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Drought over as Ford clinches 1-2 in Botswana desert
Blue Oval succeeded in ending arch rivals' Toyota 100% winning victory of this year series with victory in the toughest event.
Ford scored its first victory of the year as the event returned to Botswana after four years. Images: Ford
History was made at the Toyota Gazoo Racing 1000 Kalahari Desert Race that ended on Sunday in Jwaneng, Botswana after three days of extremely tough racing.
Production Vehicles
The third round for this year’s South African Rally-Raid Championship, and the first to be held in Botswana since 2019, Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer claimed the victory in their NWM Ford Castrol T1+ Ranger, followed by their teammates, Lance Woolridge and Kenny Gilbert in an identical vehicle.
Lance/Gilbert won the 61 kilometre Pirelli Qualifying Race on Friday, 23 June while Gareth/Dreyer were the winners of the second day and took the overall Production Vehicle Category victory as well.
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After completing almost a thousand kilometres and racing for a total of 11 hours, 14 minutes and 33 seconds, Woolridge/Dreyer were three minutes 42 seconds ahead of their Ranger teammates, with both teams having a relatively clean run on the final day.
They were joined on the podium by Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Toyota Gazoo Racing DKR Hilux T1+) who started the final day from fourth position and arrived at the finish with a broken windscreen after hitting a vulture shortly after starting the second of the two 213 kilometre loops.
Botterill/Vacy-Lyle trailed Woolridge/Gilbert by four minutes 37 seconds (11:22:52) and were followed by their teammates and former winners, Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy (11:39:23) who could not make up for time lost due to electrical issues the previous day.
Fifth place overall belonged to an elated Eben Basson/Leander Pienaar (Toyota #TeamHilux T1) who won the FIA T1 class (11:53:01) after few issues along the way.
They were followed by two more FIA T1 teams that also completed the T1 podium.
Johan and Sean van Staden (KEC Renault Duster) enjoyed an uneventful and trouble-free race to finish sixth (12:03:03), while the young Jayden Els (19) and Elvéne Vonk (King Price Xtreme SVR) jumped from 20th position on the first day to being 13th on the second day and finally finishing seventh and winning the coveted Road to Dakar Challenge despite some mechanical issues along the way.
Johan de Bruyn/Gerhard Schutte (Red-Lined REVO) finished just off the T1 podium and were not too far behind in eighth place (12:19:30).
Two more FIA T1+ teams rounded off the top 10 with Dewald van Breda/Stompie Mynhard finishing ninth (12:23:18) in their two-wheel drive Century CR6, while Gary Bertholdt ticked off yet another desert race finish, this time with navigator Henry Köhne (Renergen Toyota Hilux T1+) in a time of 12:39:52.
In FIA T1, the Blignaut brothers, Fouché and Bertus (Toyota #TeamHilux T1) completed their first Desert Race in Botswana and did so finishing just outside the top 10 in 11th place.
They rounded off the top five in the class after rolling their vehicle in the qualifying race then having to battle from the back of the field on the second day.
Dutch teenager, Pim Klassen and navigator Wade Harris (Red-Lined Nissan Navara) experienced gearbox failure on the second day of the race and started the final day from the back, but the team completed their maiden national Rally-Raid event and finished 15th overall.
Their teammates, Gerhard and Rudi Heinlein, also conquered the desert and were 16th despite a few mechanical issues.
The incredibly tough race took its tole though and claimed high profile names, namely the Red-Lined Revo T1+ of Chris Visser/Albertus Venter, Wors Prinsloo/André Vermeulen (Ford Ranger T1+) and the German driver, Daniel Schröder and Ryan Bland (Nissan Navara) in the Production Vehicle Category.
Also failing to finish were championship leaders Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing DKR Hilux T1+) while teammates, youngster Saood Variawa and experienced co-driver Danie Stassen, were excluded on the last day after running in the top ten throughout the event.
Special Vehicles
In the Special Vehicle Category, John Thomson and Maurice Zermatten came out tops with their Zarco Challenger winning the category and walking away with the Class A silverware after a solid performance during the three-day marathon. They finished the race in 13:01:52.
The Class A team shared the overall category podium with the winners of Class G, Geoff Minnitt/Rodney Burke (Hydro Power Equipment Can-Am Maverick) who finished second overall (13:44:13), while the Class P winners, Quintin Lessing/Brendon Smith (Century CR6) rounded off the podium (14:25:18) after a problem-free and enjoyable race.
Also in the top five were Glen Theron/Craig Galvin (Moto-Netix Racing Can-Am Maverick) who were fourth while they claimed the second place in Class G (14:40:29). They were followed by Lood du Preez/Junior Vardy (Farmers Meat Stryker) who finished second in Class A.
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