Cross Country Series still to be settled after Vryburg 400

This past weekend’s Vryburg 400, the penultimate round of this South African Cross Country Series, produced tough conditions and close racing, to leave the top 2021 title chase wide open. 

After two days and 400 km of racing through the Kalahari, the top three finishers were covered by just 71 seconds.

Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux) won, narrowly ahead of Lance Woolridge/Elvéne Vonk (Ford Castrol Ranger) and Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer (Century Racing CR6).

Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (Ford Castrol Ranger) finished fourth, ahead of Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy, whose prototype turbocharged Toyota Hilux Dakar test car was not eligible to score points, and excluded from the official results.

Shameer Variawa/Danie Stassen (Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux) finished fifth overall, ahead of Class T winners Johan/Werner Horn (Malalane Toyota Hilux), Gary Bertholdt/Stompie Mynhardt (Toyota Hilux), Mark Corbett/Rodney Burke (Century Racing CR6), and Malcolm/ Frans Kock (Neil Woolridge Motorsport Ford Ranger).

Rounding out the top ten placings were Eben Basson and Gerhard Schutte in the unique, South African built Red-Lined Motorsport REVO.

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The Special Vehicle category victory went to Boela Botes /JayPretorius (King Price Extreme Porter), ahead of the Larney brothers, Cecil and Elardus, who won Class G for Side-by-Side vehicles in their Ride Fox Africa Can-Am Maverick SxS.

Third were already crowned 2021 South African Special Vehicle champions, Lance Trethewey/Adriaan Roets (King Pryce Extreme BAT), leading home Bazil Bezuidenhout/Rikus Hattingh (Moto-Netix KEC Can-Am Maverick), Nicolas Pienaar/Carl Swanepoel (BAT), Lood du Preez/Tiaan Swart (Farmers Meat Stryker), and Sandra Labuschagne-Jonck and Jaco Jonck (Moto-Netix KEC Racing BAT)

Teams now have three weeks to prepare for the seventh and final round of the championship, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Parys 400 that will take place on 20 November around the Parys Airfield in the Free State.

The highlight of that event should be the three-way fight for the year’s overall championship between Toyota’s Lategan/Cummins, Ford’s Woolridge/Vonk and privateers Baragwaneth/Cremer in their Century Racing CR6.