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The highlight of the 2022 South Africa Rally-Raid Championship will take place around Upington in the Northern Cape this weekend, with a large and varied entry to tackle the Toyota Gazoo Racing 1000 Desert Race.
The event, the only 1 000 km marathon of the year, will also see the top privateer team winning a free entry for next year’s Dakar Rally.
Heading up the entry list will be defending 2021 race winners Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer, in their Century Racing CR6.
They will face formidable competition from the likes of Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Hilux), Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy (Toyota Gazoo Hilux), Lance Woolridge/Elvéne Vonk (NWM Ford Castrol Ranger), Shameer Variawa/Danie Stassen (Toyota Gazoo Hilux), Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Toyota Gazoo Hilux) and Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (NWM Ford Castrol Ranger).
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The Horn brothers, Johan and Werner, will be in the top class with their Malalane Toyota Hilux, against the likes of Chris Visser/Albertus Venter (Red-Lined REVO), Philip Botha/Roelof Janse van Vuuren (Red-Lined Nissan Navara), Thomas Bell/Wade Harris (Red-Lined Nissan Navara), Gary Bertholdt/Juan Mohr (Toyota Hilux) and Eben Basson/Leander Pienaar (Toyota Hilux).
Hennie de Klerk/Adriaan Roets (TreasuryOne Volkswagen Amarok), Schalk Burger/Henk Janse van Vuuren (King Price Mercedes-Benz X-Class) and Richard Leeke/Zaheer Bodhanya (Leeke Toyota Hilux), Jerome/ Anne Galpin (Century CR6), Yannick/ Valerie Panagiotis (Century CR6), Lance Trethewey/Rodney Burke (King Price CR6) will round out the top class.
Front Class T contenders will include Bernard/Minette Johnstone (NWM Ford Ranger), Christo Rose/Arno Olivier (NWM Ford Ranger), Jayden Els/Armand du Toit (King Price Renault Duster) and Johan/Sean van Staden (KEC Renault Duster).
In the Special Vehicle category top contenders should include Tim Howes/Gary Campbell (BAT Spec 4), Sandra Labuschagne-Jonck/Jaco Jonck (BAT Viper), Lood du Preez /Chris Visser Jr (Farmers Meat Stryker), Trace Price Moore/Shaun Braithwaite (BAT Venom), LC de Jager/Rikus Hattingh (Porter), and Willem du Toit/ Victor Fincham (Porter).
The SideXSide class for the Can-Am Maverick, front runners are likely to include Cecil and Elardus Larney, Werner/Ian Mostert, (Moto-Netix), Geoff Minnitt Gerhard Snyman (Hydro Power Equipment) and Marko Himmel/Nico Swartz (King Price).
The start/finish, plus the race headquarters and designated service park, will be at the Upington Expo Centre from where the race routes will branch out. The 43 kilometre Pirelli Qualifying Race will start on Friday at 09h00 followed by loop one (171 km), starting at 12h30.
Racing will commence on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 08h00 and competitors will have to complete two loops of approximately 171 and 173 kilometres respectively on each day.
The event can be followed on the RallySafe App that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple iStore.
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