TOYOTA GAZOO Racing SA (TGRSA) will be fielding two crews in the opening event of the 2024 South African National Rally Championship (SANRC), which takes place in the area surrounding the Swartland town of Malmesbury this weekend.
The Cape Swartland Rally, as the event is officially known, will feature two rounds of the 2024 SANRC, and TGRSA will be entering two Toyota Starlet rally cars. These will be driven by Jono van Wyk and co-driver Nico Swartz; and Mandla Mdakane and co-driver Kes Naidoo.
While both crews will be fielding versions of the rally Toyota Starlet, Mdakane/Naidoo’s car will feature the latest body shape. Under the skin, however, both cars are equipped with the very latest rally technology.
“From the outside, the cars may look similar to those we raced last year,” explains TGRSA’s Rally project manager, Guy Botterill, “but beneath the skin we’ve painstakingly worked on every component, to ensure maximum performance and reliability.”
The two TGRSA rally Starlets will be in action from Friday morning, when the first of five events that make up the 2024 NRC season gets under way in the Western Cape town of Malmesbury.
The first of eight stages will start at 10am on Friday, with five of those stages taking place on dirt roads around the Swartland town. From there, the action will shift to the Killarney Race Circuit near Cape Town, where the remainder of the day’s stages will take place on a mix of surfaces.
Six more stages will follow on Saturday, with the action starting at 10am again. The rally is scheduled to finish around 15:30, back in Malmesbury.
