It was a tough stage for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) in the 2025 South African Safari Rally.
Image: Supplied
It was a tough outing for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) in the 557 kilometre first stage of the 2025 South African Safari Rally around Sun City in the North West Province.
The event, sponsored by Toyota Gazoo Racing, is the third round of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) and brings together the world’s best off-road racers for the first time in Southern Africa.
It followed a strong showing in the nine-kilometre Prologue, where Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy posted the second-fastest time overall, just one second off the leaders.
Saood Variawa and co-driver Francois Cazalet, meanwhile, initially set the fastest time on the prologue, but a jump-start penalty dropped them down the order, and they started down in the field, 56 seconds behind the fastest crew.
Stage one featured 262 kilometres of competitive racing and 295 kilometres of liaison sections, looping westward from Sun City before returning to the bivouac. The route had dry conditions, temperatures in the high 20s, and mixed surfaces ranging from dry, dusty tracks to isolated muddy patches.
Unraveled
For Botterill and Murphy, what began as a promising day unravelled as navigational difficulties set in.
“It was a tricky stage for us,” Botterill explained. “The car was really good - we just struggled a bit with navigation, and that basically sums up the day.”
The pair also received a time penalty for missing a waypoint, ultimately finishing the stage in 15th place, 10min 07sec off the lead.
Reflecting on the difference between local and international rally-raid formats, Botterhill said: “Navigation is very different to what we’re used to in South Africa. Here, it’s all roadbook-based with no external markers.
"When you make a mistake, it’s hard to recover. That made today particularly tricky.”
The TGRSA technical crews reported no major structural concerns to the GR Hilux EVO.
Image: Supplied
Technical issues
Variawa and Cazalet faced a series of technical issues that affected their performance.
“We had a good pace at the start,” said Variawa, “but 40 kilometres in, our exhaust mount broke, so we had to run without anti-lag. Then our spare tyre started catching alight, which forced us to stop multiple times. In the last 60 km, we lost fuel pressure too.”
Despite the setbacks they finished the stage placing 22nd, 14min 59sec behind the leaders, locals Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings who are now racing for Toyota Gazoo Europe.
Stage two
Today’s stage begins a two-day Marathon Stage with crews racing 352 kilometres of timed special stage, ending at a remote bivouac near the town of Stella.
There, they will be without assistance from their service crews and must perform any necessary maintenance themselves. With Stage three following tomorrow, this phase of the rally is expected to be pivotal in determining the overall standings.
The rally finishes on Saturday at the Sun City resort.