The SA Safari is orange… Brabec wins the final stage. Sanders wins overall.
Pics courtesy of SA Safari Rally Motul and the Motomedia crew.
If you watched our coverage of the South African Safari Rally on our socials, you’ll have seen just how epic this event actually was.
To be absolutely honest, although we have covered events like Dakar every year since we started publishing, we genuinely had no idea what the whole thing is/was about, so we are pretty glad that we eventually managed to get there.
It really is an army that runs this event – we’ve never seen so many people involved in making sure that everything ran smoothly. Sun City sprouted a Gasoline alley in the parking lot for all the crews and teams. It was a hustle and bustle as bikes and cars came and went, workshops were running late into the night and there was a constant air of excitement and anticipation as we watched the crews literally strip bikes and cars down to bare bones to prepare them for the next day of racing. It’s difficult not to be slightly star struck when you catch a glimpse of some of the very top riders and racers. You’ve seen them on TV, in magazines and on socials, but to meet and greet them in the flesh is really pretty cool. Most of the riders and racers that we met and chatted to were more than happy to share a laugh and have a quick chat.
It was a very festive event. Please enjoy some of the pics from our walkabouts…
Rise and shine was at sparrows every day for a loooong liaison stage to the various start points. It’s pretty cool! You are cruising along on the freeway and a rally bike cruises past… even better, on the way home we were overtaken by the big dawgs in their cars. So it’s not just a case of hitting the SA bushveld for a dice, The riders are up and off for a 200KM, really chilly road stage, before the race even begins – and then, on most days, they had to ride home again through the traffic. Never mind race pace, theire arses must be steel reinforced!
There is an air of camaraderie, especially among the bikes. Hey, they travel the world together, they might as well get along. That’s until the flag drops, then the serious business starts and its flat taps. Guys and girls, you need to see the top riders in action, they really are ‘Speedmeisters’. How they manage to read their log books and hold the throttle wide is an art form in itself. We were hanging out with a bunch of veteran car racer at one spectator points, and one of them commented how hard it must be for the riders who have to ride flat out and still do their own navigation, where the car guys have the driver focussing on going flat out and the Nav calling route directions.
Let’s not even talk about the cars – to witness a big V8 with giraffe suspension in full cry really is a sight to behold.
It was, Quite simply, Epic!
Here’s a rundown of the finale.
Bikes:
The RallyGP final rankings are a 1-2 for KTM, with Sanders first, Luciano Benavides in second and HRC’s Ricky Brabec third overall for Honda, 10 minutes behind the leader at the end of the event.
In the Bike category, the most dominant rider in the RallyGP class and current W2RC championship leader, Daniel Sanders, finished second on the final stage, taking the overall win by almost 9 minutes. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s class win meant the South African Safari Rally was a clean sweep in the W2RC lead categories for the Southern Hemisphere.
The friendly Australian has now won three W2RC events in a row, setting a new win-streak record in the bike class. Wildlife encounters on the stages were a highlight for Sanders all week. “We’ve done so much work developing the bike, and it’s just paying off now. I had a great time here.”
USA’s Monster Energy Honda HRC rider, Ricky Brabec had a really solid event. He took the final stage win ahead of Sanders, with our local hero and world champion Botswana’s Ross Branch (Hero Motosports) in third.
Branch had some bad luck when he connected a guinea fowl and broke his bikes oil cooler…
“I got unlucky hitting a bird early on, but I still have the speed. It’s all about preparing for Dakar 2026. It was great having the race so close to home. The sport is strong here and thanks to all the farmers who let us race through their land.”
Brabec enjoyed the challenge of the different terrains of the North West province, but took issue with some of the navigational penalties. “I had a lot of fun this week. The terrain wasn’t super physical to start with, but then came the pounding rocks and dune fields and it became physical with the hundreds of corners we had to turn each day,” Brabec said. “It’s nothing like racing in wide open deserts.”
Rally 2: Hero takes the day – but KTM wins overall.
Austria’s Tobias Ebster won the final Rally2 stage, taking Hero Motosports’ only class win this week amongst the KTMs. Chilean Ruy Barbosa was second, with the dynamite South African Michael Docherty in third. Docherty had a dramatic South African Safari Rally, starting late due to illness and surviving a 120 km/h crash on Stage 1. “The organisers put on an awesome event and it’s cool to tour my home country like this. It was not my greatest rally, but I scored some decent points for the championship by finishing.”
In the Rally2 overall results, Spain’s Edgar Canet took the class win for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, ahead of Ebster and Docherty on the second factory KTM bike.
The best-ranked South African overall was RallyGP rider Bradley Cox, who finished eighth on his debut as a factory rider for the Sherco Rally Factory team. He proved his lineage with an impressive ride on the new bike. “It was a massive change with a new team, but it’s such an unreal feeling racing at home. It’s something my dad never got to experience with so many people along the route supporting,” Cox said.
Somebody sign this guy – he is the real deal! Mike Docherty had a challenging event, starting late due to illness on Stage 1 and suffering a crash during the stage. Despite these setbacks, he still managed to finish the rally and score points for the championship.
CFMoto untouchable in the quads:
There were only four quads that entered this year’s event and the top two were from Chinese manufacturer CF Moto.
France’s Gaëtan Martinez took the stage win and overall, from Lithuanian teammate Antanas Kanopkinas. Martinez admits it was a race to the very end. “It was very demanding with lots of danger in the grass and stones on the last stage. But overall, it’s a new country for us to discover, and I really liked it. We would like to come back.”
