Norwegian Ivar Tollefsen and Briton Quin Evans, driving a South African-built factory Nissan Navara, won the 1 350-km African Heritage Cross Country Rally which ended in Bisho in the Eastern Cape on Monday.
Provisional results gave the international pair, who compete in the Absa South African Off Road Championship in their Nissan Navara, a lead of more than an hour over the Italian pairing of Riccardo Garosci and Rudy Briani in a Ralliart Italy Mitsubishi Pajero after four days of competition in the Amathola mountains and on the fast dirt roads in the old settler country around Peddie, Fort Beaufort and King Williams Town.
Third overall was the X-Raid BMW X3 of Brazilian Paulo Nobre and Portuguese Felipe Palmeiro. The event was round two of the FIA-sanctioned Cross Country Rally World Cup, a five-event series used by the top contenders in the annual Dakar Rally as preparation for the world's toughest marathon off roads event.
The win, their first in international off road competition after impressive performances in the past two Dakars, puts Tollefsen and Evans in joint first place in the Cross Country Rally World Cup with former multiple world rally champion Carlos Sainz of Spain, who won the opening round Transiberico Rally in a Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 in Portugal and Spain in June.
The Nissan crew's victory did not come easily. Although they led throughout the first three days, they had a scare on the penultimate section on the last day when they hit a cow and damaged the radiator. Unable to accept outside assistance, they had to make a plan and reach the official finish in Bisho some 80 km away.
"It was not nice to kill the cow – I have never killed an animal in my life before – and it very nearly ended our race," said Tollefsen. "The car was badly damaged, but we managed to get some water into the radiator by stopping every now and then and we managed to keep the engine cool by reducing our revs and taking it as easy as we could for the last 80 km.
"We lost a lot of time and the Pajero managed to catch us on the road, but we were very happy to be the first car to arrive at the finish and to be winners of the race. It was tough and very fast. The Nissan Navara was strong and performed faultlessly throughout the four days. This was very good practice for us for the Dakar Rally, which we will be competing in next January."
Glyn Hall, general manager of Nissan Motorsport, whose team built the Nissan Navara off road car and prepared it and the team's two other Navaras for the Absa Off Road Championship, was equally thrilled with the Norwegian's performance.
"Ivar and Quin did a great job. They came to South Africa this year to gain off road racing experience in our championship and develop their skills in preparation for the 2008 Dakar Rally. They already have a second place to their credit and are among the contenders for top honours in our championship.
"Nissan Motorsport is very proud of the performance of our locally developed and built racing Navara, in both local and international competition. An identical Navara built by us for the Gregoire de Mevius' Team Overdrive and driven by former world rally champion Colin McRae of Scotland, performed very well in the Transiberico Rally where it upstaged the factory Mitsubishi and Volkswagen teams on occasion."
NISSAN MOTORSPORT ACKNOWLEDGES ITS SPONSORS:
ATLAS COPCO PNEUMATIC TOOLS, BOSCH AUTOMOTIVE, CHAMPION SPARK PLUGS, DONALDSON AIR FILTERS, EIBACH SPRINGS, FERODO BRAKE PADS, LUK CLUTCHES, MASTERCRAFT TOOLS, NATIONAL ALAMO CAR RENTAL, PRO ENGINEERING, SASOL FUEL AND LUBRICANTS AND SKF BEARINGS.
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