Tragedy hits top racing team
2009-09-18 09:28
Cape Town – Two technicians from one of South Africa's premier motor racing teams died when their bodies were burnt beyond recognition in a gruesome crash on the N1 outside Laingsburg on Thursday morning.
Allen Porter and Mike Venter were heading for Cape Town when the panel van in which they were travelling collided head-on with a truck.
Porter and Venter worked behind the scenes on a Subaru Impreza for 2009 production motor champions Charl Wilken and his navigator, Greg Godrich.
Favourites to win
The team would have taken part in the BP Ultimate Rally Challenge in the Sasol SA Rally Championship on Friday and Saturday, and were the favourites to win the class S2000 factory entry.
According to the provincial traffic spokesperson, Xenophone Wentzel, the accident happened at 07:40, about 20km before Laingsburg.
Two interlinked trucks, a Mercedes-Benz and the panel van in which Porter and Venter had been driving, were involved in the crash.
The Impreza, which was being towed by the panel van on a trailer, was destroyed in the accident.
Wentzel said the panel van was apparently overtaking another vehicle, presumably the Mercedes-Benz, when it crashed head-on with one of the trucks which was driving in the direction of Beaufort West.
The drivers of the two trucks and car sustained light injuries.
'Tragedy'
Anzelle Smit, a spokesperson for the metro emergency services, said one of the passengers of the Mercedes-Benz was taken to Laingsburg Hospital with serious injuries.
It was initially believed that there had been four occupants in the panel van, as the vehicle was already burning when paramedics arrived on the scene and they couldn't establish how many people were inside.
Flip Wilken, Wilken's father and the team's manager, said they had been informed about the accident on their arrival at Cape Town International Airport on Thursday morning.
"They were the backbone of our team, the most important people," said Wilken.
"It is a gigantic tragedy for us."
He said he and his son and the rest of the team had flown from Johannesburg to Cape Town, while Porter and Venter had transported the Impreza and "all the important equipment" by road.