South African National Rally Championship

The South African National Rally Championship is a series of rallying events that has taken place each year since 1960. It was won eleven times by Sarel van der Merwe in the 1970s and 1980s and ten times by Serge Damseaux from 1989 to 2004. Toyota and Volkswagen vehicles have won the title of champion car in most years since 1998. Now in its 61st consecutive year, the sport has been kept alive by privateers since 2017 with the decline of sponsorships and non inv-lvement of manufacturers due to the world wid- economic slow dow.

The South African Rally Championship has seen the exciting development of the new Africa Rally 1 (AR 1) category car, competing in the NRC 1 class. A normal Aspirated 1600 Turbo, AWD car. The newcomers to this class are the Hyundai i 20, Mazda 2 and Toyota Starlet. These cars compete with the S2000 and old group N cars (Subaru's). A very exciting class to watch on eveat event. The NRC 1 class took over from the 1600 R2 homologated cars as the official Championship class of the SA Championship. The Championship has been supported by CTRACK, TRACN4, MRF Tyres Africa, Fixedit Mobile, Mibern Medi-Call, Electrothread, Motorsport Technic

1993

 * First South African crew home. Overall winners were Aldo Riva and Enrico Rivida in an Audi Quattro

Coupe.

1996

 * First South African qualifying crew home. Overall winners were Sarel van der Merwe / Franz Boshoff in a Daewoo Cielo

1997

 * First South African crew home. Rally was won overall by Robbie Head / Franz Boshoff in a Daewoo Cielo.

2017
1 First R2 Class car home. Overall winners were Lee Rose / Elvene Coetzee in Classic Class Ford Escort

2 First R2 Class car home. Overall winners were Johnny Gemmell / Carl Peskin in Classic Class Porsche 911

3 First R2 Class car home. Overall winners were Theuns Joubert / Etienne Lourens in a S2000 Toyota Auris

2019
 2020 


 * Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic and the Disaster Management Legislation being implemented, the 2020 National Rally Championship had 3 events only.
 * Each of the 2 days per event counted as an individual round.
 * The National Rally Championship adapted this formula as it proved to be very effective. Competitors are now able to re-enter a new event the following day if they did not complete the 1st day of the event.

2021

 2022  2023  2024