WORLD RALLY RAID | Sun City Safari

Chucky’s record smashing spree in South Africa

Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders and Red Bull KTM have tightened their grip on the 2025 World Rally Raid title with a comprehensive victory in the South African round of the championship.

The records started to fall last November when Chucky returned KTM to the winner’s podium in the 2024 Rallye du Maroc. Almost immediately following up with victory in the 2025 Dakar, setting a new record of five consecutive Rally Raid stage wins: becoming the first rider in history to lead this marquee event from start to finish, despite being totally outnumbered by archrivals Honda HRC.

Then followed the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, held entirely in the massive dunes of the United Arab Emirates, where the yo-yo effect – win one day and get creamed the next – often determines the results. Taking only two critical stage wins – opposed to Tosha Schareina’s three stage wins – proved a strategic masterstroke by Chucky in securing the overall victory; and another record broken. “It’s amazing to be the first rider to have won three in a row. A great reward for the massive effort by the team” was Chucky’s modest acknowledgment before heading home to beekeeping duties.

OUT OF IT IN AFRICA

No surprise that, given the deadly chaos in the Ukraine, the Kazakhstan round of the championship was canned for 2025, the surprise being that Rally Raid would return to South Africa for the first time since the 1992 Paris to Cape Town Rally won by Stéphane Peterhansel.

For 2025, the five-day, 2700km South African Rally Raid was based in Sun City, the nation’s most luxurious holiday resort, though it’s doubtful competitors had time for a surf in the 65,000-square-metre Valley of the Pools.

Without doubt Chucky started favourite ahead of Schareina – the only Rally GP rider to really test Chucky’s pace in recent events – who appeared the strongest threat from the Honda HRC complement of Ricky Brabec, Adrien Van Beveren and Skyler Howes. Naturally, 2024 World Rally Raid Champion and Hero Factory rider Ross Branch was the parochial favourite and, hailing from neighbouring Botswana, had the advantage of knowing the lay of the land. As it turned out, Chucky felt right at home. A land of windmills, water tanks, twin-tracks, termite mounds and barbed-wire fences, the event was such that it might as well have been held anywhere west of Australia’s Great Dividing Range.

CIRCLING SUN CITY

Chucky struck a psychological blow to Schareina – who’d become somewhat of a prologue specialist – besting the speedy Spaniard by 4sec in the short prologue, with South African Michael Docherty (KTM) third; indicating that local knowledge might prove advantageous.

Branch underscored this notion by winning the first full day of the five day event, with Adrien Van Beveren and Ricky Brabec filling the podium. Copping a two-minute penalty for missing a waypoint did nothing to unsettle Chucky’s rhythm as he appeared to go no faster than necessary to assess the terrain and consider what suspension tweaks might improve his comfort. Not so Schareina, who had an almighty crash towards the end of the special. The subsequent adrenaline rush allowed him to carry on, eventually finishing seventh – but his race was run.

If the motor racing axiom that you cannot teach a competitor how to go faster but you can teach them not to crash is true, then Ruben Faria – Dakar veteran and now Honda Team Manager – might be due to have a lengthy chat with Schareina. Win it or bin it may, in some cases, be an acceptable strategy in a 20-minute motocross heat, but injury and expense has proven otherwise in Rally Raid.

MASTER OF THE MARATHON

In a new twist to the two-day Marathon of the rally, the rider’s individual swags and MREs were air dropped over 600km from Sun City HQ. Branch led out, but only a few kms into the stage collided with a large bird (described as a bloody big one) bringing him down and damaging the bike’s oil cooler; then losing more than an hour making bush repairs.

Starting out from fourth, it wasn’t long before Chucky took point duty, ably backed by KTM teammate Luciano ‘Lucky’ Benavides barely half minute off the pace. Best of the rest was Brabec, already almost five minutes in arrears.

Having located their swags, checked and cross-checked their bikes – no mechanics on a marathon – the early arrivals had 12 hours to enjoy a cup of boiled noodles and a less-than-comfortable night’s sleep. His late arrival provided Branch and his Hero teammate Ignatio Cornejo with adequate time to make more permanent repairs to Branch’s oil cooler.

It was already evident that the Honda team riders were less than happy. Van Beveren seemed affronted by the requirement to open and close cattle station gates. On more than one occasion, while skirting a field of corn, Brabec found himself on the wrong side of a fenceline and Howes commented that he’d never previously ridden in country such as this; though he did manage a podium on the second leg of the marathon.

MORE RECORDS FALL

The concept of Rally Raid is that each competitor will follow the route outlined by the cryptic instructions on the electronic tablet mounted in their navigation towers. The reality is that riders will follow – or at least be influenced by – the tracks of the preceding riders. This is why, should any of the leading riders make a miscue, the TV coverage will show up to a dozen competitors doing circle work in an ever-increasing dust cloud.

It’s not unusual for the rider who leads out – opening the piste – at the start of a stage to be first to finish. However, rare is the occasion that the opener will clock the lowest elapsed time. To do so over two consecutive days was considered way beyond the abilities of Tom Cruise – even with the benefits of special effects.

Yet, after starting from fourth and winning the first leg of the Marathon, Chucky opened the piste on the second leg, setting fastest time of day, to win day three ahead of Benavides and a pissed-off Branch. No word on the bird.

The following day the Chucky and Lucky show rolled on, with Chucky becoming the first rider in Rally Raid history to accrue three consecutive stage wins, two of which he opened the piste from go to whoa. Along the way he also broke Adrien Van Beveren’s record total of 17 Rally Raid stage wins.

CRUISE CONTROL

Ben Grabham, former multi-time winner of every major off-road event in Australia while mentoring such champions as Brad Williscroft, Tye Simmonds and Toby Price, makes the comment that Chucky was riding at no more than eight-tenths.

Certainly he would have been pushing harder than that to beat Schareina in the Prologue. However, scrutinising the section times between waypoints indicates that Chucky maintained control throughout the entire event. Branch challenged with a pair of podiums in the latter stages, and may well have given both KTM riders a run for their money had he not suffered his encounter with the wildlife.

Ricky Brabec won the final stage from Chucky who was, by then, in cruise control, safe in the knowledge that he enjoys a lead of 35 points in the 2025 FIM World Rally Raid Championship.

2025 SUN CITY SAFARI RESULTS