MOTORING NEWS - At midway in this year's South African Cross-Country Series, a number of title chases are in the balance.

That hardly applies to the overall position in the production vehicle category, where Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy (Toyota Gazoo SA Hilux) enjoy a comfortable lead in the overall standings and in the FIA class.

They are followed by NWM Ford Ranger team Lance Woolridge and Ward Huxtable and then Johan and Werner Horn (Malalane Toyota Hilux). Henk Lategan/BarryWhite (Toyota Gazoo SA Hilux) are fourth, ahead of Gary Bertholdt/Geoff Minnitt (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux) and Chris Visser/Philip Herselman (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux).

In Class T, Woolridge and Huxtable narrowly lead from the Horn siblings, with Bertholdt/ Minnitt third. Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (NWM Ford Ranger) and Hennie de Klerk/Japie Badenhorst (VW Amarok) round out the top five.

The Class S championship is dominated by David Huddy/Gerhard Schutte (Nissan Navara) ahead of Archie/Kent Rutherford (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux).

Toyota have nothing to fear in their charge for the manufacturer's award. They have 362 points, with Ford in second on 98 points. Nissan is third (43 points), Renault fourth (24 points) and CR fifth (22 points).

The special vehicle championship is led overall by Coetzee Labuscagne and his daughter Sandra Labuscagne-Jonc (4x4 Mega World ARB Porter). They are followed by John Telford/Victor Ntsekhe (Calcamite BAT), Nic Goslar/Andrew Massey (SA Clinics Zarco), Werner Kennedy/Jaco Pieterse (Live Lesotho Porter) and Stefan van Pletzen/Jaco Pieterse (Live Lesotho Chenowth).

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