Team Polaris SA Racing Kalahari preview

New Polaris SA Racing Team Excells Early in Off-Road Season

The Polaris SA Racing Quad off-road team that started participating officially in the SA National Off-road Championship this season, already achieved success like two overall quad victories in the Northwest Regional Off-road Championship.

The team that will be in all their glory at the Kalahari 1000, the third round of the SA National Off-road Championship for Motorcycles and Quads that will take place from April 29 to May 1 in the Vryburg area, will consist of Dallie Terblanche, Danie Coetzer, Kobus (Kiri) Oberholzer and Chris Jarvis. Terblanche, a tomato and sugarcane farmer and veteran quad racer from Pongola, finished second overall in the off-road quad championship while this season is the first full national racing season for both Coetzer and Oberholzer.

Oberholzer, the young businessman from Brits, won the Lichtenburg 200, the opening round of the Northwest Regional Off-road Championship with the Polaris Predator and finished 3rd at the recent Heilbron 200 while Coetzer won the Vryburg 200 regional event. These two riders are not leading (Oberholzer) the Northwest Regional off-road championship while Coetzer is currently 4th overall.

It was a first for Polaris quad racing in South Africa when all four members of the Polaris SA Racing finished the recent Noodsberg 400 event in KwaZulu-Natal. Coetzer, a scholar from Rustenburg who proved through the regional off-road championships that he could race with the best, put up the best score and finished 8th overall. Terblanche was 19th overall; Oberholzer, who started 82nd and experienced a lot of problems, finished spectacularly, but deservedly in the 25th position with a wheel that came off at the finish while Jarvis finished his first national event of the season in the 29th place. Jarvis, like his team-mate Oberholzer, crashed at the opening round of the season, the Skyoil Swazi 400 and injured his wrist, but both riders recovered quickly and participated in recent regional events.

The Polaris Predator quad was launched in South Africa last year, but this is the first season where an official racing team participates on national and regional level.

Under the guidance of the team manager, Don Dawes, it is expected that the Polaris SA Racing team will show their real potential at the forthcoming Kalahari 1000 and while they hope to walk away victorious, they would be happy to finish in the top ten. Last year this gruelling event consisting of 1 000km was the first national event for the young Coetzer and he proved what he was made of when he finished in the second position overall - just behind the Dakar hero, Cornel de Villiers. Terblanche finished 4th overall.

The Kalahari 1000 kicks-off on Thursday, April 29, with documentation and scrutineering after which the riders have to complete a 65km time trial that will determine the starting positions for the first day of the main race on Friday, April 30. All the activities will take place at the Excelsior Ontspannings- and Recreation Club on the Tosca road north of Vryburg.

-tpsar-