The 2024 South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) has been fast, furious and fiercely competitive throughout this year, and this theme continued through to the final round – the Renault KEC 400, held at Legends Adventure Park, east of Pretoria, on 8 and 9 November – where the Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) Ford Rally-Raid Team scored its third podium of the season.
Lance Woolridge and Kenny Gilbert (#234) had a near-faultless drive in the EcoBoost V6-powered NWM Ford Ranger Ultimate (T1+) to finish third overall after a hard-fought race-long battle with the Toyotas of Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings and Fouche and Bertus Blignaut who claimed first and second, respectively.
Despite once again showing impressive pace, unfortunately, outgoing Production Vehicle champions Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer (#200) endured another frustrating weekend when they were sidelined on Friday afternoon’s opening race loop with a technical issue that forced them to retire from the stage. They charged back through the field on Saturday, including setting the fastest time on the day’s opening 175km loop, but had to settle for ninth in the Ultimate class.
The action kicked off on Friday morning with a short 20km qualifying sprint. Lance and Kenny posted the fourth-fastest time, followed by their team-mates in sixth place – a mere 3 seconds adrift.
On the opening 85km race loop on Friday afternoon, Lance and Kenny were enjoying a good run until a bonnet latch came loose after a jump, forcing the crew to stop and make temporary repairs – costing them around two minutes in the process. Nevertheless, they managed to move up a place to third overall going into the overnight stop.
Unfortunately, Gareth and Boyd saw their challenge come to a halt just 9.7km into Loop 1, and they had to withdraw. The team recovered the car and worked through the night to get it race-ready once again. The hard work certainly paid off, as the pair posted the fastest time on Saturday morning’s long and gruelling Loop 2, even though they started near the back of the field.
Gareth and Boyd continued their good form on the final 175km loop, and worked their way up to an impressive ninth in the Ultimate class – including the 10-hour penalty incurred for not completing Friday’s stage.
At the front of the pack, it was a thrilling battle between Lance and Kenny in the Shell-liveried NWM Ford Ranger and the Toyotas of Lategan/Cummings and the Blignaut brothers, with the trio of top contenders trading places several times throughout the day. Just 4 seconds separated the NWM Ford crew from Lategan/Cummings in the stage times for the Loop 2, and the nail-biting antics continued right to the final flag of the 2024 season.
After approximately 450km of flat-out racing in varied and challenging terrain, the top three competitors were separated by just 43 seconds. Lance and Kenny trailed the Blignauts by a scant 19 seconds, with Lategan/Cummings taking the win with a margin of just 24 seconds – undoubtedly making it one of the closest top-three finishes in recent memory.
“It was a fantastic race for us, and we are really happy to end the year with our third podium of the season, to go along with second at the Safari 1000 and third at the Vaal 400,” Lance said. “The car ran perfectly, other than the bonnet catch breaking loose, and it was an exciting battle throughout the weekend. There was very little between the top three at the end which shows just how close, extremely competitive and exciting the championship is, and this bodes well for next year.”
Gareth said: “This race was typical of our season where we had every intention of defending our overall and class championship titles. As we proved with the fastest time on the Saturday morning loop, we have the pace to fight for race wins in an Ultimate class field that is bigger and more competitive than ever. Unfortunately, small niggles have let us down, but overall we had a good comeback today and were happy with our performance.”
NWM Ford team principal, Neil Woolridge, said: “This has been a tough year for the team as we have been fighting for the win at every race, yet the cards just haven’t fallen our way. We missed out on the top two positions on several occasions by a couple of seconds here and there, and there have been some minor issues that caught us out which is very frustrating for the team. But if we take a step back, it’s important to acknowledge that we have been very competitive throughout the year.
“We’ve made a lot of development changes and improvements on the car which have worked really well, and the entire NWM team has done a superb job. The support from our sponsors and partners has been fantastic, too.” Neil said. “We have a long list of upgrades and changes planned for the cars for next year, and we look forward to taking the fight to our championship rivals in 2025.”
The NWM Ford Rally-Raid Team is proud to be supported by the following partners: Shell, Ford Credit, Mastercraft, Würth, NTN, Brembo, Veldskoen, Motorcraft, Ironman 4×4, Sapphire, Shatterprufe and Tiger Wheel & Tyre.
Follow the team’s updates and progress on the following social media channels:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FordPerformanceSA
Instagram: instagram.com/fordperformancesa
Published by: Colin Mileman
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