NEW SA RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONS CROWNED AFTER COMPETITIVE SEASON CHARACTERISED BY SIX TOUGH AND CHALLENGING RACES

The 2025 SA Rally-Raid Championship will go down in the record books as one of the toughest and most challenging seasons where stiff competition and extremely demanding races went hand in hand until the chequered flag dropped at the Northam Zondereinde Bushveld 400, the sixth and final round that took place on the out skirts of Thabazimbi in the Limpopo Province.

From the opening round of the season that was postponed due to flooding to the inaugural South African Safari Rally, round three of the World Rally Raid Championship, that saw the world’s top international and local competitors compete on home soil, to events that took teams all over the country, including a brand-new event in the Western Cape, it was game on with no time to put a wheel wrong.

And while there were lots of ups and downs and Lady Luck also throwing a spanner or two in the works, high level racing and fierce competition continued until the bitter end.

Kudos to the 20-year-old Saood Variawa (Toyota Gazoo Racing) who became the youngest champion in the history of the SARRC after clinching the Overall SARRC title together with his French navigator, Francois Cazalet. The team were victorious in Thabazimbi while they also won the INGCO Vaal 400 and finished on the podium on two more occasions, to bag a total of 133 points.

They had a season-long battle with former champions, Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (Castrol NWM Ford Rally Raid Team) who fought back after winning the season opener but had to retire in the second round. Another victory combined with two more podium finishes saw them taking on the final round with a slender three-point lead over Variawa/Cazalet, but it was not meant to be. The team were hit by a bout of bad luck when a kudu connected with their windscreen, crushing their title hopes, that saw them finishing the event in sixth place. They finished as the runners-up in the overall standings with a total of 116 points.

In the Overall Drivers’ Championship, Giniel de Villiers (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid Toyota), who made use of two different navigators, also stood an outside chance on the title, but an unfortunate roll saw him and Dennis Murphy not being able to finish the event. The team claimed a victory and three more podium results with De Villiers finishing the season in third place (86 points) while Murphy, who missed the season opener, is fourth in the navigators’ standings (68 points).

Behind De Villiers, Guy Botterill (Toyota Gazoo Racing) who had a real see-saw season together with Spanish navigator, Oriol Valdearcos, finished third (82 points) rounding off the overall navigators’ podium. The Brazilian driver, Marcos Baumgart (Castrol NWM Ford Rally-Raid Team) is fifth (55 points) closely followed by Johan Horn (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid) with 51 points and Wors Prinsloo (42 points), who missed the season opener in the third Castrol NWM Ford Evo Plus in seventh place. He is only one point ahead of Johan van Staden (Renault Duster) who is again only two points ahead of Fouché Blignaut (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid) ninth with Philip Botha (Red-Lined Motorsport) in 10th (35 points).

In the Overall Navigators’ Championship, Prinsloo’s navigator, André Vermeulen, sat next to Lance Woolridge in the first round with his total of points (54) pushing him to fifth place, three points ahead of Werner Horn. Fouché’s navigator, Bertus, also finished higher up the ladder than his brother and is seventh (39 points) while Baumgart’s regular navigator, Kleber Cincea, who missed two events, finished eighth (39 points), two points ahead of Henry Köhne, who scored points next to Daniel Schröder and Gary Bertholdt. Botha’s navigator, Andries Mynhardt, rounds off the top 10 in the overall navigators’ standings (35 points).

It was all to fight for in the various class championships where competitors received an additional five points for starting a race. Like in the overall standings, the battles in Ultimate FIA T1+ were tight, not only for the title, but also for the podium. Variawa/Cazalet (163 points) also bagged this title with Woolridge/Dreyer the runners-up (148 points). Here Botterill/Valdearcos round off the podium (125 points) with Botterill just edging out De Villiers (124 points) while Murphy (101 points) also finished fourth.

In the Ultimate FIA T1+ Drivers’ Championship, Baumgart (104 points) finished the season in fifth place followed by Blignaut (92 points); Prinsloo (74 points); Jayden Els (Red-Lined Motorsport) with 47 points; the Portuguese TGR driver, Joao Ferreira who competed in the first and last events (33 points) and the Dutch driver, Dave Klaassen (Daklapack Rallysport Red-Lined) who rounds off the top 10 (32 points) after moving to Ultimate SA T1+ halfway through the season.

Behind Murphy in the Ultimate FIA T1+ Navigators’ Championship, Blignaut (92) scored a single point more than Vermeulen (91) in sixth with Cincea seventh (72 points); Els’s navigator, Johann Swemmer (47 points) in eighth; Ferreira’s navigator, Filipe Palmeiro (33 points) in ninth and Klaassen’s wife and navigator, Tessa in 10th (32 points), sharing the same amount of points with Alberto Neto who replaced Cincea for rounds two and three.

Consistency was king in the Ultimate SA T1+ where the Namibians, Marko Himmel and Francois Schoonbee (Red-Lined Nissan Navara) were the only team to start and finish all the events to claim the title. They scored a victory and three more podium results to accumulate a total of 138 points, only four more than the Horn brothers who won this class on three occasions. Botha/Mynhardt (123 points) round off the podium followed by their Red-Lined powered team-mates, Danie Ludick/Denzil Williamson (96 points); Gary Bertholdt (73 points) and Köhne (63 points) and the Klaassen couple (46 points).
In the Adventurer Class, the battle at the front was mainly between the Van Staden family, Johan and Sean, and Johan de Bruyn/Adriaan Roets (Falken Motorsport Red-Lined Revo) with the latter team persevering despite being riddled by unforeseen issues during the season. Van Staden claimed the drivers’ title (147 points) winning the class four times while Roets is the navigators’ champion (115 points) due to Sean missing two events. De Bruyn finished second (115 points) with Gerhard and his dad, Rudi Heinlein (Red-Lined VK56) with 75 points third for the season.

Nickus Heinlein/Jaco Kriel (Red-Lined VK56) are fourth (71 points) followed by Peet Victor/VanZyl Jonck (VAPS HCV Red-Lined Revo T1+) with 52 points.

In the Challenger Class, young lady driver, Puck Klaassen (GRally OT3) is the 2025 Drivers’ Champion (52 points) followed by the Dutch brothers, Henk Klaassen (Daklapack Rallysport) with 49 points and Pim (22 points). Gerhard Schutte navigated for both the brothers and accumulated the most points (71) to win the title followed by Puck’s navigator, Danie Stassen (52 points). Geoff Minnitt and Rodney Burke (Hydro Power Equipment Can-Am) migrated from SSV to Challenger (10 points) were third and fourth, respectively. Their lonely endeavors in the SSV Class earned them 25 points each.

TGR / SVR is the constructor with the most points (456) with NWM second (225 points) and Red-Lined (197) rounding off the podium.

The action will continue in 2026 with various teams, constructors and competitors in the final stages of preparation for the upcoming Dakar Rally that takes place from 3 to 17 January in Saudi-Arabia while the SARRC will resume in March.

Published by: Charmaine Fortune

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