Found at: http://www.rallystar.co.za/article/articleprint/4930/-1/27/

Hutchison and Bergmann third in season-opening Adenco 400

Home

RALLYSTAR ARTICLES

Motorsport

News

Off Road News

Author: Peter Burroughes Communications

Publishing date: 22.03.2010 15:12

A picture by Motorpics.co.za
Evan Hutchison and Achim Bergmann in their Motorite Racing BAT Spec 3

In a tough opening round of the 2010 Absa Off Road Car Championship, held in very hot and dusty conditions in the Darling area of the Western Cape on Friday and Saturday, defending Special Vehicle champions Evan Hutchison and Achim Bergmann brought their Motorite Racing BAT Spec 3 home in third place overall and third in class A behind Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau in a Porter and Colin Matthews and Alan Smith in a BAT after 425 km of racing.

At the end of Friday’s 95-km Donaldson prologue, to determine start positions for Saturday’s race, the Motorite BAT was fifth fastest after experiencing power steering problems. The Motorite pair lost a couple of minutes in the first of Saturday’s two 165-km loops when they stopped to assist the father-and-son pairing of Nick and Ryan Harper, whose BAT had rolled, and were then stuck in the dust behind a class SP Toyota for most of the rest of the loop, losing a total of about 10 minutes. They managed to make up a few places on the second loop and reached the finish at the Darling Club in a creditable third place.

It was the first time the pair had competed in the Spec 3 version of the South African BAT space frame special since they first won the championship in 2007 and Hutchison pronounced himself satisfied with the team’s start to the new season.

“It was a hard race and the road conditions were rough, with lots of dust and little wind making overtaking almost impossible,” he said. “We received a late notification that our championship-winning Motorite Racing Revo 1 would not be eligible for the South African championship in 2011 because of a new rule that four-wheel drive cars must have their engines mounted in the front. So we have decided to contest this year’s championship in our old two-wheel drive BAT while we try to find a way to fit Revo into the new rule.

“Apart from the difficult driving conditions, we had no real problems but we missed the four-wheel drive,” Hutchison, who is also the team manager, said. “A podium finish is always good and we’re happy to have scored some valuable early points in the defence of our championship."

Motorite Racing is the motor sport division of Motorite Insurance Administrators, the largest independent mechanical breakdown insurance and full maintenance plan service provider and administrator in South Africa.

| Back to normal page view | Send this article to a friend |