2003 NISSAN SUGARBELT 400
author: Leon Botha
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The winning Nissan Hardbody of Hannes Grobler and Richard Leeke
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Although we only received provisional results of the first 14 finishers we did receive a few calls from the world’s most impatient readers (RallyStar’s) and decided to publish what we have.
So, if there are some mistakes, this has been done under threat!
The only news we have received was that some competitors suffered from food poisoning, and especially Giniel de Villiers experienced a full go from the bugs.
Giniel and Francois was leading the event despite having to stop on an occasion or two, for Giniel to try and recover from sickness. It is then also small wonder that the steering column of the Nissan only came loose, and he did not manage to break it off, during one of the sharp shoot sessions through the window!
Hannes Grobler and Richard Leeke won the event (remember ‘provisionally) in a time of 6 hours 22 minutes and 47 seconds, beating the second placed Duncan Vos and Mike Griffiths in the T10 Nissan Hardbody by about 18 minutes.
Gerald Mundell and Billy Bond followed in their BAT trailing by a further 7minutes, but leading Greg Daus and Archie Rutherford in the Nashua Chenowth who finished in 4th.
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Duncan Vos & Mike Griffiths 2nd overall
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Manfred Schröder and Jack Peckham was the first Ford home ahead of the two Toyota Castrol vehicles of Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin in a Hilux and Kassie Coetzee and Ockie Fourie in a Hilux KZ-TE.
Mark Cronje is more than adapting to Off-road fast, he is doing very, very well and we will probably see a lot more of him in future.
Marcus Taylor and Marc de Chalain (where do the Off-roaders get all these surnames?) finished in 8th position followed by Alfie Cox and Hennie ter Steege in their Class Nissan and the Land Rover of Cliff Barker and Vic Campher completed the top 10.
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Cliff Barker and Vic Campher - Land Rover 10th overall
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The Ford Ranger of Neil Woolridge and Kenny Scholdhammer is reported to sound incredible sporting a (also based on rumour) Jaguar V6 engine.
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Neil Woolridge & Kenny Skjoldhammer - Ford Ranger
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It would be nice, to know when Ford will get this right. The F1 Jaguar team is powered by Ford, the Ford Off-road by Jaguar? While on the tappet cover it is so easy to see the name of the car it belongs to.
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Leon Botha
Topcar Racing - Deon Schoeman and Jan Sime - Nissan Double Cab
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Only joking, it will be nice to see the Nissan’s getting a bit more competition in South Africa – just think about the glory waiting for either Toyota, Ford, Rover or even the Abraham family if they manage to beat that bloody world beating Nissan Hardegat bakkie!
Hein Grobler and Gerhard Prinsloo in a Nissan Hardbody were 12th, followed by Giel Nel in the Truggy Sandmaster and Gerhard and Kobie du Plessis in a Jimco completed the provisional finishing field.
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Gerhard and Kobie du Plessis - Jimco
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