The opening race of the 2022 South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) is simply across the nook – we’ll be there to cowl the motion from the sidelines, however within the meantime, Ryan de Villiers gives a glimpse into what to anticipate from Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM).
The primary race of the brand new season will happen on the Mpumalanga 400 hosted in Dullstroom on the twenty fifth and twenty sixth of March. Making its debut look, the Class FIA T1+ will kick-off the weekend’s motion. The adrenaline-fuelled T1+ will comprise closely modified and outrageous V6-powered Ford Rangers. The T1+ class will undertake the laws seen within the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship and Dakar Rally.
Desperate to benefit from this new season and information class is Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) decided to achieve victories in each the T1 and T1+ courses this season. Lance Woolridge and co-driver Elvene Vonk will likely be racing within the redesigned and very highly effective T1+ spec EcoBoost Ford Ranger. The most recent redesign of the NWM Ford Ranger has seen vital modifications over its predecessor. In comparison with the 2021 Ranger, the brand new automotive is 300 mm wider, includes a longer journey suspension mated with 37-inch wheels.
Of the automobile, Lance Woolridge mentioned, “Though there’s nonetheless some work to do as we fine-tune the setup, we’ve got been impressed with the automobile’s efficiency to this point and sit up for seeing it in motion in Dullstroom.”
Alongside the T1+ class opponents is the youthful privateer staff supported by NWM that will likely be driving a rampant V8 Ford Ranger constructed and offered by NWM. Lance Tretheway and Frans Kock will likely be competing within the common T1 class and can pilot automobiles that weren’t homologated for the T1+ class. In contrast to its bolder counterpart pushed by Woolridge in T1+, the Ranger piloted by Trethewey will likely be smaller and narrower. Tretheway has an in depth race report having raced for 13 years in particular automobiles, nevertheless he felt that it was time to change issues up.
The formidable newcomer had this to say about his weapon of alternative for the T1 class; “Driving a manufacturing automobile could be very totally different to what I’m used to with particular automobiles, from the way in which it steers and handles to the braking, however I in a short time obtained comfy within the NWM Ranger through the check. We’re going to do a brief rally dash earlier than Dullstroom so I get extra time within the automotive, however to this point it feels nice.”
After the Mpumalanga 400, the next occasion would be the Sugarbelt 400 on the twenty ninth and thirtieth of April which is scheduled to happen in Eston, KwaZulu-Natal.