The spectacular South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) will be back in action this weekend, starting with Round 1, the Nkomazi 400 in Malalane, Mpumalanga. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing SA (TGRSA) will be entering four crews in the fray, and even though the drivers are all familiar, there have been some moves in terms of co-drivers.
The highly experienced former champion, Dennis Murphy, will be doing duty beside Guy Botterill for the season; while Elvene Coetzee will be reading the notes for Giniel de Villiers. The other two crews remain unchanged: Henk Lategan will have Brett Cummings in the car; while Francois Cazalet will be doing duty with Saood Variawa.
All four crews will be driving the latest version of the GR Toyota Hilux EVO, which was also used during this year's Dakar Rally. The team has been working hard to further develop the highly reliable vehicle, and will be using the very latest version at the season opener this weekend.
The #TeamHiluxRally-Raid Nkomazi 400, as the race is officially known, starts at 09:30 on Friday morning, with a short Qualifying Race of 11 kilometres. The outcome of this race will be used to determine the starting orders for Loop 1 of the event, which follows at 12:30. Two loops of 169 kilometres will be used on Saturday, with the route traversing farmlands and mountainous terrain surrounding the town of Malalane. Fans can follow the action using the RallySafe app, which is available for both iOS and Android.