After seven tries, Henk Lategan is lastly a winner of the South African Rally-Raid Championship‘s longest race as he held off Lance Woolridge to win the TGRSA Safari 1000.
Lategan and his Toyota Hilux have been the quickest early on whereas Woolridge’s Ford Ranger gave chase. The latter was additional set again by a flat tyre in the course of the first stage, which he speculated might have contributed to him not having the ability to shut in on Lategan in the course of the third and last day. By the tip, Lategan stored Woolridge at bay by over 5 and a half minutes.
“We misplaced a little bit of time on Friday within the prologue after which on the primary loop with the puncture, which in all probability price us the win,” Woolridge defined. “We had a clear run on Saturday, and in the present day we pushed exhausting and caught as much as Henk and Brett early on the primary loop, however we simply couldn’t move them within the mud, so we in the end needed to accept second place. It was an pleasing race, and the automobile was faultless.”
Since lacking the Dakar Rally in January to a shoulder dislocation, Lategan has regained his footing and hit his stride. Regardless of retiring from the SARRC season-opening Nkomazi 400 in April, he shortly rebounded by profitable the Vryheid 400 in Might adopted by the victory in Waterberg.
“It feels superior to have this one. It seems like a extremely, actually robust desert race,” Lategan commented. “Often, they’re fairly open and quick and it goes by fairly shortly. This one was sluggish and tight and technical and it took without end to get via.
“We knew that yesterday and day one have been the 2 days we may truly push a little bit bit. It was a little bit bit extra open trying on the maps and listening to the blokes that drove right here final 12 months. We knew in the present day could be extraordinarily troublesome to overhaul within the mud. I believe for those who chat to Lance, he’ll be fairly annoyed from sitting in our mud many of the day, however that’s how it’s.”
Woolridge’s brother Gareth Woolridge, the defending SARRC marathon race winner, suffered a flat tyre on Friday that relegated him to twenty-seventh. Bother continued Saturday with a damaged rear driveshaft and digital sensor points which additional sank him. He was second quickest on Sunday to salvage a fourth general.
Brian Baragwanath joined Lategan and Woolridge on the rostrum in his Century CR7. T1+ vehicles swept the highest 5.
Wors Prinsloo, a privateer racing a Ford Ranger T1+ from Neil Woolridge Motorsport, held off Gerhard Heinlein to win the Highway to Dakar and earn himself free registration for the 2025 or 2026 Dakar Rally. The Safari 1000 is of two non-World Rally-Raid Championship rounds which might be on the RtD. Jayden Els, the occasion’s 2024 RtD winner, was second quickest in qualifying earlier than gasoline stress points and an alternator failure over the subsequent two days pressured him to bow out.
Els was one among eleven retirements. Lategan’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Saood Variawa struggled with a damaged rear differential earlier than hitting a ditch that broke three dampers the subsequent day. Purple-Lined Motorsport‘s new REVO+ GT-R, a T1+ mannequin that makes use of an engine from the Nissan R35 GT-R, went a disappointing zero-for-three for finishers. Ian Mostert exited following a rollover, leaving Geoff Minnitt and Puck Klaassen as the one side-by-side automobiles to finish the race; Klaassen’s Can-Am Maverick R, which has seen motion on the regional degree however just isn’t but homologated by the FIA for worldwide competitors, didn’t earn factors.
The Safari 1000 is SARRC’s audition to earn a date on the W2RC in 2025. New for 2024, it changed the TGR 1000 Desert Race in Botswana; Waterberg beforehand hosted the Waterberg 400 in 2023.
