What South African Rally Raid Championship Rounds 4 & 5 Report
Where Parys, Free State
When 18-19 August 2023
Community South Africa National
Red-Lined Motorsport cars and crews star in Parys 800 Rally Raid
Red-Lined Motorsport returned home from the 4th and 5th rounds of the South African Rally Raid Championship in Parys bearing a significant stash of silverware after a strong weekend for the team in the double-points scoring Free State races. It was also a stunning weekend for the three international teams racing alongside the two regular Red-Lined factory teams.
“Parys was another great weekend of racing for Red-Lined Motorsport,” team boss Terence Marsh reported. “Not only did we come away with a FIA T1 Class Red-Lined built race car podium lockout on Saturday, we also went on to win the prestigious Team Award on both days, while recording nine finishers out of ten starts from the double header event.
“Best of all, each of our international customer entries were delighted with their results in what was a particularly good weekend for our two brand new Red-Lined REVO T1+ entries.”
One of the stars of the weekend, young 19-year-old lady rally raid racing sensation Aliyyah Koloc and Riaan Greyling were one of two Red-Lined international crews to debut a brand-new Red-Lined REVO T1+ race cars in Parys. The Buggyra Racing duo did an exceptional job to finish both days with aplomb as they came to terms with their all-new race car as they continue their preparations for Dakar 2024.
Fellow REVO T1+ debutants, Belgian Stefan Carmans and his Dutch navigator Arjan Van Tiel also delivered a steady drive to finish both days without issue in their brand-new CSA Racing T1+ machine.
Another Red-Lined weekend highlight was the team’s FIA T1 class performance with Johan de Bruyn and Gerhard Schutte producing a world class performance over both days aboard their OdorCure powered REVO T1. de Bruyn and Schutte finished second on Friday and then went on to finish first in Saturday’s event after another exceptional run. They later dropped behind Jurgen Schroder’s privately run PS Laser VK50 due to an unfortunate penalty.
Dutch duo Dave Klaassen and Tessa Rooth in their Daklapack Rallysport VK50 backed up a good finish on the Friday with a podium third on Saturday. Klaassen arrived in South Africa rather ill but raised his game through the weekend to pick up his maiden SA Rally Raid podium.
Chris Visser and Albertus Venter delivered another impressive result to come home sixth overall in the team’s Dragon Energy powered REVO T1+ on Friday after fighting in the top five among a really super-competitive field for most of the day. They were unfortunately sidelined by a gearbox vibration on Saturday. Prompting the team to rather retire the race car than incur any further damage.
“Parys was once again a tough double header with extremely fast, dry and dusty conditions, but in the end, it was really a good overall team result for us,” Terence concluded. “We’re delighted to have delivered our international customers two brand new T1+ cars that performed faultlessly throughout the weekend.
“We are delighted with our 90% finish rate over the two days, and to top it all off we came home with a pile of silverware which is always so special after a tough and challenging weekend. “So, a job well done and much appreciation once again to every member of our incredible team who collectively made it all happen!”
Red-Lined Motorsport’s next South African Rally Raid Championship appointment is round 6 of 7, back in the Free State in Welkom, 6-7 October.
*Red-Lined Motorsport competes with premium strategic partners, the Penta Motor Group, BFGoodrich, Motul, Dragon Energy, OMP, ExpandaSign and Ingco Tools.
Issued on behalf of Red-Lined Motorsport
Photography by: Andre Laubscher
MSA Publishes media releases from a host of different sources on our website as a service to the sport. It is not practically possible to vet/approve every release that is published. Some news items and articles are written by correspondents and do not necessarily represent MSA’s views.