TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA) is set to continue its 2025 South African National Rally Championship (NRC) campaign this weekend, as the championship moves to the Eastern Cape for the highly anticipated Algoa Rally. The event will be based at the VW Autopavilion in Uitenhage and will feature Rounds 3 and 4 of the season.
TGRSA’s Toyota Starlet will again be piloted by Mandla Mdakane, who will this time be partnered by regular navigator Simon Vacy-Lyle, returning to the car after missing the opening round. The pair will be looking to build on their third-place finish at the NTT Tzaneen National Rally in June.
The Algoa Rally will see competitors tackle eight stages on Friday, totalling 68km, before four more stages on Saturday make up the remaining 100km of racing. The route includes sections in the unforgiving Longmore Forest, with wet weather predicted to add to the challenge.
“It’s going to be a nice race,” said TGRSA Rally Team Manager, Guy Botterill. “There are nearly 60 cars entered, which is great for the sport. VW are launching three new cars to compete against us, and we’ve got two cars from Zambia as well. It’s going to be fast and tough. PE is a very challenging rally – hard on the car, and with rain forecast for Saturday, it’ll be all about keeping it on the road.”
With each event bringing refinements to the TGRSA rally package, the team heads to Gqeberha confident in both the performance and reliability of the Toyota Starlet, and ready to take on whatever the Algoa Rally has in store.
Published by: Karabo Sethusha
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.