After the excitement of the recent INGCO Parys 400, the opening round of the 2026 SA National Rally-Raid Championship where mere seconds separated the teams during six hours and more than 400 kilometres of racing, the first points are officially on the scoreboard and if the quality of the racing action and the results are anything to go by, a fiery season is on the cards.
With local and international participation and world-class locally manufactured vehicles, of which various are competing globally, the level of the SA Rally-Raid Championship continues to be top-notch. Combine that with race routes and events that provide teams and their vehicles with the ultimate test while being enjoyable and produce spectacular viewing and a winning recipe has been created.
The 2026 SARRC might have started later than usual due to unforeseen factors, but the culmination of all these factors, contributes to some very hard-earned first points towards the various championship titles.
The current overall and Ultimate FIA T1+ champion, Saood Variawa (Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux IMT EVO) got his season off on a perfect note by scoring the maximum points (30 points) towards defending his title when he and navigator, Charan Moore, won the INGCO Parys 400. They lead the runners-up, former champions, Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dryer (Castrol NWM Rally-Raid Ford Evo Plus) by seven points in the overall standings while former multiple champions, Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid DKR Hilux T1+ EVO) round off the overall podium, five points further adrift (18 points).
Only three seconds separated the teams in second, third and fourth places at the race and now a mere three points separate De Villiers/Murphy from Guy Botterill/Oriol Valdearcos (TGR Hilux IMT EVO) in fourth place with Daniel Schröder/Juan Möhr (WCT VW Amarok) in fifth (12 points).
A single point separates the rest of the teams from each other with points awarded up to 15th place overall. Two more Ultimate FIA T1+ teams finished in the top 10 – Jayden Els/Johann Swemmer (Century Racing Factory Team CR7) got their season off to a much better start than the previous year by finishing sixth overall and scoring 10 points while Wors Prinsloo, who missed the season opener last year, and André Vermeulen (Castrol NWM Ford Evo Plus) are seventh (nine points).
The leading teams in Ultimate SA T1+ finished in the top 10 with Lood du Preez/Adriaan Roets (Farmers Meat CR6) in eighth place (eight points); Philip Botha/Andries Mynhardt (Red-Lined Motorsport Revo T1+) in ninth place (seven points) and the Dutch duo, Victor Versteijnen/Petrus van Dal (Daklapack Rallysport Red-Lined Revo GTR) in 10th (six points).
In the various class championships, competitors are also awarded a five point bonus for starting a race. In FIA T1+, Variawa/Moore (35 points) have opened a breathing space of seven points to Woolridge/Dryer (28 points) who have a five-point buffer to De Villiers/Murphy (23 points) in third place.
Botterill/Mena Valdearcos, who won this event in 2025, are not too far behind in fourth (20 points) and are followed by Schröder/Möhr (17 points) in fifth place with Els/Swemmer (15 points) in sixth and Prinsloo/Vermeulen (14 points) seventh. Saood’s younger brother and team-mate, Sa’aad has teamed up with Wade Harris and completed the race in 11th place overall. They finished eighth in the class resulting in them accumulating five points towards the overall standings and 13 points in the class.
Also in the top 10 in the class are newcomers, the father and son team of Michael and Luke Lawlor (Castrol NWM Ford Rally-Raid Evo Plus) who completed their first national race finishing 14th overall (two points) and ninth in FIA T1+ (12 points) with their team-mates, the Brazilians, Marcos Baumgart/Kleber Cincea, not scoring any points overall, but earning 11 points for their 10th place in the class.
Five teams in Ultimate SA T1+ managed to finish the first race of the season where Du Preez/Roets took the early lead (35 points) followed closely by Botha/Mynhardt (28 points) with Versteijnen/Van Dal (23 points) rounding off the podium. Jurgen Schröder/Rikus Fourie (WCT VW Amarok) made a good start by completing the race in 12th place overall and earning four points in the process while their fourth place in the class means 20 points in the bag.
Johan and Sean van Staden overcame their initial struggles to bring their newly acquired Red-Lined Revo T1+ home fifth in the class – albeit being last in the race and not scoring any points towards the overall classification. The current Adventurer Champions earned 17 points towards the SA T1+ title chase.
Only three teams managed to complete the race in the Adventurer Class where a first victory for Peet Victor/VanZyl Jonck (VAPS HCV Red-Lined VK50) means they lead the class (28 points) – they also scooped up the final point(s) in the overall standings – while their team-mates, Tyler Botha/Kyle Lotter finished third in the class scoring 20 points. The two Red-Lined VK50 teams sandwiched the Ford Ranger team of Tokkie Ferreira/Nardus Janse van Rensburg who have 23 points.
Local SA veterans and former champions, Geoff Minnitt/Rodney Burke (Hydro Power Equipment Maverick R) got their title chase off to a good start by not only winning the Challenger Class and scoring 17 points, but the team also finished 13th overall and bagged three points by doing so. The young Dutch brothers, Henk (19) and 22-year-old Pim Klaassen (DaklaPack Rallysport Taurus T3Max) finished second in the class and bagged 15 points.
Some of the teams who could not complete the race include the Ultimate FIA T1+ teams Fouché/Bertus Blignaut (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid) and Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer (Century Racing Factory Team CR6T) as well as Gary Bertholdt/Henry Köhne WCT Toyota Hilux in SA T1+.
TGR/SVR took the lead in the Constructors standings (68 points) followed by NWM (36) with Century Racing third (18 points); WCT fourth (16 points) and Red-Lined fifth (15 points).
The second round of the championship, the Toyota Gazoo 1000 Marathon, will test competitors over three days in the Stella area in the North-West Province on 24, 25 and 26 July.
Published by: Charmaine Fortune
Photography by: Dave Ledbitter
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