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THE WITNESS
AUGUST 22, 2019
MOTORING
www.witness.co.za
KZN’s hijack areas
Guy Botterill and navigator Simon Vacy-Lyle are hoping for an unassailable lead in SA’s rally series if they can resume their winning ways at their first Zane Rencken Rally in Dalton this weekend.
GHS TEAMS MAKE F1 CAR MODELS TWO teams from Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High competed in the Mahle F1 Schools Challenge, which has pupils from Grade 7 and 9 design and buid a scale model F1 car. Pictured are Team Elly, comprising (back row, from left) Cashmia Singh, Pyal Sookhayee, Lehakwe Spirit, Hannaa Dhoda, (front row, from left) Suarya Gengan and Cara Rawlins.
Tracker statistics show what time and where car thieves steal most vehicles TRACKER has released its vehicle crime statistics for the year July 2018 to June 2019, highlighting the hot spots and times when most vehicle crimes currently occur in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal, hijackings mainly occur in Sydenham, Imbali and Avoca Hills, while theft is mostly reported in Glenwood, Morningside and Musgrave. Most hijackings take place on a Friday between 11 am and 1 pm followed by 8 pm to 11 pm. Most vehicle thefts take place on a Saturday between noon and 2 pm. These statistics are unchanged from the previous year’s records. Tracker said the techniques thieves use are also unchanged from the previous year, but the company has noted an increase in hostage taking during hijackings. An average of 29% of Tracker’s activations result in a hostage being taken. Further techniques include “blue light robberies” where criminals impersonating traffic or police officers to pull over especially commercial vehicles; the spiking of drinks in order to take advantage of unsuspecting victims; and vehicle theft using online selling platforms, where sellers hand over goods on receipt of a fake payment. When it comes to business crime, most
vehicles are being stolen to obtain the fast-moving consumables that they are carrying. Tracker has recovered 5 438 vehicles, made 1 037 arrests and seized 50 firearms for the 12 months to June 2019. Ron Knott-Craig, executive of operational services at Tracker, advised motorists not to go on “auto-pilot” when driving, or stare at their smart phones while waiting at traffic lights. “To avoid being an easy target, we need to stay alert and be vigilant. Avoid distractions while driving and pay attention to your surroundings. Don’t believe it could never happen to you. “Should an incident occur, report it to your tracking company and authorities as soon as possible. Also, try to remember as many details as possible to provide a good description to authorities, such as the location where the crime occurred, clothing and appearance of the hijackers, and any other information that may assist authorities in identifying and apprehending the perpetrators. “Also, Crime Stop is an SAPS toll-free number and can be contacted to anonymously report criminal activities on 08600 10111, or send an anonymous SMS to Crime Line at 32211,” added KnottCraig. — WR.
Duo determined to gain strong lead in KZN rally THE disappointment of the early cancellation of the previous round of the 2019 South African National Rally Championship (NRC) in July, which rained out on the second day after heavy overnight rains in the Eastern Cape, makes Toyota Gazoo Racing SA’s Guy Botterill and navigator Simon Vacy-Lyle even more determined for Round 5 this weekend (Friday and Saturday, August 23 and 24) in and around the KwaZulu-Natal town of Dalton, less than 50 km north-east of the provincial capital. Classified second overall after the cancellation of Day 2 of the Baywest National Rally a month ago — their finishing position after Day 1 — Botterill and Vacy-Lyle are hoping for an
unassailable lead if they can resume their winning ways this weekend. “After our three consecutive victories and the second in the Algoa Bay Rally — not by our own doing, but because of weather conditions that compromised the safety of all competitors — we’ve gone to extra lengths to make sure we have a mechanically sound car,” said Botteril. “If we manage to win this event, it will be very difficult for others to beat us in the championship. So, it is very important that we keep it together and win this event.” Contrary to general belief, the Zane Rencken National Rally is not a home event for Durbanites Botteril and Vacy-Lyle. “We’ve never raced in this area of
KZN, and although everybody thinks it is my hometown event, I’ve never really driven up there and we never practise up there either; it’s a fairly new event for us and it will be new for the other competitors as well,” says Botteril. Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team manager Glyn Hall says the new rally promises to be a great event. “The organisers have really come together to produce a great rally and we’re all eager to let the Class R2N Toyota Etios continue its winning ways. Simon is also very keen; he needs a win because he missed out on the third round with the birth of his baby girl.” Botteril says they are hungry for the
Four new Fuso trucks for distribution and building ALWYN VILJOEN
Spirit of Amarok winners Team South Africa won the 2019 International Spirit of Amarok competition, edging out 17 other teams from eight countries. With two teams in the top three, South Africa amassed 3824 points to claim the gold medal. Denmark claimed silver with 3298 points and Germany came third with 3100 points. Pictured (from left) are Mark Handley from VW Commercial Vehicles, racing legend Sarel van der Merwe, Wolf trophy winners Christiaan and Pikke Otto, Dr Stefan Pfeiffer, marketing communications head of VW Commercial Vehicles.
