Mountainous and rocky terrain has always been a great challenge and equaliser in rally-raid. Stage 4 delivered exactly that at the South African Safari Rally, brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.
At a total competitive distance of 224 km, Stage 4 wasn’t the event’s longest. Still, it featured punishing technicality for all, as riders and crews dealt with narrow, rocky sections along parts of the route along the border of neighbouring Botswana, ready to punish the inattentive – or unskilled.
A late time adjustment after a dispute around a road book note has bunched many of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) competitors, with everything left to race for on the final stage.
The Wizard of Oz remains untouchable
Dominant in the Dakar Rally during January, Australia’s Daniel Sanders has been untouchable during the South African Safari Rally. He claimed his third stage win in a row, taking Stage 4 overall by 53 seconds from Monster Energy Honda HRC rider, Frenchman Adrien van Beveren. Californian Skyler Howes was third on his Monster Energy Honda HRC.
Sanders has taken to the South African terrain and loves animal encounters. “Stage 4 started off twisty and tight, and then it opened up with faster terrain, and some rocks,” Sanders said. “There were lots of challenging notes and tricky navigation, but I just focused on riding the way I do and navigating as best I could. It worked out pretty well.”
The Stage 4 RallyGP bike win was Sanders’ 11th W2RC stage victory this season, besting the previous record of 10 stage wins in a season. With the Portuguese and Moroccan events still left to do, Sanders is on form to set a new in-season stage win record, and is well on his way to scoring his first W2RC title.
Sanders takes a 7’01” lead into the final stage, with KTM teammate Luciano Benavides in second, followed by Honda’s Adrien van Beveren, 10’17” behind the leader.
Southern African pre-event favourite, Ross Branch, finished sixth on Stage 4. Parts of the route glanced the Botswana border, making the Hero Motorsports rider feel very close to home. “I think half of Botswana was out on the route today, it was so amazing with all the support.”
KTM wins in both classes
The Rally2 bikes class has seen equal dominance by KTM, with Edgar Canet adding another win on Stage 4. The Spanish rider finished 1’55” clear of Austria’s Tobias Ebster on the Hero Motosports entry, with South Africa’s Michael Docherty third on his BAS World KTM Team machine, 6’17” behind Canet.
Despite home terrain advantage and showing fantastic pace on the prologue, it’s been a testing event for Docherty, who suffered a late start on Stage 1 due to illness, followed by a terrifying 120 km/h crash during the stage. “I pretty much ruined my rally from day one feeling sick at the beginning of this event, and that crash. My hip is sore and my bicep is a bit beat up. I’ll try and get a good result in the final stage.”
The Rally2 overall mirrors the stage 4 podium, with Canet taking a commanding 20’11” lead over Ebster into the final day, with Docherty 27’25” behind.
Lithuania’s Antanas Kanopkinas took the Stage 4 quad win ahead of CFMoto team-mate, France’s Gaëtan Martinez, with South Africa’s Carien Teessen currently placed third on her Yamaha. Martinez takes a comfortable 19’23” lead into the final stage and looks set for the overall win.
Variawa (finally) shows his speed
While most teenagers spend their Fridays scrolling reels and being indecisive about where to meet, South Africa’s 19-year-old Saood Variawa spent his Friday proving he has something all great W2RC racers must possess – resilience.
The youngest-ever Dakar Rally stage winner has suffered mechanical issues and jumped start penalties at the South African Safari Rally. But on stage 4, Variawa and French navigator Francois Cazalet proved their class in the event’s most technical stage, bringing their Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) Hilux home fastest.
Despite being out of contention for the overall podium, Variawa’s raw speed was masterfully guided by Cazalet navigating, resulting in a second W2RC win for the crew. Their winning margin could have been larger, he explained: “We lost power halfway through the stage after our torque-meter failed. It’s a good home race performance for the team. We got the win on Stage 4, to go along with the one that Guy Botterrill secured on Wednesday’s Stage 2.”
