After months of demanding preparation and intense logistics, the world’s best rally-raid teams are on-site at Sun City, South Africa, having completed three busy days of build-up and pre-event testing before the start of Round 3 of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC).
With its proud off-road racing legacy, having produced several Dakar winners and hosted the last phase of the 1992 Dakar, South Africa is thrilled to host its first W2RC event – the South African Safari Rally, brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.
The quality of competitors who have journeyed to South Africa to test themselves against the country’s testing North West terrain is unquestionable – including a formidable line-up of W2RC champions and multiple Dakar Rally winners on two and four wheels.
Five-time Dakar winner and W2RC series leader, Nasser Al Attiyah and navigator Edouard Boulanger, will be favourites in their Dacia Sandrider. Al Attiyah is not unfamiliar with Southern African conditions, having previously tested in both Namibia and South Africa’s Northern Cape. The Qatari racer is confident after the initial shakedown test for the South African Safari Rally.
Sébastien Loeb, the greatest WRC driver in history with nine consecutive championships, will be Al Attiyah’s teammate for The Dacia Sandriders at the South African Safari Rally, and is accompanied by navigator Fabian Lurquin. Loeb’s legacy WRC skills could prove a significant advantage in some of the fast, narrow, bushveld stages which could reward his precision rally driving, as opposed to the open desert racing at the previous W2RC round at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Two Dakar legends, Carlos Sainz and Nani Roma, with six wins between them, will be deploying their experience to secure a strong showing for Ford’s M-Sport Raptor. Their navigators are Lucas Cruz and Alex Haro, respectively.
The youngest-ever Dakar stage winner, Saood Variawa, is one of the local favourites at the South African Safari Rally, as part of Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa with navigator François Cazalet.
Since this year’s Dakar Rally in January, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings have switched teams and are competing with the European-based Toyota Gazoo Racing squad, but they remain serious contenders in the proven Hilux.
Local hero and former Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers will be in the thick of the action too and a strong contender based on his vast experience internationally, and in the local terrain. He made the switch this year to the South African #TeamHilux squad, and will have Leander Pienaar navigating for him.
The weekend’s test sessions have helped familiarise and create some terrain recognition for the large contingent of international racers. Route surface and terrain types at the South African Safari Rally differ wildly from Round 2 of the W2RC, in Abu Dhabi. Towering dunes and open deserts are replaced with tight bushveld trails, rocky mountain trails, and high-speed treelined sections, with significant route deviation consequences.
Racing started with a brief but intense 9km prologue on Monday, 19 May, followed by five days of Selective Sections, or competitive stages, culminating in the final stage on Saturday.
The South African Safari Rally finishes with Stage 5 on 24 May. A 118 km looping spring, through the typical red dust North West farmland, finishes at Sun City.
