20-year-old Saood Variawa is one of the bright young prospects in the World and South African Rally-Raid Championships, and it seemed like an inevitability that SVR’s scion would eventually win a race. It took two years since his debut in the discipline, but he finally scored his maiden rally raid overall victory at the SARRC’s Ingco Vaal 400.

Variawa was the fastest driver in the Prologue, edging out Marcos Baumgart and Variawa’s former TGRSA teammate Giniel de Villiers by just three seconds. In the main race, he cleared Gareth Woolridge—who was fourth in qualifying—by 1:13 to secure the overall.

The win continues a strong Year 3 for Variawa as a rally raider. He won Stage 3 of the Dakar Rally in January and added another when the W2RC came to his home country in May.

TGRSA colleague Guy Botterill rounded out the top three.

“It was a tough weekend for sure,” TGRSA boss and Saood’s father Shameer Variawa stated. “Tactically, our crews had to preserve the cars for Round 3 but they not only managed to finish strongly on Round 2, they also secured a double podium the very next day.

“For the team, there was a huge amount of pressure to ensure the cars were fully prepared for both day, but this is familiar territory to us thanks to our participation in the Dakar Rally, and in the end we are ecstatic with the confirmed results.”

Baumgart arrived in South Africa fresh off winning the Rally dos Sertões in his native Brazil, trading his Hilux for the NWM Evo Plus. He finished seventh.

Despite de Villiers’ early speed, he got caught in dust and fell off the pace. A front wheel coming off ultimately did his race in, costing him over an hour.

“But the positive from the day is that the car is amazing,” de Villiers stressed. “The team did a great job to get the car back to where it is now, and it’s definitely up there with the front-runners. It’ll be competitive at the next race.”

Jayden Els retired after a massive crash when he hit an unmarked hazard. Martin van der Vyver bowed out as well with mechanical issues.

“At the Parys and Vaal 400, the big boys came with pit crews and engineers. We came with boerie rolls, duct tape, and pure determination,” van der Vyver’s team quipped.

Overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	208	Saood Variawa	François Cazalet	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota Hilux IMT EVO	5:15:14	Leader
2	277	Gareth Woolridge	Boyd Dreyer	Neil Woolridge Motorsport	NWM Evo Plus	5:16:32	+ 1:18
3	201	Guy Botterill	Oriol Mena	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota Hilux IMT EVO	5:23:03	+ 7:49
4	241	Wors Prinsloo	Andre Vermeulen	Neil Woolridge Motorsport	NWM Evo Plus	5:23:32	+ 8:18
5	375	Marko Himmel	François Schoonbee	Marko Himmel	Red-Lined Navara Evo	5:24:02	+ 8:48
6	303	Gary Bertholdt	Henry Köhne	Gary Bertholdt	Toyota Hilux IMT EVO	5:30:22	+ 15:08
7	217	Marcos Baumgart	Alberto Andreotti Neto	Neil Woolridge Motorsport	NWM Evo Plus	5:36:46	+ 21:32
8	402	Juan van Staden	Sandra Labuschange	Sand Lesotho	Renault Duster	5:36:54	+ 21:40
9	334	Vick Versteijen	Teun Van Dal	DaklaPack Rallysport	Red-Lined REVO T1+	5:38:07	+ 22:53
10	333	Philip Botha	Andries Mynhardt	Red-Lined Motorsport	Red-Lined REVO T1+	5:41:21	+ 26:07
11	401	Johan de Bruyn	Adriaan Roets	Red-Lined Motorsport	Red-Lined REVO T1+	5:43:34	+ 28:20
12	700	Geoff Minnitt	Rodney Burke	Hydro Power Equipment	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	5:51:09	+ 35:55
13	404	Vincent Vroninks	Dave Berghmans	Red-Lined Motorsport	Red-Lined VK56	5:59:05	+ 43:51
14	634	Henk Klaassen	Gerhard Schutte	DaklaPack Rallysport	Taurus T3 Max	6:00:21	+ 45:07
15	202	Giniel de Villiers	Dennis Murphy	#TeamHilux Rally-Raid	Toyota DKR Hilux T1+ EVO	6:21:39	+ 1:06:25
16	239	Fouche Bignault	Bertus Bignault	#TeamHilux Rally-Raid	Toyota DKR Hilux T1+ EVO	7:21:51	+ 2:06:37
17	234	Dave Klaassen	Tessa Klaassen	DaklaPack Rallysport	Red-Lined REVO GT-R	15:53:20	+ 10:38:06
DNF	224	Jurgen Schröder	Stuart Gregory	Jurgen Schröder	WCT Amarok	DNF	N/A
DNF	250	Jayden Els	Johan Swemmer	Red-Lined Motorsport	Red-Lined REVO GT-R	DNF	N/A
DNF	305	Schalk Burger	Armand du Toit	King Price Xtreme	Volkswagen Amarok	DNF	N/A
DNF	371	Danie Ludick	Denzil Williamson	Red-Lined Motorsport	Red-Lined REVO T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	444	Martin van der Vyver	Victor Finchamp	Global Elite Racing	Ford Ranger	DNF	N/A
DNF	677	Nielen Marx	Rikus Hattingh	Rikus Hattingh	Ford Ranger	DNF	N/A
DSQ	300	Johan Horn	Werner Horn	#TeamHilux Rally-Raid	Toyota Hilux	DSQ	N/A

Featured image credit: Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa