Benjamin Habig and Barry White have clinched the 2026 South African National Rally Championship after a commanding performance at the double-header Algoa National Rally in the Eastern Cape at the weekend.
The pair, campaigning a Dunlop-shod NRC1 Volkswagen Polo, dominated proceedings on a wet Friday before settling for second place behind Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz on Saturday as muddy, treacherous conditions took hold.
Habig and White, the 2025 champions, were the class of the 2026 field. Victories in the early rounds, including the iCAM All Tar Rally and the GR Legends Rally, gave them an early cushion that they converted into the overall title at Algoa.
For Habig, a second-generation rally driver, the championship adds to the six South African National Rally titles won by his father, Jannie, all of them at the wheel of Volkswagens.
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The champions' path to the title was eased when their closest rivals, Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz, were halted by transmission trouble, while teammates Chris Coertse and Carolyn Swan went off the road late on Friday in their NRC1 Mazda2. Not that the leaders needed the assistance, having swept all five stages on Friday to take victory by five minutes.
Dawie van der Merwe and Matt Kohler took second on Friday and with it NRC2 honours in their Polo, ahead of regional Subaru crews Owen Jones and Aden Bredekamp, and Warren Scholtz and Justin Gay. NRC3 winners Ross and Roxanne Bartle ended fifth in their Polo, followed by Oliver and Malcolm de Man in a Toyota Auris, Kent and Justin Rutherford in an NRC3 Polo, and the NRC2 Polo crews of Bruce Swatton and Jonty Brown, and Lynton Swatton and Tommy Coetzee.
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With their transmission repaired, van Wyk and Swartz came out firing on Saturday. After trailing Habig and White in the opening stage, they mastered the slippery conditions to dominate the next three tests. Habig and White found their rhythm to take the final two stages, but by then van Wyk and Swartz had done enough to secure the day's honours. Second place was sufficient for Habig and White to wrap up the championship.
Coertse and Swan drove a steady race to third in the Mazda2, ahead of NRC2 winners van der Merwe and Kohler, regional crew Juan and Cailyn van Rooyen in a Ford Fiesta, Lynton Swatton and Tommy Coetzee in an NRC2 Polo, and circuit convert Jeandre Marais with Henry Adams in a regional Polo. Seventh-placed brothers Kent and Justin Rutherford took NRC3 honours in their Polo, ahead of Bruce Swatton and Jonty Brown in an NRC2 Volkswagen Polo.
The 2026 South African National Rally Championship concludes with the TRAC N4 Dullstroom Rally on 30 and 31 October.
Colin Windell for Colin-on-Cars in association with
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Images: Jeff Latham