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WHILE most bosses of big companies are worried about business in Mzansi, Jasper Hafkamp, CEO of Daimler Trucks and Buses Southern Africa, says he is seeing positive signs in the order book for medium-sized trucks. Because when smaller businesses order trucks, it bodes well for the local economy in the next fiscal quarter. Ziyad Gaba, head of Fuso Trucks Southern Africa, said Fuso is ready to help these businesses grow, with four new rigids in the line-up and facelifts to five of the existing models, notably a steel bumper that takes the knocks of delivering without cracking. “Fuso Trucks is not only committed to expanding its product offering with new models, but is also strongly committed to ensuring that the existing product offering is improved constantly to meet changing customer demands,” said Gaba. Mpho Matseba, product and marketing manager at Fuso Southern Afri-
Mpho Matseba, product and marketing manager at Fuso Southern Africa, invites businesses to test the new Fuso trucks that were launched in Mzansi last week. PHOTO: ALWYN VILJOEN ca, said Fuso and Mercedes-Benz are collaborating. For example, the FI12170 is fitted with the MercedesBenz FIG85 transmission, while the
FJ18-280 and the FJ26-280 share the same Mercedes-Benz engine and transmission. Improvements under the hood in-
clude a viscous fan that no longer uses a spring to detect when to blow, but electronic sensors. The trucks also have variable engine revolution controls to enable crawling on construction sites, where a differential lock is also useful to maintain grip. On open roads, cruise control is a welcome standard addition for drivers, who will also enjoy the music system with USB port and bright LED cabin lamps. Not so welcome is a seat-belt reminder, but Fuso is serious about reminding truckers that they too need to wear seat belts. Gaba said Fuso trucks provide vehicles that are flexible, allowing for a wide number of applications. Matseba said the group aims for 10% market share by next year and with prices for the four new truck chassis starting at just over half a million on top of a range of buy-back offers and leasing packages, buyers are sure to help Fuso meet this aim. alwyn.viljoen@witness.co.za
Schroder leads as rainmeester Willis’ chances vanish COLIN WINDELL NORMALLY a “rainmeester”, Pietermaritzburg’s Meredith Willis (Hopgood Ford Escort) saw his chances on the wet and soggy Dezzi Raceway, Oslo Beach, at the weekend ... well, evaporate. This left the way clear for Manfred Schroder (Ford Escort) to claim the spoils ahead of Quentin Willis (Gaydon Midas Ford Escort) and Reg Sutton in the RobSteel Ford Escort in the Retro Racing category. To borrow from a favourite sports cliché, racing in Round 5 of the KZN Road Racing Club Championships at Dezzi Raceway was a meeting of two halves with morning practice and the first couple of races in overcast but dry conditions, the rest of the day in challenging rain. However, aside from changing how the overall points tables look, the day produced two new winners in the Modified Class A category with Shiren Rajpaul (Goldwagen VW Golf) capitalising on a first lap mistake by Elton Fuchs (Mtrac VW Golf) to go on to score a long overdue race win. “I’m really happy with that result but I hope it does rain as I love racing in the wet,” he said afterwards — and then it did rain but, it was Rob Prece in the Dubcorp VW Golf who mastered the tricky conditions best of all and secured his first race win. In the overall results for the day, Rajpaul earned top spot by dint of a faster
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win. “We’re going out there to do the best we can and hopefully on Saturday we can greet the crowd from the top step of the podium.” The rally starts on Friday at the Dalton Agricultural Hall with all 11 stages run on Saturday, starting with Stage 1 at 7.40 am. Stages 1 to 5 will each be run twice, with Stage 3 run three times (as SS3, SS8 and SS11). Dean Redelinghuys, organiser of the Zane Rencken National Rally 2019, encouraged all petrolheads to attend the race. “Entry is free and travelling distances between the service park and spectator points on the stages are compact, so rally enthusiasts will be able to follow all the action,” he said — Wheels Reporter.
