South African Rally-Raid Championship driver Pim Klaassen usually has a bullpen of navigators like Rikus Hattingh calling the shots for him, while he’s worked alongside his brother Henk in rallying as well.

Last week, the brothers decided to shake things up by entering the Morocco Desert Challenge together. Besides being their first rally raid together, Pim got to try his hand at navigation for the first time as they alternated driving duties.

Rather than Pim’s usual Red-Lined VK50, the duo raced a Taurus T3 Max since DaklaPack Rallysport serves as its distributor in South Africa. Vick Versteijnen also raced for the team in a Red-Lined REVO.

Henk took the wheel for the Prologue and Stage 1 where they finished 23rd in SSV, somewhat set back by a five-minute penalty because Pim had missed a waypoin while reading the roadbook. However, their race was derailed the next day when a connecting rod broke and punctured the engine block, forcing them to retire. The engine was replaced, only for the new unit to act up again and force them out of Stage 4.

Although out of overall contention, they still showed solid pace starting Stage 3, where they finished tenth despite having to slow down in the closing stretch due to high water temps. The engine cooperated from the fifth leg onward, allowing them to proceed and ultimately become a top-ten car.

They missed the top five by just 21 seconds in Stage 5, finishing sixth behind Erik Wevers, which was followed by an eighth and seventh. Their best run came on the final day of fifth, initially placing fourth but surrendering the spot to Jan van Gerven due to a two-minute penalty.

Due to the two DNFs, they were classified 50th overall for SSVs and 18th for T3 cars. Still, they were proud of how they fared.

“Working with Henk was a blast,” said Pim. “His pace behind the wheel was incredible, especially for a first-timer—huge respect. He’s got real talent. Grateful we could learn and push through this together.”

Versteijnen finished 23rd in Cars and ninth in T1+ for DaklaPack. The REVO also ran a clean race that was marred by mechanical trouble, having had the crank sensor and fifth gear malfunction in Stage 4 before the rear suspension broke in Stage 7.

“I’ll never forget this. Sharing this rally with my brother was something special,” Henk added. “Big thanks to the whole team; we couldn’t have made it to the start line every day without their nonstop effort.”

With the MDC out of the way, could Henk be doing more rally raids in the future? Maybe he teams up with Pim in the SARRC? Hard to say.

When asked on Facebook if he and Henk are running the W2RC’s South African Safari Rally in May, Pim simply wrote “we don’t have plans yet”.

Featured image credit: Pim Klaassen