covered by the cut-off time , points are deducted . Coertse had earned himself a 140-point deduction with the breakdown , and although he finished the rest of the race without incident , he finished in 27th place . “ After that , I thought I was done ,” says Coertse . “ This is not a cheap thing to do .” But his friend , Brian Wallace , talked him into the idea of the two of them trying again , and Coertse decided he would give it another go — as long as he was sure he would have a chance to win .
2 . To succeed , winners learn from their failures
“ Brian had studied the rules closely and we were convinced that an early version of an Indian Scout , a 1923 or 1924 model , would do it ,” says Coertse . The Cannonball Run has three classes : Class One is for bikes with engine sizes under 700cc ; Class Two is for those under 1000cc ; and Class Three is for bikes with engines larger than 1000cc . Because points are given for every mile completed each day , and the distance is set for each day , many competitors end each day on the same points — if they have no mishaps . So to set competitors apart , tie-breakers are used : a smaller-sized bike gets more points than a larger bike ; an older bike gets more points than a more modern one ; and an older rider is awarded more points than a younger competitor . It ’ s a “ higher risk brings higher reward ” kind of incentive . “ The objective then ,” says Coertse , “ was to get a reliable , older , Class One bike .” A 1924 Indian Scout ticked all the boxes : it is known to be reliable for its age and size . The trick was to find one . There aren ’ t that many 1924 Scouts around . It took another five months , using all the contacts Coertse had made at the 2012 Cannonball Run , to eventually locate one . By July 2013 , he finally had the bike he needed , but he found the Scout to be in poor shape . It needed a full rebuild and there was now just 14 months to go until the start of the race . The shopping list of rare parts needed was a long one too .
3 . Overcoming hurdles leads to success
“ We had to make another trip to the U . S . to look for the parts at a very important swop meet in Davenport , Iowa ,” Coertse says . “ We managed to fill most of the shopping list , but in the end we ended up having to locate parts all over the world — in Australia , Czechoslovakia , Germany , Holland ...” “ We also had to fabricate a fair amount at work . We have a great team and good machining capabilities ,” he says of the engineers and artisans at Anderson Engineering . “ And the company was behind me all the way .” The demands of the build required even more though , and Coertse and Wallace had to go to great lengths to get the bike back into one piece . “ For instance , we only had one original handle bar ,” says Coertse , “ of which just one side was undamaged .” “ A friend in Pretoria helped us out by scanning the bar with a three-dimensional scanner . Then we inverted the scan and made up the other side of the handlebar , and we made a jig to assemble left and right onto the cast yoke .” “ We had many other similar challenging experiences ,” he remembers .
Capital | Issue 2 | 39 .