What South African Rally Raid Championship Round 1 Preview
Where Malelane, Mpumalanga
When 24-25 March 2023
Community South Africa National
New cars and excitement ahead of new rally raid season
Red-Lined Motorsport together with the Penta Motor Group is raring to go with a four-car team for the Nkomazi 400 opening round of the South African Rally Raid season at Malelane in Mpumalanga on the 24th and 25th of March.
“It’s been a long break since a hugely successful final round of 2022 season in Parys last November and Red-Lined Motorsport simply cannot wait to start the 2023 South African National Rally Raid season,” team boss Terence Marsh confirmed. “It’s also the start of an exciting new era for us as a team and we bring several novelties to the Nkomazi 400, so we are looking forward to it.”
Biggest news is that stalwarts Chris Visser and Albertus Venter will be giving their all-new premier FIA class Dragon Energy powered Red-Lined REVO T1+ its national championship debut. T1 winners on the last day of the 2022 season, Visser and Venter enjoyed a strong and trouble free T1+ shakedown at last weekend’s Stella regional event and are ready to continue with the development process of this all-new racing machine.
Johan de Bruyn and his seasoned notes man Gerhard Schutte, who also won the class at the opening day of last year’s finale, step up to race their brand-new FIA T1 class OdorCure powered Red Lined REVO for the first time in a National at Malelane. They too enjoyed a positive shakedown in last weekend’s regional and de Bruyn is more than just motivated to commence his new season as he ended last year, fighting for wins in the hotly contested T1 class.
There’s a change aboard the ultimate race finish record setting Penta powered Red-Lined VK56 for 2023. Philip Botha continues at the wheel of his familiar beast, but he now has brother Nicholaas in the hot seat for this first event as regular notes man Roelof Janse van Vuren attends to business commitments. Philip remarkably finished every one the first 23 races he started since commencing his rally raid career three years ago before crashing out at the final event of 2022. He will be looking to once again to find his pace and consistency and build on his incredible statistics since debut.
Dutch pair Dave Klaassen and Tessa Rooth return to South Africa to commence their national season fresh off a wonderful debut finish at the 2023 Dakar with a fourth overall in the T1 class and second overall of the Dakar rookies in their Daklapack powered Red-Lined VK56. Dave and Tessa consistently picked up their pace during the course of last season and their Dakar experience will certainly play a part in their progress this year.
“We have not raced at Malelane for six years, but we’re looking forward to returning to what is a really demanding and technical event in the Mpumalanga bush,” Terence Marsh concluded. “It’s another big adventure for us with new cars, new combinations and an exciting new era for Red-Lined!”
*Red-Lined Motorsport competes with premium strategic partners, the Penta Motor Group, BFGoodrich, Motul, Dragon Energy, PentaSure, OMP, ExpandaSign and Wheel Collision.
Issued on behalf of Red-Lined Motorsport
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