What South African Rally Raid Rounds 2 & 3 Report
Where Parys, Free State
When 15-16 August 2025
Community South Africa National
A double header of highs and lows in the Free State
Red-Lined Motorsport enjoyed mixed results at a tough, dusty and demanding 2025 South African National Rally-Raid Championship double header in Parys over the weekend. While the outcome differed over the two rounds, the team still came home with a class win and seven podiums over the course of a gruelling outing.
With no less than four international teams competing among the ten Red-Lined entries racing in the two separate events on Friday and Saturday, it was a great weekend out for the Nambian duo Marko Himmel and Francois Schoonbee. They proved to be the stars of the show with third in the SA T1+ class aboard their Red-Lined PROTO T1+ on the Friday event.
Behind them, three more Red-Lined REVO T1+ V8 crews filled the SA T1+ class top six. Danie Ludick and Denzil Williamson led the class after the first loop and eventually came home fourth in their Elegant Fuels race car after suffering faulty windscreen wipers issues on the muddy track. They finished ahead of Penta Motor Group crew, Philip Botha & Stompie Mynhardt in fifth, just ahead of the impressive Dutch duo Vic Versteijnen and Teun van Dal who finished sixth on debut in their DaklaPack Rallysport managed REVO T1+.
It was also a good first day for Red-Lined Motorsport in the T1 Adventurer class. Stalwarts Johan de Bruyn and Adriaan Roets raced home second in class in their Falken Tyres REVO T1 ahead of VAPS HCV Rally-Raid team rookies, Peet Victor and Van Zyl Jonck in an impressive third in class on their national debut. VAPS teammates, Abrie and Iaan Olivier followed in fourth on their national debut for a 100% finish rate for the newbies. De Bruyn and Roets also took their second VAPS HCV Red-Lined T1 Cup win on the trot.
With a fresh race on Saturday, Namibians Himmel and Schoonbee stepped up a gear to take the SA T1+ class win in a most impressive fifth overall. Dutch duo, Versteijnen and van Dal also lifted their game to follow them home third in class, followed by local lads Botha and Mynhardt to make it three Red-Lined race cars in the SA T1+ class top four and two REVO T1+ in the overall top ten.
De Bruyn and Roets were once again second in T1 Adventurer class on Saturday as they made it a VAPS HCV Red-Lined T1 Cup hat trick of wins, ahead of Belgian pairing, Vincent Vroninks and Dave Berghmans in third after a clean and calculated run in their Red-Lined VK56.
“Wow, what a rollercoaster ride of emotions over the weekend of racing in the Free State,” Red-Lined team principal Terence Marsh summed it up. “With Red-Lined race cars making up the majority of the field, we were delighted with our overall results in spite of tough and demanding routes for both man and machine over the two days.
“We suffered as major setback when our top FIA T1+ class entry was sidelined. Jayden Els and Johan Swemmer unfortunately crashed heavily after striking an unmarked caution. Our ever-dependable customer teams however went on to deliver a class win and a 78% finishing rate with four international and three local podiums across two classes over the weekend’s events.
“It was also great to see so many fans out in Parys, but a big shout out to all our race crews and technical teams for all the effort over what was a challenging yet rewarding weekend.” The South African National Rally-Raid Championship now returns to the Western Cape for the first time in several years for round 4 at the Louvain Guest Farm on the Garden Route 19-20 September.
*Red-Lined Motorsport competes with premium strategic partners, the Penta Motor Group, VAPS HCV, BFGoodrich, Motul, Dragon Energy, OMP, Ingco South Africa and ExpandaSign.
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.