The Tara Rally is renowned for its punishing terrain, high speeds, and exhausting hours behind the wheel.
Those who dare to conquer it widely describe it as the mother of all rallies.
Spanning three days, the event covered 486km, including roughly 190km of special stages.
Among these were the popular super special night stages at the Tony Rust Race Track, which demanded immense skill and agility as drivers went head-to-head in pitch-black conditions.
The route took teams, support crews, and spectators on a loop from Windhoek to Rehoboth and back.
The event holds a rich history in Namibia dating back to 1969, having only ever been halted once, in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, 22 teams entered across two main categories: the ‘S’ sedan class and the ‘CR’ off-road bakkie class.
Remarkably, only three entries failed to reach the finishing ramp at Tony Rust Race Track on Saturday afternoon.
Wilro Dippenaar and his navigator, Carolyn Swan, set a relentless pace from the drop of the flag.
Clocking a time of two hours, six minutes, and 33 seconds, they secured the highly coveted Tara trophy.
Dippenaar, speaking to Top Revs from his award-winning Ford Fiesta S2000, noted the severity of the route.
“Today was rocky and the roads around Windhoek are always a bit tough, but it was good despite one puncture that took up a lot of time,” he said.
Dippenaar made his Tara debut in 2011, won his first title in 2017, and began a streak of consecutive finishes with ‘Team Dippenaar’ in 2022.
The event also highlighted strong women representation.
Navigators like Chantell Taljaard, René Botha, Anja Pretorius, Christel Fourie, and Anique Schoeman proved that motorsport is far from a men-only domain.
It was women drivers Chrizelda Kritzinger (with Ruan de Lange in a Nissan Hardbody 4.0L) and Stefanie Botha (with her father Willem Hugo in a Subaru Impreza) who stole the limelight.
Kritzinger on Saturday described the final Savannah stage as her best.
“We had all our calls right, turns were perfect, and we did not overshoot, keeping the car on track,” she said, noting that keeping a high-speed bakkie steady on loose gravel requires intense concentration.
Meanwhile, Botha faced serious communication hurdles when her intercom system failed, forcing her father to improvise.
“Today we properly Tara’ed,” she said.
“We had our fair share with a flat tyre, and driving without an intercom system.
We had all our rally dramas, but here we are.”
As the saying goes in local rallying: You never win or finish a Tara Rally, you conquer it.
Spectators were also treated to masterclasses by CR entrants Ruan Viviers and Cecil Koorts in their powerful CR-6, alongside MP and Anja Pretorius in their Renault Duster 5.0L V8.
The Windhoek Motor Club (WMC) organising committee extended its gratitude to OSH-Med, the Rehoboth Town Council, and the Windhoek City Police for ensuring safety and traffic control.
The WMC chairperson also thanked key sponsors, including Shell V-Power, Van Dyk Petroleum, Savanna Car Hire, M+Z Motors, Youtrack, Motor Media Namibia, Kosmos 94.1, and The Namibian.
Official results
Tara Rally overall: 1) Dippenaar/Swan; 2) Martin/Schoeman; 3) Botha/Hugo
S-Class overall: 1) Dippenaar/Swan; 2) Martin/Schoeman; 3) Botha/Hugo
S1: 1) K and O Pretorius; 2) D Vermaak/L Fölscher; 3) P Greeff/JP Robinson
S2: 1) Z Martin/A Schoeman
S4: 1) W Dippenaar/C Swan; 2) S Botha/W Hugo; 3) W Bartsch/R Fourie
CR overall: 1) MP and A Pretorius; 2) R Viviers/C Koorts; 3) P Ackerman/W Kinnear
CR1: 1) SJ Schoeman/C Havenga; 2) E Eisenberg/H Rietz; 3) C Kritzinger/R de Lange
CR2: 1) S Labuschagne/R Botha
CR3: 1) MP and A Pretorius; 2) R Viviers/C Koorts; 3) P Ackerman/W Kinnear
National Championship Class
S-Class (S4): 1) Dippenaar/Swan; 2) Botha/Hugo; 3) W Bartsch/R Fourie
S3: 1) M and D Kotze
S2: 1) Martin/Schoeman
S1: 1) D Vermaak/L Fölscher; 2) K and O Pretorius; 3) P Greeff/JP Robinson
CR3: 1) MP and A Pretorius; 2) Viviers/Koorts; 3) P Ackerman/W Kinnear
CR2: 1) W Bartsch/C Fourie; 2) S Labuschagne/R Botha
CR1: 1) E Eisenberg/H Rietz; 2) SJ Schoeman/C Havenga; 3) M Rust/C Taljaard
