victory today," said a jubilant Glyn Hall, inspirational general manager of Nissan Motorsport and a former national rally champion. To finish 1-2-3 is always a team dream and I have to thank all my colleagues at Nissan Motorsport team, who have worked tirelessly and often late into the night, on weekdays and over weekends, for this great achievement The final round is the Carnival City 400 in Gauteng on November 18.
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