What South African Rally Raid Championship Round 3 Report
Where Thabazimbi, Northwest Province
When 21-23 June 2024
Community South Africa National
Tough new Rally Raid Safari proves a cruel weekend
Red-Lined Motorsport came home from the marathon third-round South African Rally-Raid Championship TGRSA Safari 1000 with its tail between its legs after a treacherous third and final day at the Limpopo Province Waterberg race over the weekend.
“Unfortunately, our T1+ Ultimate class effort quite literally fell apart on the last day as this tough and technical event gave us a proper kick in the nuts and this after a good first two days of racing,” a downcast Red-Lined team principal Terence Marsh explained. “All three of our new Red-Lined REVO T1+ GT-Rs had a day to forget with Chris Visser and Albertus Venter rolling out of the event.
Dutch duo Dave and Tessa Klaassen hit a tree and took a right rear wheel off, and this while lying eighth overall at the time. And then to add further insult to injury, our European CEO Rients Hofstra and Wade Harris ran into electronical issues and were forced to retire in that final stage.
“Fortunately, our privateers stood up to the task and delivered some good results in the T1 Adventure class with four cars finishing in the top five in a 2-3-4-5 result,” Marsh added. The Heinlein father and son pairing once again delivered a first-class performance in their Sirkel N VK56 to finish second in class and an incredible ninth overall, and this amongst a field of 23 T1+ Ultimate class starters.
More impressively, this was their fifth straight Adventure class podium result since the start of the year. Johan de Bruyn and Adriaan Roets went on to put in another solid performance in their Falken Tyres REVO T1 to retain their lead in the Championship, while the everpresent Philip Botha and stand in navigator Gerhard Schute grabbed another top five result in their Penta Motor Group VK56.
“19-year-old Dutch youngster Pim Klaassen and Rikus Hattingh however did rescue a bit of our T1 Ultimate representation by eventually bringing their DaklaPack REVO T1+ V8 home in 13th place in class after losing an hour with some bush repairs after hitting a gate post on the final day. Overall, the Safari event was one to forget for our big T1+ boys, but once again our T1 guys stood up to the task.
“Anyway, it is what it is and that’s racing. We learn to love it as much as we can hate it at the same time!” Terence Marsh concluded. “Now we will need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and gear ourselves up for the next round of the South African Rally Raid Championship in Parys in August which will be a double event.
A big thanks however to the whole team for an incredible effort on what ended up a really difficult weekend. Stay tuned, we will be back!”
*Red-Lined Motorsport competes with premium strategic partners, the Penta Motor Group, BFGoodrich, Motul, Dragon Energy, OMP, Ingco South Africa and ExpandaSign
Issued on behalf of Red-Lined Motorsport
Picture Caption: No luck for Chris Visser
Photography by: Andre Laubscher
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