The Phakisa 400, the penultimate round of the 2024 South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC), delivered a challenging mix of extremely dry and dusty conditions along with an exceptionally fast pace, which saw Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer (#200) finishing fourth overall and in the Ultimate (T1+) class after almost 450km of flat-out racing in their Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) Ford Ranger.
As the reigning champions, Gareth and Boyd set the second-fastest time during Friday’s short 14km sprint qualifying loop on and around the Phakisa Freeway race track near Welkom. They looked set to retain the position after the opening race loop which comprised 90km of competitive stage and 52km liaison. Unfortunately, a small navigation error just 5km from the end of the loop dropped them down to fourth overall, one second behind the Toyota crew of Giniel de Villiers/Elvéne Vonk.
NWM Ford team-mates Lance Woolridge and Kenny Gilbert (#234) were sixth in qualifying, with just 21 seconds separating the top six competitors. Their challenge ended prematurely 82km into the Friday race loop, having damaged the right rear tyre with a heavy landing on a rock after high-speed jump. The hard impact collapsed the hub and shattered the brake disc, leading to their retirement for the day.
Day two featured a pair of 166km competitive race loops plus an additional 14km of liaison staged in the flat, dry and dusty farmlands and gold mine fields located between the Free State towns of Welkom and Odendaalsrus. The action was fast and furious, which made it exceptionally difficult for Gareth and Boyd to make up lost time, and they had to settle for a fourth-place finish.
“We pushed as hard as we could today, but it just wasn’t enough to make up ground on the crews ahead of us,” Gareth said. “This was a flat-out race the whole way with very high speeds over long open sections. Our car is more suited to tighter, more technical routes, and there simply wasn’t anywhere that we could pull back time on our rivals.”
Having incurred a hefty penalty for not completing Friday’s stage, Lance and Kenny started from the back of the field on Saturday. With their car fully repaired by the NWM technicians overnight, they set out to give it everything, but they spent most of the day stuck in the dust of slower competitors ahead of them, and they eventually finished 14th overall and 9th in Ultimate.
“It was a challenging and extremely dusty day for Kenny and I, as we worked hard to pass six cars over the 360km of total race distance today which was very difficult,” Lance said. “The dust was so bad that I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times we turned a corner and simply couldn’t see where we were going. Other than this we had a good run today, and the car was faultless.”
The pace of the Phakisa 400 was certainly a talking point amongst the competitors. “This is probably the fastest race we’ve ever had, partly due to the wide open and flat route, and also because of the capabilities of these current Ultimate/T1+ cars,” said NWM Ford team principal Neil Woolridge.
“We regularly saw the cars running for long stretches on the speed limiter at 170km/h, so there were few opportunities for anyone to make up time. We know that our NWM Ford Ranger really works well in more technical and rough terrain, so we will need to look at where we can improve our cars for these fast, open types of races,” Neil said.
“What happened to Lance’s car on Friday was a first for us, and it unfortunately put him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend. It’s constant evolution with these Ultimate/T1+ cars with their big wheels and long-travel suspension, and they’re just going faster and faster at every race, which puts extraordinary loads on all the components,” Neil added. “But other than this the cars were superbly reliable, and although we were confident of having at least one and possibly even two cars on the podium, it just didn’t go our way.”
The final race of the 2024 season is the Gauteng 400, which takes place in the Bronkhorstspruit/Rayton area on 8 and 9 November.
