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Jade Gutzeit (Full Throttle Yamaha) and Dirkie Baard (Windhoek Honda) were the respective winners of the overall bike and quad categories of an icy-cold Lesotho Off-road Spectacular, the fourth round of the 2010 SA National Championships that was held this weekend in bitterly cold conditions in Lesotho.
Gutzeit and Baard both posted the fastest times after the 45km qualifying time-trial on Friday that determined the starting order for the main race. But Gutzeit noticed on the start line that the rear wheel of his Yamaha seemed to be loose, and while trying to fix it he lost his starting position and only tackled the race behind a handful of other racers.
Gutzeit caught the front-runners, but damaged his bike on the rocks. Towards the end of the race he picked up a battle with the race leader, Louwrens Mahoney (DCM Yamaha) who lost time when the mousse in his Yamaha's tyre collapsed.
Towards the end of the race Mahoney also got lost and Gutzeit passed him and beat the three times Roof of Africa winner by about 12 seconds.
The 2009 Lesotho race winner, Riaan van Niekerk (Brother KTM) won the 250cc (OR2) class and was the third motorcycle racer home after crashing on his "borrowed" bike early in the race.
In the quad category Baard, who lost time with two flat tyres, was chased by his younger brother and team-mate, Philipie, who eventually finished 41 seconds behind him to make it a first one-two for the Namibian brothers in South Africa.
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