The third round of the 2022 South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) got under way on the outskirts of Bronkhorstspruit on Friday, 19 August, with a short qualifying race of 15km, sponsored by Pirelli. This race was meant to determine the starting order for the #TeamHilux Rally-Raid Bronkhorstspruit, but a number of crews found themselves adrift of the route, and as a result the organisers decided to revert to the drivers’ seeding order for the start, with the top ten crews drawing names for the final starting order.
First crew into the 80 km long opening loop was the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing SA crew of Shameer Variawa and co-driver Danie Stassen. The current Production Category championship leaders had a tough time early in the route, wrong-slotting on multiple occasions. As a result, Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer, in the NWM Ford Castrol T1+ Ranger, passed the TGRSA crew on the stage, opening the road for the remainder of the first race loop.
In the end, the fastest crew through the initial loop was the Class T1+ DKR Hilux of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. The pair posted a time of 59min 7sec over the stage, beating teammates Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy by 53sec. Third place went to Woolridge/Dreyer, driving a Ford Ranger equipped with a new engine map – clearly working well for the crew.
The Top 5 were rounded out by two more Toyotas. Fourth place went to TGRSA’s Guy Botterill and co-driver Simon Vacy-Lyle; while brothers Johan and Werner Horn brought their Class T1+ Toyota Hilux home in fifth place, flying the flag for event sponsors #TeamHilux. Variawa/Stassen recorded the sixth fastest time in Class T1+, while NWM Ford Castrol Ranger driver Lance Woolridge, partnered with Elvéne Vonk, was forced to the sidelines with a side-shaft problem just 15km from the end of the loop.
No fewer than seven Class T1.2 CR-6 cars started the opening race loop, making for entertaining racing. This included visiting French star driver Mathieu Serradori and co-driver Loic Minaudier, who went second-fastest in the class, in their Century Racing machine. They were bested by Ernest Roberts and Henry Köhne in the JCP Steel Supplies CR-6, who posted a time of 1hr 2min 6sec to take the win. Third place belonged to the father-and-son pairing of Malcolm and Frans Kock, also in a JCP Steel Supplies CR-6.
Class T1.2 stalwart, Brian Baragwanath and co-driver Rodney Burke posted the 4th-fastest time of the day, as they tried to come to grips with the new Audi Turbo engine powering their Century Racing CR-6.
In Class T1, the honours on the opening day went to Chris Visser and Albertus “Blikkies” Venter, who set a time of 1hr 01min 35sec in the Red-Line REVO – good enough for 6th place overall in the Production Category. They were followed home by Daniel Schröder and Ryan Bland in their Nissan Navara; with Eben Basson and Leander Pienaar rounding out the Class T1 podium in their #TeamHilux Toyota.
While many of the Class T1 crews reported clean runs, with good results as a consequence, there was trouble for two notable crews. Hennie de Klerk and Adriaan Roets in their Volkswagen Amarok. The pair broke a rear side-shaft 10km into the stage, and were forced to retire, but will start again on Saturday. Richard Leeke and Zaheer Bodhanya struggled with a broken water temperature sensor, which curtailed the power in their in-house developed Leeke Motorsport car.
Over in Class T, championship leader Jayden Els broke a front side-shaft on his King Price Xtreme Renault Duster, dropping him down the order. Fastest in the class was Christo Rose and co-driver Arno Olivier in their Neil Woolridge Motorsport Ford Ranger. Johan van Staden and son Sean was next-fastest, in their KEC Racing Renault Duster. This left Els and co-driver Armand du Toit in third place in the class.
Day two of the 2022 #TeamHilux Rally-Raid Bronkhorstspruit gets under way at 8am on Saturday, 20 August. The day consists of two race loops of 160km each, with a compulsory stop of 30 minutes at the DSP mid-route. The race HQ is situated at the Soetdoring Restaurant near the Gauteng town of Bronkhorstspruit, and access to all areas is free of charge.
Images: Andre Schoeman
