The dust will be flying in the Welkom area in the Free State on 13 and 14 September when SA Rally-Raid competitors take on the Phakisa 400, the sixth and penultimate round of the 2024 SARRC and the big question will be: who will walk away with the laurels as the outcome will impact the overall and class championships at this stage of the season.
There is no doubt the Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) Ford Ranger T1+ team of Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer will aim to win this event as they did in 2023 and in doing so, better their chances of moving up the overall and Ultimate T1+ standings, as a second consecutive national championship title is out of their reach this year.
A victory will also be the aim of their team-mates, Lance Woolridge/Kenny Gilbert who could not complete this event last year and if the cards fall right for them this year, they will fancy their chances of finishing on the overall podium at the end of the season. Neither team have tasted victory this season and good results will be perfect after an up-and-down season.
They will be up against the full force of Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) who have not only won every event so far this season but occupy all the steps on the podiums in the overall standings as well as in Ultimate T1+. This is, however, also the event where the current leaders, Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Hilux IMT EVO) rolled their vehicle last year with Lategan injuring his shoulder and having to relinquish the title battle. This year the team have won three races, and they will welcome another victory in the Free State.
Their team-mates, Giniel de Villiers/Elvéne Vonk as well as Guy Botterill, who claimed his maiden win at the recent Parys 400 together with veteran navigator, Dennis Murphy, have earned a victory each during 2024 and are rounding off the podiums, but the intriguing battles between these teams will be intense. Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet have had a tricky start to the season but have made a huge jump in the standings after solid results at the recent INGCO events in Parys. They might be down on points, but the young Variawa (19) and his French navigator have shown that they have what it takes to compete at the front and can finish the season off with more good results that could push them up a notch or two on the standings.
The Blignaut brothers, Fouché and Bertus (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid DKR Hilux T1+) have performed consistently and find themselves in the top five despite not being able to finish the most recent race. They will be determined to make up for this result and will again be a team to look out for.
Also, in the line-up for the Phakisa 400 in Ultimate T1+, will be Chris Visser/Albertus Venter (Red-Lined REVO T1+ GTR) who have the pace and could convert that into positive results while their team-mates, the Dutch driver, Rients Hofstra and his South African navigator, Wade Harris, will put more racing kilometres on their new REVO T1+ GTR.
Another international regular, Daniël Schröder and SA navigator, Henry Köhne will aim to bring the WCT VW Amarok home while youngster, Jayden Els and his new navigator, Johann Swemmer (King Price Xtreme SVR) know the feeling of posting times that have put them on the podium after qualifying races.
The battles in Adventurer T1 are intense and with the season in the closing stages, no-one dare put a wheel wrong. Red-Lined Motorsport will be out in full force and will go all out to defend their lead as well as the runner-up position. Privateers, Gerhard and Rudi Heinlein (Red-Lined VK56) will be racing together again with Gerhard now in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship. Their rivals and fellow competitors, Johan de Bruyn/Adriaan Roets in a Red-Lined built REVO T1 won the first two races of the season with De Bruyn now second in the driver standings while Roets leads the Navigators’ Championship.
The defending champions, Eben Basson/Leander Pienaar (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid Toyota Hilux) are, however, on a charge after not being able to complete the first two events. They stormed through the field and won the following three races and are now in with a chance to defend their title successfully for the third consecutive season.
They will, however, also be up against two more Red-Lined Motorsport teams, Philip Botha/Andries Mynhardt (Red-Lined VK56) and newcomers Danie Ludick/Denzil Williamson who recently completed their first two races successfully. The experienced family duo of Johan van Staden and his son, Sean (Renault Duster) is fourth (Johan) and third (Sean) respectively in the drivers’ and navigators’ standings and with more good results, they could see the season out in the top five.
The young Dutch lady driver living in Cape Town, Puck Klaassen, made use of the skills of experienced motorcycle rider and multiple Dakar Rally finisher, Charan Moore in the Can-Am Maverick Rotax in the Challenger Class and the two have teamed up again for the Free State race.
The Phakisa 400 starts at 10:15 on Friday, 13 September with the 14-kilometre Castrol Qualifying Race which determines the starting positions of Stage One that follows at 13:15. The race continues at 08:30 on Saturday 14 September, with Stages Two and Three each comprising 180 kilometres. All the action takes place from Phakisa Raceway on the outskirts of Welkom where the Race Headquarters as well as the Designated Service Point (DSP) and the Start/Finish will be situated. Spectators can follow the race and view the action from various vantage points along the route.
