Benjamin & Barry wrap it up with Algoa win & second

Benjamin Habig and Barry White wrapped up the Dunlop-shod 2026 South African National Rally Championship with a win and a second place in the double header Algoa National Rally in the Eastern Cape over the weekend. Habig and White dominated the running on Friday before taking a watching brief as they ran out second behind Swazi Cowboy Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz’ similar NRC1 Volkswagen Polo in often treacherously muddy conditions on Saturday.

2025 champions Habig and White dominated the 2026 season. Winning the early rounds including the iCAM All Tar and the GR Legends Rallies, they built up an early advantage before sealing the overall championship at the weekend’s Algoa Rally. Second generation rally driver Habig’s second title also adds to dad Jannie’s six South African National Rally titles, all of them driving Volkswagens.

“Congratulations to Benjamin and Barry on a brilliant double title and Friday win, and to Jono and Nico for a fine win in treacherous conditions on Saturday,” Dunlop technical Partner ATS Supplies Heinz Böse explains. “Those atrocious conditions not only tested crews to the limit, but they also brought out the very best in our Dunlop rally tyres that are engineered to conquer everything from the regular dusty South African conditions to this weekend’s mud and mire.”

Habig and White’s trip to the title was made easier when their closest title rivals, van Wyk and Swartz were stopped by transmission trouble and their teammates, Chris Coertse and Carolyn Swan’s NRC1 Mazda2 went off the road late on Friday. Not that they would have stopped the winners from their five stage rout en route to a five minute victory, but their finishing may well have kept the championship open to the final round.

That left the way open to Dawie van der Merwe and Matt Kohler to take second on Friday en route to the NRC2 win 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’s Polo ended fifth from Oliver and Malcolm de Man’s Toyota Auris, Kent and Justin Rutherford’s NRC3 Polo, and NRC2 Polo crews Polo Bruce Swatton and Jonty Brown, and Lynton Swatton and Tommy Coetzee.

Their transmission repaired, Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz came out all guns blazing on Saturday. After ending behind Habig and White in the opening stage, they mastered the extremely slippery and muddy conditions to dominate the following three stages. Habig and White found their feet to take the final two tests, by which time van Wyk and Swartz were too far gone. But that was still enough for Habig and White to wrap up the title.

Chris Coertse and Carolyn Swan drove a steady day to third in the Mazda 2 ahead of impressive NRC2 winners once again, Dawie van der Merwe and Matt Kohler’s Polo, regional crew Juan and Cailyn van Rooyen’s Ford Fiesta, Lynton Swatton and Tommy Coetzee’s NRC2 Polo, and circuit convert Jeandre Marais and Henry Adams’ regional Polo. Seventh placed Rutherford brothers, Kent and Justin meantime took NRC3 honours in their Polo ahead of the Bruce Swatton and Jonty Brown NRC2 Volkswagen Polo.

The Dunlop-shod 2026 South African National Rally Championship wraps up with the 2026 TRAC N4 Dullstroom Rally on the weekend of 30 and 31 October.