With the 2024 SA Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) drawing to a close with the Renault KEC 400, the seventh and final round of the series that took place in the Bronkhorstspruit area, and with the points added up, the new national overall and class champions emerged after a season where competitors and their race steeds were tested to the limit.
Testing routes and terrain, adverse weather conditions and the influence of Lady Luck all added to an extremely exciting season where predicting race winners or results was risky as the outcome was balanced on a knife edge. The high level of competition and the world-class performances of professional as well as privateer teams, were clear as mere seconds separated teams after races.
In the end, it was Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux IMT EVO) who claimed their fourth victory of the season when they won the Renault KEC 400 and bagged their fourth SA Rally-Raid Overall Championship as a team while they were also crowned as the FIA Ultimate T1+ champions. This came after the team were involved in an unfortunate accident at the opening round where they could not complete the race.
They were joined on the overall as well as the Ultimate T1+ podium by two more TGR teams with similar racing vehicles – Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy finished the season as the runners-up after scoring a race victory and four more podium positions while Giniel de Villiers/Elvéne Vonk finished third after winning two races and claiming two more podium results. Both teams competed in the final race at Bronkhorstspruit but were not eligible to score points as they were testing components for the upcoming Dakar Rally in January 2025.
The Blignaut brothers, Bertus and Fouché (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid Toyota Hilux IMT EVO) rounded off their season at the final event on a high note by claiming their first podium result that saw them finishing fourth in the overall and Ultimate T1+ standings after only their second year participating in the SARRC.
They were followed by the two Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) teams, Lance Woolridge/Kenny Gilbert who were fifth and the outgoing champions, Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer in sixth in similar NWM Ford Ranger T1+ vehicles with both teams showing utter determination during the season as they were hampered by challenges and some bad luck. Both teams could not finish a round of the series while both relinquished a set of points towards the overall standings as their efforts in fighting from the back of the field, saw them not finishing high enough to score points.
All teams competing in Ultimate T1+; the Adventurer T1 as well as the SSV Class score points towards the overall standings and with the first six positions taken up by teams competing in the Ultimate T1+ class, it is Eben Basson and Leander Pienaar (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid) who finished the season as the leading Adventurer T1 team after competing in this class at the first six races before moving to the Ultimate T1+ class at the Bronkhorstspruit event. In the overall standings, they were just ahead of the Heinlein father and son pairing of, Gerhard and Rudi Heinlein (Red-Lined Motorsport VK56) who finished as the second Adventurer T1 team.
In the class championships, competitors receive a five-point bonus for starting an event and with Gerhard competing – and completing – all seven rounds of the championship, he earned the most points to win the Adventurer T1 Drivers’ Championship title. His father, Rudi, missed the two events at Parys resulting in him having to settle for the third place in the T1 Navigators’ Championship. And despite not finishing the first two events with Basson, but then winning the class three times and earning another podium result, Pienaar claimed the T1 Navigators Championship title.
The top ten overall standings were rounded out by two more Ultimate T1+ teams, Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet (TGR Toyota Hilux IMT EVO) were ninth after missing the final two rounds of the season and the Horn brothers, Johan and Werner (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid DKR) who conquered an up and down season in 10th place.
Looking at the Ultimate T1+ Class Championship, the three TGR teams – Lategan/Cummings; Botterill/Murphy and De Villiers/Vonk – were trailed by Lance Woolridge/Gilbert who were fourth followed by the Blignaut brothers and the outgoing champions, Gareth Woolridge/Dreyer. Due to variations in driver/navigator combinations during the year, Jayden Els (King Price Xtreme) is seventh in the T1+ Drivers’ Championship followed by Horn, Variawa and Chris Visser (Red-Lined Motorsport REVO T1+ GTR) who also missed the final round of the season.
In the T1+ Navigators’ Championship, Werner Horn is seventh followed by the Frenchman, Cazalet, with Visser’s regular navigator, Albertus Venter, ninth and Henry Köhne, who started the season next to Els and navigated for the German driver, Daniel Schröder (Nissan Navara) tenth.
The battles in the Adventurer T1 Championship continued right through the season with no less than five different teams earning silverware during the season. Looking at the standings between the drivers, the newly crowned champion, Gerhard Heinlein – the only competitor to start and finish all seven rounds of the series and finishing on the podium at each event including winning the penultimate round – is tailed followed by Basson with Johan de Bruyn (REVO T1), who won the second round, but could not finish the Free State event, third albeit only one point behind Basson.
Johan and Sean van Staden (KEC Renault Duster) finished a tough season in fourth place in the class with Philip Botha (Red-Lined Motorsport VK56), who won the class at the final event, fifth amongst the drivers. His team-mates, Danie Ludick/Denzil Williamson, finished sixth after only starting their campaign in the SARRC halfway through the season with the team earning their first podium result at Bronkhorstspruit. The two German drivers, Jurgen Schröder and his son, Daniel, are seventh and eighth respectively.
The standings in the T1 Navigators’ Championship are somewhat scrambled, but the battle for points was fierce. Pienaar finished only one point ahead of Adriaan Roets who read the notes for De Bruyn with Rudi Heinlein not too far behind in third place. Andries Mynhardt replaced Rudi at the two Parys events and navigated for Botha at the season finale. He accumulated enough points to occupy fifth place. Ryan Bland sat next to Daniel Schröder and finished seventh followed by Gerhard Schutte also navigated for Botha in two events. Rikus Fourie is ninth and Stuart Gregory 10th with both navigators having read the notes for Jurgen. Roelof Janse van Vuren, who also warmed the seat next to Botha, finished 11th.
The SSV Championship was won by Geoff Minnitt/Rodney Burke (Hydro Power Equipment Can-Am) with newcomers, Ruperd Fourie/Morne van Rensburg, finishing all three events they competed in to end the season as the runners-up. Lady driver, Puck Klaassen, is third after also making use of various navigators. Darron Gudmanz finished with the same number of points as Werner Mostert who scored points in both the drivers as the navigators’ standings with Justin Rutherford sixth and Ian Mostert seventh.
In the SSV Navigators’ Championship, Carl Swanepoel is third with Quintin Lessing and Tim Botes on the same points behind him, closely followed by Kent Rutherford who navigated for his brother at the final event and finished third. Ian Mostert also started behind the wheel of the Can-Am Maverick during the season and is seventh in the standings.
Toyota earned the coveted Manufacturers Award ahead of Ford, Can-Am, Nissan, Renault and Volkswagen.
Published by: SA Rally Raid Championship – Charmaine Fortune
Photography by: Dave Ledbitter
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