17 Nov 2024

Gauteng based off road racer Andre Van Der Walt and his co-driver Kevin Barker stamped their authority in the production vehicle category and scored a maiden victory in the third round of the Botswana Off-Road Racing Championship on Saturday.

In a thrilling spectacle that attracted a sizeable number of spectators to various spectator points around Thamaga and Gakgatla, the two VDW Fuels racing teammates in a Toyota Hilux also claimed the overall class win for all-wheel powered cars in the race.

They were closely followed on second spot by Shaheed Amin and Imraan Arbi of Flying Cargo racing of Botswana in a white Toyota Landcruiser.

With a light drizzle this past week competitors were greeted with wet conditions and endured a gruelling 250 kilometres route that took them across the Gamoleele River and some parts of the Gakgatla River.

Botswana’s special vehicle entrant Mohammad Noor and his co-driver Muhammad Noble of MN Motorsport secured a comfortable victory in their class A category ahead of their closest rival Steed Wilkinson in his sandmaster.

In an interview, Van Der Walt said the terrain was tough and technical but the team enjoyed a good clean race and were willing to return to Botswana for the final round slated for next month.

He said it was their first time to participate in Botswana and enjoyed the competition despite running into a lot of cattle along the route.

One of the race organisers, Moin Ahmad said the Gakgatla 300 was round three of the Botswana Off-Road Racing Championship.

He said Cyro motorsport group, an affiliate of the Botswana Motorsport (BMS) decided to host an off-road race after the absence of the flagship 1 000km Toyota Desert Race.

“Historically there was the TDR 1 000km which is a South African Rally Raid Championship. We have about 25 world class racing cars owned by Batswana in Botswana. So we decided to start our own off-road championship because there was no structured off-road race,” he said.

Ahmad said a lot of local drivers had to travel to South Africa to participate in the races while Botswana had a wonderful terrain to host offroad races.

He said in June this year they hosted the first round of the championship with the inaugural Jwaneng 300km race in a similar route to where the desert race was hosted.

He said the second round took competitors to where the flagship TDR traced its route, the Mantshwabisi. In Mantshwabisi the race attracted world renowned Century racing team who brought four of their vehicles.The team participates in the word rally raid championship globally and are one of the leading teams in the Dakar Rally. ENDS