Lichtenburg feels Scorpion sting
GREAT RUBBER: NEW PIRELLY RALLI TYRE TAKES TOP EIGHT POSITIONS IN CLASS T
It performed beyond our wildest dreams, says Pirelli’s sport boss.
Pirelli tyres enjoyed an incredible official South African Cross Country championship debut earlier this month.
A dusty, tough and demanding season opening Lichtenburg 400 in the North West Province saw Pirelli Scorpion Rally-shod bakkies filling the top seven positions in Class T of Production Vehicles.
Johan and Werner Horn drove their Malalane Toyota Hilux to a popular Class T victory over a pair of Ford Puma Lubricant Rangers in the hands of Gareth Woolridge/ Boyd Dreyer plus impressive cross country debutants Henk Lategan/ Barry White.
The Horns were delighted with their win and thrilled by the performance advantages their new Pirelli Scorpion Rally tyres brought.
“These are tough tyres,” Johan Horn said. “We had a poor qualifying and had to fight back hard through the field, but we could push hard and rely on the tyres to get away with a lot more than we are used to without the worry of puncturing.
“I don’t think the tyres were that much of an advantage this weekend.
“We are not the only ones to have found out how good these Scorpion Rally tyres are and all of our rivals are also running them.
“I would say the tyres have made the racing better.
“That was one hell of a dice because we could all push that much harder.”
In fact the entire Lichtenburg 400 top eight in Class T were running Pirelli’s new Scorpion Rally cross country tyre, with Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst’s Pirelli-tyred Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux coming home fourth fol- lowed by Hennie de Klerk/Rodney Burke in a Volkswagen Amarok.
Lance Woolridge and Ward Huxtable were next up in the third factory Ford Ranger, while Gary Bertholdt and Phillip Herselman brought their Pirelli-shod Atlas Copco Volkswagen Amarok home seventh – both of them on Pirellis.
“We are delighted with the Scorpion Rally’s official South African Cross Country debut,” Pirelli SA motorsport manager Mark Eatwell said.
“It was beyond our wildest dreams that Pirelli would come, see and conquer as it did,” he added.