The muddy, wet and cold weekend of 16th and 17th March saw Hud Racing’s David Huddy (Driver) and Gerhard Schutte (Navigator) in the HUD Racing Class S 4L Nissan Navara take part in the 1st round of the South African Cross Country Auto Series (SACCS), the Mpumalanga400 held in Dullstroom.

The FUCHS Lubricants-sponsored team was meet by wet, overcast and misty conditions on their arrival and by the start of the time-trial on the Friday afternoon, the conditions were testing for all teams partaking.

The 1st 4kms of the route consisted of racing through the stadium section where the teams could show off their driving skills in an area specially designed and built for spectators.

For the time-trial, David and Gerhard pushed as hard as possible in the extreme conditions but made sure they brought their car home in one piece and managed to place 2nd in class S for the start of the main race on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, the surface conditions were worse and the organisers were on the brink of cancelling the race due to the heavy rainfall of the previous night. However, racing was given the green light to continue. The route comprised 2 laps of 174km with a 20-minute service-stop in between. The HUD Racing team knew that the car was in great condition and filled with FUCHS Lubricants, this already gave them the competitive edge and all the had to do was win on the day. 

The 1st lap tried their skills to new levels. It was a good fast run in the tough conditions and despite suffering a puncture, they managed to move themselves up to 1st in class S and a great 16th overall.  

In lap 2, the experience of David as driver and Gerhard navigator proved to be uncontested as the team brought the HUD Racing /FUCHS Lubricants Class S Nissan Navara home in 1st position by more than 1 hour 30 min ahead of their next rival.

“Thanks to FUCHS Lubricants for their support. The products proved their worth and gave us the competitive edge to win,” said David Huddy, HUD Racing S14 car driver.