With three of the six rounds of the SA Rally-Raid Championship now something of the past, the young Saood Variawa together with his French navigator, Francois Cazalet, have taken control of the 2025 SA Rally-Raid Championship with the Toyota Gazoo Racing team leading the overall as well as the Ultimate FIA T1+ Class Championship standings.
A victory has been looming for young Variawa (20) and after claiming his maiden win at the Ingco Vaal 400 at the recent double-header weekend where teams also competed in the Ingco Parys 400 with the two events forming the second and third rounds of the 2025 SARRC, Variawa/Cazalet have accumulated a total of 68 points towards the overall standings so far this season.
The results of the Ingco Parys 400, the second round of the series, only became final two weeks after the event where Variawa/Cazalet claimed a fourth place and added to their runner-up result at the season opener, they have built a buffer of 15 points to the runners-up, Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (Castrol NWM Ford Rally-Raid Team) who took the early lead in the standing after winning Round One.
Woolridge/Dreyer experienced technical issues that saw them not being able to complete the Ingco Parys 400, but their solid runner-up result at the Vaal 400 event, pushed their overall tally to a total of 53 points.
Guy Botterill/Oriol Mena (TGR) claimed the victory of the Parys 400 and added to their third place the next day and despite of only scoring two points at the first event due to a technical glitch, they now fill the third place on the overall podium, a mere three points behind the Ford Ranger team.
Giniel de Villiers (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid) made use of two navigators with Leander Pienaar initially reading him the notes before reuniting with his regular navigator, Dennis Murphy for the two events at Parys. De Villiers/Murphy damaged their Toyota Hilux DKR T1+ in the dust during the third round and could only pick up two points but finishing third at the first two events of the season, resulted in De Villiers now being fourth in the Overall Drivers’ Championship (38 points). He is 11 points ahead of Marko Himmel (Red-Lined Navara) who leads the Ultimate T1+ SA Championship (27 points) and rounds off the overall top five.
Behind Mena, Henry Köhne, who navigated for the German driver, Daniel Schröder (WCT VW Amarok) at the first round and then sat next to Gary Bertholdt (Toyota Hilux) for the next two events, is currently fourth overall (37 points) followed by André Vermeulen (35 points). Vermeulen has scored points by first navigating for Lance Woolridge who stood in for his regular driver, Wors Prinsloo (Castrol NWM Ford Rally-Raid) for the season opener before sitting next to Prinsloo again for the next two races.
The situations in the various class championships look somewhat different as competitors are awarded an additional five points for starting a race. In the Ultimate FIA T1+ Class Championship, Variawa/Cazalet still leads the title chase (83 points), followed by their team-mates, Botterill/Mena who are second (72 points each) while Woolridge/Dreyer dropped to third place (68 points). Only 11 points cover – Botterill, Woolridge and De Villiers (61 points) in fourth place and anything can, and will, still happen.
De Villiers’ team-mate, Fouché Blignaut is fifth (54 points) followed by the Brazilian driver, Marcos Baumgart (Castrol NWM Ford Rally-Raid) with 47 points; Prinsloo (37 points) and the Dutch driver, Dave Klaassen (Daklapack Rallysport Red-Lined Revo) with 32 points; Jayden Els (Red-Lined Motorsport) with 23 points albeit only scoring points at the season opener and bagging five points at both the second and third rounds as they could not complete these events and Schröder, who only participated in the first event (20 points). His father, Jurgen, who could not attend the first race of the season, is just outside the top 10 in 11th place (18 points).
In the Ultimate FIA T1+ Navigator’s Championship, Fouché’s brother and navigator, Bertus and Vermeulen are tied on the same number of points (54) with Murphy accumulating 38 points , which puts him in sixth place. Behind him, two international navigators, Klaassen’s wife, Tessa and Alberto Neto, who read the notes at the most recent two events for Baumgart, level pegging on 32 points, while Pienaar and Johan Swemmer, who navigates for Els, are both on 23 points.
The standings make for an interesting read as the musical chairs situation as well as consistent participation can eventually turn the current standings on its head in the second half of the season.
In the Ultimate SA T1+ Class Championship, many teams also do not share the same position in the standings or the amount of points. Himmel and his navigator, Francois Schoombee are the class leaders (78 points) after winning the class at the Vaal 400 and finishing second at the Parys 400. Behind them, Gary Bertholdt, who missed the season opener, and navigator, Köhne, who scored points in the FIA T1+ Class at the first round together with Schröder and then moved to the SA T1+ Class with Bertholdt, have both scored 63 points with the Horn brothers, Johan and Werner (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid) in third place (51 points) after claiming two podium positions so far.
Danie Ludick (Red-Lined Motorsport) is fourth of the drivers (42 points), four points ahead of the Dutch driver, Vick Versteijnen (Daklapack Rallysport Red-Lined Revo) who is again only one point ahead of Philip Botha (Red-Lined Motorsport). Versteijnen’s navigator, Teun van Dal (38 points) is fourth in the Ultimate SA T1+ Navigator’s Championship, but he is only one point ahead of both Denzil Williamson who navigates for Ludick and Botha’s navigator, Andries Mynhardt.
In the Adventurer Class Driver’s Championship, Johan van Staden (Renault Duster) and Johan de Bruyn/Adriaan Roets (Red-Lined Revo) are the only competitors who have started and finished all three events so far this season. And with three class wins, Van Staden took the early lead (74 points) in the driver’s standings with De Bruyn a mere six points adrift. Peet Victor (VAPS HCV Rally-Raid Red-Lined VK50) only competed in the Parys 400, but a podium result put him on the third step of the podium (23 points) with both Nickus Heinlein (Red-Lined VK56), who participated only in Round One and Abrie Olivier (VAPS HCV Red-Lined VK50) who scored points at Round Two, on 17 points.
The standings in the Adventurer Class Navigator’s Championship also look somewhat awkward, but after a consistent run from the De Bruyn/Roets pair, Roets now leads the standings (60 points) followed by former champion, Sandra Labuschagne (51 points), who stood in for Van Staden’s son and regular navigator, Sean, at the double-header. Heinlein’s navigator, Jaco Kriel and VanZyl Jonck, who sat next to Victor at the Parys 400, have both earned 23 points with Sean Van Staden dropping to sixth place in the standings with 20 points.
In the Challenger Driver’s Championship, Dutch driver, Henk Klaassen (Daklapack Rallysport) leads the standings (32 points) after finishing both the Parys and Vaal events followed by lady driver, Puck Klaassen (17 points) who only participated in the season opener. Navigator Gerhard Schutte started the season next to Pim and then did duty for Henk collecting a total of 37 points to lead the standings ahead of Danie Stassen (17 points) who started out next to Puck.
With the season now at the halfway point and the gaps between competitors still relatively small, a fair prediction can be made that the second half of the season will produce even more action with the national championship titles, the ultimate prize.
Teams are now gearing up for the Outeniqua 400, the fourth round of the SA Rally-Raid Championship that will provide an equal playground for all when they take on the race on 19 and 20 September from Louvain Guest Farm between George and Uniondale in the Western Cape.
Published by: Charmaine Fortune
Photography by: Dave Ledbitter
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.