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• First SACCS race since January is the Bronkhorstspruit 400.
• Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings won the opening round in Dullstroom.
• Giniel de Villiers will team up Juan Möhr after Alex Haro is unable to travel to South Africa.
The South African Cross-Country Series (SACCS) gets back underway this Friday August 14 at the Bronkhorstspruit 400. The season has been put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic with one round taking place in Dullstroom in January.
The race will be run in accordance with the Covid-19 regulations put in place by Motorsport South Africa (MSA). As a result, the Designated Service Park (DSP) will be closed to all visitors, with a limited number of crew allowed to attend.
Toyota Gazoo Racing's Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings walked away the victors of the Mpumalanga 400 and will resume racing after a gap between the first two rounds that is longer than the off-season period.
"We’ve tried our best to continue development and testing during this period, but it has been challenging for everyone involved," Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team principal, Glyn Hall said.
The team has not worked on the cars until the national lockdown was eased to Level 3 and thus a recent test session in the Northern Cape was used to test, develop and work on the suspension setup of the Class- FIA Toyota Hilux.
"During the test, we also gave the technical crew the opportunity to get back into the swing of things – servicing the cars, locating items in the trucks and so on. This is like starting a whole new season from scratch," Hall said.
Image: Motorpress
Former Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers will not have co-driver Alex Haro next to him as the Spaniard is unable to travel to South Africa at present. Juan Möhr replace Haro and will be doing duty beside De Villiers . Möhr has spent many years navigating for a variety of drivers both locally and internationally, including a season with Toyota Gazoo Racing SA, when he navigated for Shameer Variawa.
This means the defending champions, Lategan and Cummings, remain together; as does Variawa and Dennis Murphy, who has only completed one race together due to the pandemic curtailing the season.
Racing will get under way at 13:00 on Friday, 14 August, with a 45 km-long qualifying loop. This will be followed by the main race on Saturday, 15 August, which comprises two loops of 170km each, with a compulsory 30 minute de-control at the DSP splitting the loops.
Fans can follow the action live on the RallySafe app, which is available free of charge for both iOS and Android devices.
Image: Motorpress