Just under a minute behind the TGRSA Hilux was Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius and French navigator, Xavier Panseri, in their X-Raid Mini JCW. Third on stage 4 were Variawa’s team-mates, Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy, who brought their Hilux home 1’19” behind the stage winner.
The overall South African Safari Rally lead changed dramatically on the penultimate stage, with everything to win, or lose, on Saturday’s final test for Stage 5. South Africa’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux, ended the day with an overall lead of only 39 seconds going into the final stage.
Another pair of Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux crews are currently fourth and fifth overall, with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz ahead of team-mates Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon. Prologue winners Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer are sixth overall in their NWM Evo Plus, with just 3’45” separating the 2023 South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) winners from Lategan/Cummings who took the local title last year.
After more than 1 000 km of racing – there’s less than a minute in it
Lategan knows Stage 5 will be a sprint for the win instead of a strategy game. “Stage 4 was a very nice driving stage with tight sections at the start, rocky bits, and flow sections where we got great speed and rhythm. We got near Sébastien Loeb’s dust, and then he really picked up the pace when he noticed us,” Lategan said. “The final stage will be a flat-out battle. It’s as good as restarting the race on the last day.”
Sébastien Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin will be digging deep to give it everything in the search for victory for the Dacia Sandriders. “We did a good Stage 4 and were very strong on the last part. We are in a good position for the final stage, Loeb said.
Loeb’s teammate and W2RC championship leader, Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah, hasn’t had the easiest time in South Africa. Al Attiyah and navigator Edouard Boulanger will start Stage 5 in 11th position, after finishing 18th on Stage 4. “It is very important for us to finish the event, for the points. It was a good stage for us. I will always push to win the final stage,” Al Attiyah said.
Saturday’s final stage will be an all-out sprint between Lategan and Loeb for the overall win, with De Mévius in the Mini starting the last stage 2’41” behind the leader. Lategan and Loeb take reasonable road positions into the final day’s selective section of around 110 km. The reasonably short final stage could play to Loeb’s immense WRC sprint stage skills. However, Lategan has shown he’s entirely capable of catching the French driver’s Dacia in his Hilux, when required – which means the South African has all the pace needed to win.
In the Challenger car class, BBR Motorsport’s David Zille and Sebastian Cesana took another win on Stage 4. Zille and Cesana take an overall lead of 5’36” into the final stage, with team-mates and fellow Argentines, Nicolás Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini, in second.
The only northern hemisphere car class winner on Stage 4 was in the side-by-sides (SSV) category, with the marathon stage winners, Portugal’s Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira, bringing their Old Friends Rally entry home first on the penultimate stage. In the SSV overall, another Portuguese team, Francosport’s Mário Franco and Joao Miranda, take a strong 11’54” lead over South Racing Can Am’s Richard Aczel and Wouter Rosegaar, into the final day.
Those daring DIY privateer bikers
There’s no easy way to complete the South African Safari Rally and earn a finisher’s medal. But nobody, in any class, does it more arduously than the Malle Moto by Motul motorcycle riders. True privateers and completely unsupported, these riders do everything for themselves, including servicing and repairing their bikes with limited resources.
The Malle Moto riders might have little sleep and less time to engage socially in the bivouac. Still, they embody the spirit of rally-raid adventure racing and exploration, which is wonderfully evident in this class. Just finishing the South African Safari Rally is an achievement for these riders.
The solo Malle Moto Yamaha rider, Frenchman Florian Bancilhon, leads the class by 52’27” from Matthieu Jauffraud, on a KTM. Third in the Malle Moto overall, with one stage to go, is Chilean John Medina, on a KTM, 1:22’53” behind Bancilhon’s lead Yamaha.
Belgium’s Xavier Gregoire is the only GasGas rider in Malle Moto, 3:39’41’ behind the leader in fifth. He shared some insights into what the privateers experience. “You get about six hours of sleep a night. And as long as nothing goes wrong with the engine, the servicing isn’t too bad – just fluids and filters. The first thing every morning is my peanut butter and banana, but the most important is the coffee. You can’t go racing without coffee,” Gregoire stated.
- All results provisional
Issued on behalf of the South African Safari Rally
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.