Summarize

Not only did Red-Lined Motorsport utterly dominate the T1 class with a top three podium whitewash, a new race winner and the overall championship at the 2024 South African Rally-Raid Championship Renault KEC 400 finale near Pretoria over the weekend, but new upgrades to their REVO GT-Rs also unleashed further performance to the team’s T1+ Ultimate class challenge.

“As usual it was a standard motorsport weekend made up of many highs and lows, but in the end, it was a great way to wrap up the season,” Red-Lined Motorsport team principal Terence Marsh explained. “The big result was our full lock out of the T1 class podium with a trio of our Red-Lined VK56’s, but we also managed to make some great steps forward with our REVO T1+ GT-R program after running a couple of different upgrades across the two race cars.

“In a weekend of firsts, we must congratulate Philip Botha and Stompie Mynhardt on their first National T1 class race win in their Penta Motor Group VK56. Props also go out to our impressive rookies, Danie Ludick and Denzil Williamson as they recorded their first National podium finishing just 28 seconds behind Philip, and this in only their fourth ever National event aboard their Elegant Fuels VK56.

“And what more can be said about the father and son team of Rudi and Gerhard Heinlein, who came home third in class to wrap up their first National Championship and round off a Red-Lined clean sweep of the podium, and this in only their second year in the South African Rally Raid championship. This pairing not only went on to record a 100% finishing record for the year, the only team to achieve this feat, but also then managed to finish every event on the podium as well. A brilliant team effort all round and a truly proud moment for us all at Red-Lined Motorsport, and hopefully the first of many with our Red-Lined T1 Cup kicking off in 2025.

“The overall results may not show it, but we also came back delighted with the progress of our two T1+ REVO GT-Rs. We treated this weekend as a test and took two different upgrade packages to the event across the two cars. “Red-Lined Europe CEO Rients Hofstra and Wade Harris were the unsung heroes as they traded places with the big factory entries with their T1+ Ultimate REVO GT-R running in the top five throughout the weekend. It was without a doubt Rients and Wade’s best outing to date, as they embraced the upgrades with newfound pace displaying some impressive split times over the weekend, only to be eventually thwarted by belt issues late on the Saturday.

“We also welcomed young gun Jayden Els, a former world karting champion, race and rally driver, who of late has carved a very good name for himself in Rally Raid, to the team for the weekend. Driving our other REVO GT-R alongside Johan Swemmer, Jayden showed talent beyond his years to bounce back from a steering rack issue on the Friday to show some serious overall pace on the Saturday. Jayden eventually ended up with the fourth fastest time for the day’s stages, a mere 54 seconds off the winning time to complete a promising weekend for our GT-R development program.

“Red-Lined is extremely proud and grateful at the same time, to end our 2024 South African campaign in dominant race and championship winning style in the T1 class with our trio of VK56’s. Furthermore, we remain truly excited with the performance that we uncovered with the latest upgrades to our Ultimate T1+ race cars.

“A big thanks however needs to go out to all our team members and sponsors who collectively make this all possible throughout the season. We will now start focusing on our privateer customers that will be competing in the 2025 Dakar in January before we regroup once again as a team for our participation in the 2025 South African championship!”