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Off the line: Malcolm Rudman (right) powers away from a wet start line followed by Blaze Baker and Nikolai Conci. PHOTO: COLIN WINDELL race time in the dry race with Prece second overall and a steady drive in both races earning Ronald van Rensburg (Hendok VW Golf) third for the day. Paul Tarboton (EIS VW Golf) took the honours in the Super Modified category ahead of the Toyota Chaser of Andrew Strike and the BMW of Dieter Ziesing, who survived a first heat spin after attempting a hairy pass on Time Kinsey in Turn 2 — the BMW spinning out into the dirt at the exist to the corner but recovering to stay in class contention. Class B bragging rights went to Damien Parker (Roadmaster Exhausts VW Golf) from Dane Thompson Panel and Paint VW Golf and Peter Blofield (Boss Marine VW Polo). Class C went the way of Gary Brown (Impro Mobile Ford Escort) from Marc Ganachaud (VW Golf) and Dave Burton (VE Golf). FRENETIC BIKE RACING The usual frenetic action in the 300 Class motorcycles continued unabated despite the tricky conditions, again
producing a hectic tussle between Malcolm Rudman (M-Projects Kawasaki 400), Nikolai Conci (Helluvafast Motorcycles Yamaha R3) and Blaze Baker (Band-IT/Actum Yamaha R3) — the three finishing in that order overall for the day. For Rudman, things did not go that well in the Formula Extreme category and he had to concede to overall winner Hein Etzel (Argotek Yamaha) and Jay Baxendale, who put in a storming run on his Yamaha 600 to take second place, with Rudman in third — albeit on the same lower capacity machine he rode in the 300 Class. The Super GT category produced a comedy of errors in the first heat when Greg Parton (Drizit Lamborghini Huracan) got it a bit wrong in Turn 8 and accidentally pressed the pit lane button on his steering wheel, immediately restricting the car to 45 km/h and starting the hazard flashers. Behind him, Willie de Beer (Porsche) moved over and slowed, thinking the race was over. Duncan dos Reis (21 SVNL Racing Porsche) blasted past and went on to
take a chequered flag he never expected while De Beer compounded his error by going straight into the pits and not even crossing the finishing line. Championship leader Shaun Joffe made a horrible mess of the start of the first CBR150 Class heat by jumping the lights and earning a 30-second penalty, compounded by an issue with the bike that forced him to retire. This left the way clear for young Lee Singh (11) to capitalise and win the heat and, although he had to concede to Joffe in the second race, still emerged as overall winner for the day. Cazir Naroth finished up second overall ahead of Vincent de Bock. The light and nimble Super Motards simply laughed off the rain and ran three races to make up for the one they lost at the last meeting when oil spills delayed proceedings. Here Hein Etzel came out on top for the day after a close tussle with brother Karl, who just edged out Nikolai Conci. • The club’s next meeting at Dezzi Raceway is on September 7.
BAIC AIMS AT OFFROADERS ALWYN VILJOEN KYALAMI — One of the more intriquing vehicles launched yesterday at the start of the Wesbank Festival of Motoring was the “Beijing Jeep”, or BAIC B40 Plus (pictured). BAIC is the acronym for Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company, a Fortune 500 company that builds everything from small electric cars to big lorries in China, with licence agreements from several big brands, including Jeep. The B40 Plus is a serious 4x4 on a ladder frame. Build for Chinese army use, this Wrangler-based 4x4 can do mud and rocks, with a 37° approach angle, a 33° departure angle, and a 24° ramp-over angle, riding 220 mm high on 265/65 R17 tyres. The hard top roofs pop off, to reveal an interior sporting LED-lit decor and all the knobs one expects in a throughly modern 4x4. To put the roof back, BAIC, like Jeep, provides a rubber mallet to hammer the parts back in place. SA will get a 2,0 four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, all turbo chargedchar with six-speed auto or n anual transmissions. VP of BAIC South Africa, Ye Zhengmao, said BAIC is aggressively expanding worldwide, adding the group has high expectations for SA, where the factory at Koega in PE has now received all its “vehicle certificates and training of staff is well underway”. BAIC plans to build range of passenger cars, SUVs, commercial vehicles at the Koega plant. The group also wants to introduce “a reliable pre-owned solution for the second hand market”. This translates to imports of left-hand steer vehicles for non-SA markets. To protect local vehicle builders, SA legislation prohibits the sale of imported, used passenger vehicles, but all our neighbouring states provide a ready market for used BAICs. BAIC has already launched a hatch and sedan in South Africa and Zhengmao said the 4x4 B40 Plus will meet all Msanzi’s offroad needs. Senior manager Leon Liu told Wheels the 4x4 is currently being homulagated, and should go on sale before year end, priced at about R500 000. While after sales contracts are still to be decided, BAIC factory warranties are five years or 120 000 km, with several maintenance packages, up to four years and 60 000 km. President Cyril Ramaphosa formally activated the BAIC production line earlier this year, but as yet no cars have emerging from the plant’s gates. When BAIC finally starts peddling the Wrangler-based B40, Wheels predicts it will have all the makings to attract an offroad cult-following as did the original Wrangler. But Liu will have to peg that predicted price a lot lower than Jeep prices to catalise this cult. HAVAL GROWS DEALERSHIPS Also at the Festival of Motoring were Haval, which brand recognised its top dealers and gave a sneak peak at the Haval H2 facelift, which is expected in hit South Africa in the second quarter of 2020. MD of Haval Motors SA, Charles Zhao, said the H2 is one of the most popular compact segment SUVs in SA, holding the second spot in retail sales year to date. He said Haval SA saw sales increase by 50% year on year, while overall vehicle sales in SA fell 4% in the first half of 2019. He said Haval has 53 dealers across South Africa, with a further four dealers to open before year end. • alwyn.viljoen@witness.co.za