Ford confident ahead of Parys clash

A 1-2 finish in the 1 000 km Botswana Desert Race in June has given the Ford Castrol Team a new level of confidence going into the double-header Parys 400 on August 18 and August 18.  

As rounds four and five of the extremely competitive South African Rally Raid Championship (SARRC) Gareth Woolrige and Boyd Dreyer (#277) took their EcoBoost V6-powered T1+ NWM Ford Ranger to the top step of the podium at the three-day Botswana marathon race, and are looking forward to returning to the Free State event where they earned their first overall SARRC win last year.

Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer

The Desert Race victory handed the young pair the championship advantage, and they currently lead the Production Vehicle title chase with 86 points, 15 ahead of the Toyota crew of Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings, and a further three points ahead of third-placed Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy (Toyota).

Additional confidence comes after having competed at the Baja Spain Aragon in July. They finished a commendable 11th overall in their T1+ Ranger against the top rally raid competitors in the world.  

Two-time Dakar Rally winner Nani Roma and co-driver Alex Haro were classified 6th overall in the second T1+ Ranger, with this crucial outing forming part of the build-up to the 2024 Dakar Rally for the NWM, M-Sport and Ford Performance joint venture.  

NWM Ford Castrol teammates Lance Woolridge and Kenny Gilbert (#234) secured their first podium of the SARRC season by finishing as runners-up in Botswana. This gave them a solid points haul and placed them fifth in the Production Vehicle battle on 41 points – just 20 points behind the Toyota crew of Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle.  

“All the hard work, intensive testing and long hours the team has put into the development of our T1+ Ranger have certainly paid off, and this sets the scene for a thrilling remainder of the 2023 season,” says team principal Neil Woolridge.  

“Having just come back from Spain where Gareth and Boyd finished 11th, and ran as high as second in one of the stages until they lost time near the end with a puncture, shows just how competitive we are this year, both locally and internationally. 

“Going into the Parys event leading the overall SARRC Production Vehicle and T1+ rankings is fantastic for the team, and the back-to-back races in Parys will be an important opportunity to continue building on this momentum. We have no doubt that our rivals will come out with all guns blazing, so we will be giving it everything for this event.”  

The NWM-supported privateer team of Wors Prinsloo and Andre Vermeulen (#241) are also eager to capitalise on the two races in Parys, having shown impressive pace in their first season with the T1+ Ranger.  

As two full one-day races, the action kicks off on Friday 18 August, with the race headquarters and designated service park (DSP) located at the Afridome Showgrounds on the outskirts of Parys.

Competitors will complete a 32 km qualifying sprint (including 8 km of liaison), starting at 07:30.  

The top 10 finishers then do a draw to determine starting positions for the main race. This is followed by the full race loop of 173 km which commences at 09:30 and is repeated twice, split by a mandatory 30-minute service interval.  

A separate route is lined up for the Saturday race which follows a similar format, including a 16 km qualifying race with 13 km of liaison. The main race loop comprises 190 km (with 20 km liaison), once again completed twice with a service stop in between.  

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Colin-on-Cars - Ford ready for the desert

Knowing the deal is done for Pietermaritzburg’s Neil Woolridge Motors to be the builders of the official Ford foray into the Dakar Rally makes its efforts at the upcoming Toyota Gazoo Botswana Desert 1000 even more significant than usual.

Over the past three years, the Desert Race has taken place in Upington in the Northern Cape as a result of travel and logistics restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. For 2023, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race (TGR 1000) heads back to the diamond mining town of Jwaneng, which hosted the event for several years before it was moved to Selebi-Phikwe in 2019.

Its unique status as a three-day marathon event sees the action commence on Friday with a short 61 km qualifying loop to determine the starting order for the main race. The top 10 competitors then draw their starting positions, with the strategy regarding road position for the opening loop being a key consideration.

On Saturday the competitors will complete two 220 km loops to the east of Jwaneng, separated by a mandatory 30-minute service stop at the designated service park (DSP), located at the Jwaneng Sports Complex which also serves as the race headquarters.

Sunday sees the teams tackle two runs through a 214 km race loop west of Jwaneng, with a 30-minute service stop in between. The overall times for the weekend will determine the final results.

“The Desert Race is extremely popular in Botswana. We have a loyal and enthusiastic following in the country, and we know the fans are eager to see the SARRC return this year,” says Neil Woolridge, team principal of the NWM Ford Castrol squad.

“We have enjoyed good results at the Desert Race, and our team has been buoyed by last week’s announcement that we will be competing at the 2024 Dakar Rally with our T1+ Ranger, along with Ford Performance and M-Sport. 

"Over the past year, we have conducted a series of in-depth tests with M-Sport to further develop our T1+ Ranger for the Dakar Rally, and our results in the opening rounds of the 2023 season have shown that all of this hard work is paying off,” Woolridge says.

Gareth Woolridge and co-driver Boyd Dreyer are the leading NWM Ford Castrol contenders in their #277 T1+ EcoBoost V6-powered Ranger, having scored back-to-back podium finishes at the season-opening Nkomazi 400 in Malalane and the Sugarbelt 400 in Eston.

Accordingly, they are currently tied for second place in the Production Vehicle championship, along with the Toyota crew of Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy.

“Gareth and Boyd are busy with another test session in Morocco currently and will arrive in Botswana on Thursday, having had the benefit of thousands of kilometres of testing over the past couple of months. So they will be very well prepared to go for it the moment the flag drops in Jwaneng,” Woolridge says.

Lance Woolridge and co-driver Kenny Gilbert (#234) have had a tough start to their first season together, but have shown impressive pace on several occasions. They are currently eighth overall in the championship and are aiming to maximize their points haul at this crucial event – especially with the prospect of 45 points up for grabs for the class win, in place of the normal 30 points for the shorter events.

The NWM-supported privateer team of Wors Prinsloo and Andre Vermeulen (#241) is eager to get back in the action in their T1+ Ranger after missing the previous round. They are currently 13th overall in the standings, having finished an impressive seventh at the opening round of the season.

Fans can follow all the action and track the position of the crews throughout each of the 2023 season’s seven races using the RallySafe app, which can be downloaded free of charge for iOS and Android devices from the relevant app stores.

2024 Dakar Rally

Ford Performance is set to expand its global motorsports effort by competing in the legendary Dakar Rally, one of the toughest off-road competitions on Earth.

A purpose-built, race-ready Ford Ranger T1+ will compete in the 2024 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in the Rally Raid T1+ class. Ford Performance is collaborating in a comprehensive test and development program with M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport to prepare for what is expected to be an extremely tough challenge come January 2024.

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