The penultimate spherical of the 2023 South African Rally-Raid Championship takes place in the Free State city of Welkom this weekend, and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing SA’s (TGRSA) Henk Lategan, partnered with Brett Cummings as co-driver, arrive at the occasion trailing the championship chief by 3 factors. At the identical time, their teammates are sizzling on his heels, so it is crucial for Lategan to not solely push arduous, but in addition maintain it clear – a troublesome activity at the better of occasions, however much more so when the championship is at stake.
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Penultimate SARRC weekend is heating up for TGRSA
Lategan/Cummings dominated early in the season, bringing their mighty Toyota Hilux T1+ house in first place at the two opening rounds of the season. But then got here a disappointing TGRSA 1,000 Desert Race, the place the pair bagged solely 11 factors out of a doable 45, since the Desert Race counts for 1.5x the regular factors due to its “marathon” standing. Suddenly, the stress was on, as the momentum swung in the direction of Ford’s Gareth Woolridge.
But Lategan/Cummings fought again at the first of the Parys 400’s two races, scoring most factors, solely to slip down the order throughout the second of the weekend’s races. This implies that the TGRSA pairing discover themselves with 116 factors in the financial institution, versus the 119 scored by Woolridge, with two rounds to go. The first of those is the Welkom 400, which takes place on Friday and Saturday this weekend.
Behind Lategan/Cummings, two crews are inside hanging distance: Giniel de Villiers and his co-driver, Dennis Murphy, are simply 2 factors behind their teammates; whereas Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle, in a 3rd TGRSA Toyota Hilux T1+, are on 109 factors and effectively inside attain of the crews forward of them.
“This makes for a very interesting end to the season.”
“Our first hurdle is obviously to score enough points to beat Gareth. But beyond that, it will be entertaining to see how all of this plays out. And we’re facing two races where we’ve never been before to end the season, which should make things even more interesting.”
TGRSA Team Prinicpal, Glyn Hall, of SVR/Hallspeed
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While the workforce’s fourth pairing, that of Saood Variawa and co-driver, Danie Stassen, are effectively down the championship order as they solely joined the SARRC at Round 3, Variawa has confirmed his tempo, and should effectively play a task in the eventual end result of the season.
“While Saood and Danie are out of the title fight, they could end up scoring points at the head of the field, which could truly put the cat among the pigeons in terms of the overall championship,” concluded Hall.
Officially generally known as the Renergen 400, this weekend’s racing motion will get underway at 10:15 on Friday morning, as the crews tackle a qualifying route of 15 km. The end result of this quick, sharp race shall be used to decide the eventual beginning positions for Saturday’s primary race, which kicks off at 08:00. The primary race will function two loops of 164 km every, with a 30 minute service break splitting the two loops. The Race HQ and Designated Service Park (DSP) shall be located at the Phakisa Raceway, however followers who’re unable to make it to the Free State this weekend can comply with the race by way of the RallyProtected app, which is free to obtain on each Apple and Android smartphones.
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Published by Toyota South Africa on MotorPress
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