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2007
National Class B South African Champions
Driver : Hendrik Kraaij
Navigator : Jan Kraaij
2008
National Championship
Driver : Jan Kraaij
Navigator : Tiddo Voogt
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Keymax
Racing season 2006
In
January 2006 in the father and son pair of Jan and Hendrik
Kraaij, decided to hang up their bike riding gloves, and
ordered a new Bat racing car. A 2000 cc Nissan engine with
a few modifications was dropped into the spaceframe chassis;
and with the help of friend and foe the car was prepared
for its first outing.
The first national race to be held in Darling close to Cape
Town, produced a surprising finishing of fourth in class
B.
The team battled with very hard suspension setups and getting
stuck in a mudbath for half an hour before the fellow competitor
Kobus van Tonder pulled them out with his four wheel drive
Pajero.
Armed with an improved suspension setup and a new set of
Goodyear tyres the pair set of to KZN for the Sugar Belt
400 race in which they managed to finish 2nd.
Click
on image to enlarge
The famous Dessert 1000km race was next on the calendar
and while lying 1 st in class B on day 2 of the race, the
Keymax car was involved in a head-on crash with fellow competitor
Rob Wark and unfortunately both cars could not continue
the race. Luckily nobody was injured in the 100km/h head
on crash.
The Limpopo 400 at Pietersburg , together the first International
Off road Heritage Rally ever to be held in SA, was the highlight
of the season for the Kraaij family.They finished 1stOverall
in the international race and obviously the first in Class
B. This event required a lot of the navigation skills with
a GPS and the road book and because of this the Kraaij pair
did so well.
Lesotho , with the famous Roof of Africa race spelt disaster
for the team. A rear wheel axle came loose, and the front
wheel arm was bent in the rocky mountains, the car limped
into the pit area and after about an hour and a half of
sweat blood and tears the mechanics Roland, Tiddo and Geoff
got the team back on the road to finishing 4th in class
B(needless to say there was only 4 finishers in the class)
The Sun City race was even worse ; the Nissan engine blew
up 50km into the race and pilot Jan and co-pilot Hendrik
had to walk 10km to get to the closest road to bum a lift
back to Sun City.
Still leading the championship by a few points and with
a new engine installed they went of to Lydenburg for the
Toyota sponsored 400km race.
After 350km of racing team Keymax were positioned 3rd in
class B but then disaster really struck, Jan rolled the
car down a a steep mountain pass and the only happy chappie
after this ordeal was the bank manager who funded the repair
bill.
The final race of the season saw the Kraaij's with 11 points
behind Ernest Corbett on the start line at Carnival City.
This meant that if Kraaij won and Corbett did not finish
the race ,the season overall would belong to the Kraaij's.
Carnival City was wet and muddy as never before ; out of
80 odd competitors entering only 11 finished.
The normally dry riverbeds were like flooding rivers and
the only way through most of this was with new GY tyres,foot
hard on throttle and maximum speed .
The Kraaij's arrived at the finish 1st in class B and believe
it or not 2 hours later with 10 minutes to spare before
being time barred, Corbett limped in as the 2nd and only
other finisher in class B.
This gave Corbett the overall win in class B and the Kraaij
rookies, 2nd place.
At the Motorsport annual awards ceremony they were awarded
Rookie of the Year team and when interviewed they thanked
all their supporters , sponsors (Good Year , and Keymax)
and all the new friends made during their first year of
racing.
"We'll be back" said Hendrik who will
be the driver in 2008...
Click
on images to enlarge
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