Reigning champions Nissan made a dream start to the Absa Off-Road Championship when they scored a one-two in the Production Vehicle category in the Nissan Dealer 400, the opening event of the season, in Darling.

Reigning South African drivers champion Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford, in a factory Nissan Navara, got their season off to the perfect start when they edged out team-mates Hannes Grobler and new co-driver Juan Mohr to take overall and Class SP honours.

Vos and Pitchford came in 34 seconds ahead of the veteran Grobler and Mohr who spent the latter half of the event conserving the Navara after hitting a ditch at the start of the second of the event?s two loops.

The same ditch almost certainly cost Nissan a clean sweep. Norwegian Ivar Tollefsen and Briton Quin Evans were lying third in another works Navara when they hit the ditch and were eventually forced to retire with suspension problems.

?It was the perfect start for us,? said Vos. ?The vehicle was perfect and once we got past Hannes and Juan all we had to do was keep our heads.

?It was a good but tough route and if the rest of the season goes the same way we?ll be more than happy.?

Third eventually went to former South African champions Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer in a factory Ford Racing Ranger.

They came in ahead of Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst (Castrol Toyota Hilux) with provisional results giving fifth place to Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin in the factory Castrol Toyota Hilux.

The Toyota factory crew were later excluded from the results for deviating from the route.

The exclusion of the Toyota crew lifted off-road legend Alfie Cox and Hennie ter Stege in the Motorite SP into fifth with the pair campaigning in the Production Vehicle category after winning the Special Vehicle championship in 2006.

Vos and Pitchford took the lead when Grobler and Mohr lost time when they stalled the Navara at a hairpin. They could not get the vehicle started and were then slowed by their encounter with the ditch.

Woolridge and Skjoldhammer lost time when they stopped to assist when Special Vehicle crews Evan Hutchison/Achim Bergmann and Naeem Moosajee/Rayhaan Bodhanya were involved in a huge accident. After that they reported a trouble-free run as did Visser/Badenhorst who ran into problems on the Friday prologue to determine start positions.

There was also a steady run from Kobus van Tonder and Riaan Guelpa in the Unifreight Ford Ranger along with Harold and Tiaan Coen in the Land Rover who were classified sixth and seventh in the SP Class. The father and son Coen combination also lost a lot of time when they stopped to help a string of competitors stuck in thick sand.

High profile casualties, however, included Bevan Bertholdt/Robin Houghton in the second factory Castrol Toyota Hilux who were sidelined by mechanical problems and Hugo and Jaap de Bruyn (Micaren Exel Dealer Team Toyota Hilux) who were excluded from the results after wrong slotting and missing marshal points.

The Class D honours went to Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber in the Raysonics Nissan Hardbody. The pair worked on their fitness during the off-season and their only problem was to nurse the vehicle over the last 100 kilometres with the crew worried about rising engine temperatures.

It was plan sailing for the Labuscagne and Gerber after Ramon Bezuidenhout and Stefan Lock, in a Toyota Hilux, suddenly ran out of brakes and hit a tree. Contact with the tree destroyed the radiator and reduced the Delmas based crew to a spectator role.

The Class E honours went to the experienced Team Barberspan Toyota Hilux pair of Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux with the latter the reigning co-drivers champion. They reported a ?perfect? run to come home ahead of Thomas Rundle and Brian Roberts in the Barden Tyre Services Nissan Hardbody.

Reigning drivers champion Jack Peckham and Lucio Santoro, in the factory Ford Racing Ranger, had to be content with third after a troubled run. They broke a side shaft and lost 20 minutes at the designated service point while running repairs were carried out.