Day one: South African Safari starts rocky for Toyota Gazoo Racing

Stage 1 of the South African Safari Rally, round three of the World Rally-Raid Championship, delivered a demanding test for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa, with both the team’s GR Hilux EVO crews encountering challenges during the 557 km route around Sun City.

Tough day

The day followed a strong showing in the nine kilometre prologue on Monday (19 May), where Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy in the #211 GR Hilux Evo posted the second fastest time overall, one second off the leaders.

Saood Variawa and French co-driver Francois Cazalet in the #212 GR Hilux Evo initially set the fastest time on the prologue, but a penalty for a jump-start dropped them down the order and they started deep in the field, 56-seconds behind the fastest crew.

Stage 1 featured 262 km of competitive racing and 295 km of liaison road sections, looping westward from Sun City before returning to the bivouac.

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Crews were met with dry conditions, temperatures in the high 20s, and mixed surfaces ranging from dry, dusty tracks to isolated muddy patches.

For Botterill and Murphy, what began as a promising day unravelled as navigational difficulties set in. “That 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, 10 min 07 sec off the lead.

Botterill reflected on the difference between local and international rally-raid formats; “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”.

Variawa and Cazalet faced a series of technical issues during Stage 1 that heavily affected their performance.

“We had good pace at the start,” said Variawa, “but 40 km 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, the eventually placing 22nd, 14 min 59 sec behind the leaders.

Only getting started

With both cars completing the stage, the Toyota Gazoo Racing technical crews reported no major structural concerns and confirmed that the GR Hilux Evo platform handled the mixed conditions well despite the individual challenges encountered.

The rally will finish on Saturday (25 May) at the Sun City resort.

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