Africa-Press – Botswana. South African car racer Dewald Van Breda and his co-driver Adriaan Roets have won the car category at the inaugural Sarona Kalahari 1000 Race held in Jwaneng over the weekend.
The duo from Off-Road SA defied the tough terrain to finish with an overall time of 10:41:24.
“It was a tough one but you have to continue fighting, you can’t relax. Botswana bush does not forgive, you must concentrate otherwise the trees will take you out,” said Dewald Van Breda in a post-race interview.
In the bike category, Botswana’s national off-road champion, Kosmas Mamaloukos continued to shine as he finished first in a race which he described as the best desert race he had participated in. The young biker said the race was also part of his preparations for the upcoming competitions both locally and internationally.
“This desert race has actually been the best out of all the ones I have competed in because this time I managed to finish, I always have breakdowns and other challenges. Today is a special day for me, my family and friends, as well as Bokomo. We have successfully completed our first desert race as well as winning it,” said the elated Mamaloukos.
Notably, some of the entrants could not complete the race owing to breakdowns throughout the three-day event. Loic Bathfield and his navigator, Stuart Gregory from Namibia were some of the competitors who took an early bow out of the race, following an incident that damaged their vehicle on the second day. Their vehicle only managed a 0:38:53 record on time trials in the FIA T1.2+ category.
“We are here today after the first day, unfortunately not with results that we wanted. We struggled with the windscreen wiper a lot after passing through water and unfortunately we hit a big pothole of water and we took a tree out and that caused some damage to the car and unfortunately we are unable to carry on,” explained Bathfield.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Sport and Arts, Jacob Kelebeng hailed the organisers of the Sarona Kalahari Race for their efforts to close the gap for off-road racing in Botswana. He said the government was committed to supporting such initiatives and ensuring that they were successful.
“This shows that we are beginning to realize that we can do some of these things on our own, we have been relying on South Africans for a very long time but this time around we are the ones in charge. Also, in order to professionalize sport, we need to be hands on as locals and the government should also show support and that is what we are doing,” he said.
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