In just three months for now the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) will host the highly anticipated Safari Rally in South Africa, and local motorsport fans can look forward to some high-calibre entries.
As the first ever W2RC event to take place on local soil, the South African Safari Rally is sponsored by Toyota Gazoo Racing, and is set to take place from May 18 to 24. It will form round three of this year's W2RC season.
“We are delighted with the number and calibre of competitors that submitted their entries by the closing date of the early bird entries on 14 February,” said Archie Rutherford, CEO of the South African Safari Rally.
“We’ve had a fantastic response and great interest from around the world for this new addition to the World Rally-Raid Championship calendar, and our team is hard at work ensuring that we deliver a truly world-class event for the competitors, media and spectators.”
In the Ultimate (T1+) category, rally fans will get to see multiple Dakar Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, and nine-times World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb, of France, competing for the Dacia Sandriders team. Al-Attiyah has won all three rally-raid titles since the series came to life in 2022.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has yet to confirm its entries for the Safari Rally, but given the formidable line-up of local and international drivers that the local team brought to Dakar this year, there's every reason to believe the team will put on a stellar rally-raid performance.
The Ford M-Sport team has also submitted two entries for the Safari Rally, following its first outing with the new Ford Raptor at Dakar this year, but as with Toyota Gazoo, the driver line-up has yet to be confirmed.
Also in the mix are the X-Raid Mini JCW crews of Joao Ferreira (Portugal) and Denos Krotov (Kyrgyzstan).
The Safari Rally entry list also includes three South African built Century Racing cars, driven by Dakar stage winner Mathieu Serradori (France) as well as Benoit Frentin (France) and Rik van den Brink (Netherlands), while the locally-built Neil Woolridge Ford Ranger Evo Plus has been entered with Brazilian Cross Country champion Marcos Baumgart behind the wheel.
Also from sunny South Africa is a full line-up of six Red-Lined Motorsport vehicles, comprising Revo and VK56 vehicles, with a combination of international and local drivers, including Philip Botha, Danie Ludick, Jayden Els as well as Gerhardt and Nickus Heinlein.
Furthermore, two SA-bult WCT Volkswagen Amaroks will compete, with German Daniel Schröder and South African Henri Köhne behind the wheel.
The South African Safari Rally will also see numerous exciting entries in the Challenger Class as well as the SSV (Side-by-Side) vehicle categories.
"With numerous other top-ranking teams still expected to submit their entries in the Ultimate, Challenger and SSV categories following the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, rally-raid enthusiasts can look forward to plenty of action and excitement when the W2RC fraternity heads to South Africa in May," the Safari Rally organisers said.