SA’s Yster Vrou: Carien Teessen
You can catch the interview that we had with this young lady. On day 2, she lost her exhaust and her engine blew up during the morning liaison. That night, the guys worked late to fit a replacement mill. South Africa’s Carien Teessen was third on the final stage and overall quad rankings on her Yamaha. Despite a brutal week’s racing, Teessen relished the experience. “It was awesome to experience everything. The wow factor of this event was amazing, even if you are a privateer, everybody is there to help.”
The unsung heroes
Like all W2RC events, there’s no easy way to complete the South African Safari Rally. But the Malle Moto Original By Motul motorcycle riders did it harder than anyone else. These are the event’s true privateers, competing completely unsupported, and responsible for all their bike’s servicing.
Finishing the South African Safari Rally is an achievement for these riders. The solo Malle Moto Yamaha rider, Frenchman Florian Bancilhon, won the last stage and took the overall victory from Matthieu Jauffraud, on a KTM. The Malle Moto class embodies Dakar’s spirit of adventure.
The SXS (SSV) class was really impressive to watch.
Italy’s Enrico Gaspari, in his MMP, added a second W2RC stage win to his season, by taking the final stage victory in the side-by-side SSV class.
It was an excellent SSV overall win on debut for Francosport’s Mário Franco and Joao Miranda. The Portuguese crew bested South Racing Can Am’s Richard Aczel and Wouter Rosegaar. Italy’s Michele Cinotto was third in a Polaris.
Franco admitted it wasn’t easy. “We had a new car, and navigation was complicated, but we won. And during the event, the South African supporters and people were very good.”
Argentine Challenger Class dominance with BBR:
The Challenger class was an all-Argentine winning affair all week, with the final stage going to Nicolás Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini in their BBR Motorsports Taurus. Qatar’s Khalifa Al-Attiyah and Argentine navigator, Bruno Jacoby, were second on Stage 5 in the Nasser Racing Taurus, ahead of the overall Challenger class winners, David Zille and Sebastian Cesana.
The Argentine crew of Zille/Cesana took three stage wins at the event and the overall win from team-mates Cavigliasso/Pertegarini. Poland’s Adam Kus and Ukrainian navigator, Dmitry Tsyro, finished third overall in their Akpol Recykling Taurus.
Cars:
SA’s LATEGAN/CUMMINGS VICTORIOUS IN CARS.
It all came down to the final phase of the last stage, to decide the overall win at the first-ever South African Safari Rally, brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Over the final stage distance, sliding, churning and navigating North West dust, Lategan and Cummings took the inaugural South African Safari Rally overall win in their Hilux, finishing third for the day, which secured their overall win. It was the first W2RC event win for Lategan and Cummings, made all the more special on home soil, in front of a deeply patriotic and enthusiastic South African crowd.
“What a relief, it was a crazy close race. We pushed flat-out on the stage,” Lategan said. “When I woke up this morning I didn’t want another runner-up finish like what happened at the Dakar this year. It’s been an amazing fight with all the top crews.”
After almost 1 100 km of extremely tight rally-raid action, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux, held a slim margin of just 39-seconds over France’s Sébastien Loeb, guided by Belgian navigator Fabian Lurquin, in their Dacia Sandriders entry.
A margin of 39 seconds wasn’t much, especially considering Loeb’s skills at sprint stage racing, after all, he does hold nine WRC driver’s championships.
Classy comeback by Loeb
Sébastien Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin recovered after a terrible 51st place in the prologue, to lead the South African Safari Rally at stages but his sixth place on Stage 5, just wasn’t enough.
The Frenchman was pleased with his second place in the overall results, although he did lose a minute overall during the final stage to Lategan. “We got close to Lategan at one part of the final stage, but he won and deserved it. He was really strong. The main target for us was to finish the Rally, and we are on the podium,” he said.
“Our cars are quite wide and some of the trails here are narrow. You hit a lot of bushes when opening stages and make the road for others. So opening and sweeping stages are a challenge. It is my second time in South Africa, but my first outside Cape Town where I raced in World Rallycross. Going on safari and seeing so much of the landscape during the stages was very beautiful.”
Second stage win for Al Attiyah:
Loeb’s Dacia Sandriders team-mate and W2RC championship leader, Nasser Al Attiyah, took his 45th W2RC stage win, becoming the only international driver to take overall Ultimate car class stage wins at the South African Safari Rally, with every other stage dominated by South African rivals.
Although Al Attiyah and navigator Edouard Boulanger only finished 10th overall after suffering several navigational error penalties during the early stages, the very affable Qatari was pleased with his first South African racing experience.
“It was really nice to be here in South Africa,” he said. “We won two stages and scored some good points for the championship, which is important for me and the team. We’d like to come back. We are happy for Henk to come back and win his local race.”
With 23 Dakar campaigns and the status as South Africa’s only Dakar overall winner, Giniel de Villiers was one of the most experienced drivers at the event. Driving a V8-powered Hilux for #TeamHilux, the Dakar veteran, was thrilled to be part of South Africa’s first W2RC event, finishing 18th overall.
“It was great to have a W2RC event in South Africa. The route was wonderful and you look at the times at the front, it was so close,” De Villiers said.
To everyone involved in getting this event to SA, a big thank you! You have given South African Petrolheads something to talk about for at least the next year.
If…
No! WHEN this event gets back to SA (Hopefully in 2027, maybe even sooner), do yourself a favour. Book a ticket and get your butt down there to watch the fun. Even if it’s just for a day.
