Women racers dominated the opening leg of the 2025 National Rally Championship, braving tough terrain and technical setbacks to claim top spots in multiple classes.
Both the CR-class (bakkie/off-road) and S-class (sedan) had women teams taking the podium.
The first rally for the 2025 season drew 17 entries, of which one car did not start the race, while four entries did not finish the race due to mechanical failures.
In the S-Class it was Stefanie Botha as driver and her sister, Mandi Hugo, as navigator in their Subaru Impreza who faced various technical and mechanical failures, yet they brought their car home after nine stages and 106km.
In the Super Rally, finishers Chrizelda Kritzinger with Ruan de Lange as co-driver took the honours in the CR-class.
Even they had their fare share of challenges, but nursed their car through the rally to take top honours.
‘EVENTFUL’
After crossing the finishing line with a broken windshield, failing shock absorbers and a flat tyre, Botha and her navigator were still in high spirits, describing the rally as “eventful”.
“We are actually in the ‘parc fermé’ event for the first time in about 15 years. It’s a great achievement,” Botha says.
Parc fermé is a French term referring to a closed-off park where vehicles are on hold after completing a rally.
Many drivers believe the rally is not about a podium finish, but about simply finishing.
Kritzinger and De Lange say the routes were tough and, like most of the other entrants, their vehicle took its fair share of punishment.
“We already broke the steering arm in the first three stages and had to repair it and re-enter for the super rally,” Kritzinger says.
“We just nursed the car home to make sure we got the point for Team Auto Care,” she says.
Each point in every rally contributes to the end tally for the national championships title towards end of the year.
With the men, Alan Martin got stuck without fuel in one of the stages and Rolf Pretorius rolled his vehicle.
In true rally spirit, however, they came back to finish the rally.
Martin says his expectations were met and described the rally as a good event.
“It was good and fast, with quick stages, and quite hard on the car. I was leading the rally by around four minutes, and then I had no more fuel in my car,” he says.
But Martin didn’t give up and managed to finish the race.
He and navigator Maretha Olivier are regulars and never cease to keep spectators close to the tracks with their Skoda R5.
Ekko Eisenberg, with Horazio ‘Rassie’ Rietz as navigator in team M+Z Motorsport in their JAC T8, have managed to finish each and every event since they entered the rally circles almost two years ago.
‘FAST, TECHNICAL AND BUMPY’
“It was fast, technical and bumpy, but the Swakop rally is always magnificent,” Eisenberg says.
He says the JAC, in which they made their debut in 2023’s Tara Rally, has a soul.
Results for the 2025 National Rally Championships are as follows:
S4: First place: Botha and Hugo.
S2: First place: Zachary Martin and Anique Schoeman, second place: Peer Rohm and Pieter Steyn
Super rally class: Alan Martin
CR2: First place: Ettiene van den Heever and Melvin Gous, second place: Werner Bartsch and Christel Fourie, third place: Rolf and Kai Pretorius
CR1: First place: Eisenberg and Rietz, second place: SJ Schoeman and Phillip Stoman
CR1 super class: First place: Kritzinger and De Lange
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