About Neil Woolridge Motorsport

Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) boasts nearly three decades of top-tier rally-raid experience - almost all of which have been with Ford South Africa and its predecessor, SAMCOR.

For the past 24 years NWM has been building and racing Ford Rangers, both in the South African championship and around the world, including supplying vehicles to private teams in domestic and regional series internationally where they have secured multiple championship victories.

Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer won the Overall Production Vehicle and Class T1+ championship titles in the 2023 South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) competing with the EcoBoost V6-powered NWM Ford Ranger - a crowning achievement for this team’s long and illustrious motorsport history.

The NWM Ford Ranger competed in the 2014 Dakar Rally and the 2024 edition, achieving top 10 stage times in both instances. The South African crew of Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer set the seventh fastest time on the final stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally, proving the team’s ability to compete with the best in the rally-raid world.

The NWM Ranger Ultimate (formerly T1+) is designed, manufactured and run by the Neil Woolridge Motorsport team, which is based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. It uses Ford’s 3.5L V6 EcoBoost twin-turbocharged petrol engine, with power and torque strictly controlled by the FIA and SARRC regulations. The vehicles have a minimum weight requirement of 2 010kg.

For the 2025 season of the SA Rally-Raid Championship, three leading brands are united once again as Castrol returns as the title sponsor of the Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) rally-raid team, in partnership with Ford South Africa. The team is further strengthened by bp which joins as a sponsor this year, adding its advanced bp Ultimate fuel to the mix.

As the 2023 SARRC champions, Gareth and Boyd will be leading the charge for the Castrol NWM Ford Team as they seek to reclaim their title in the new international-specification FIA Ultimate class. They will be joined by the Brazilian crew of Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea in a second Castrol NWM Ford Ranger Ultimate. Marcos and Kleber are not newcomers to the South African championship, having raced here on numerous occasions since 2018.

The Castrol NWM Ford Team will feature a third car this season, as NWM-supported privateers Wors Prinsloo and Andre Vermeulen have been incorporated into the team with their Ranger Ultimate. They will be competing in the new SA Ultimate class, which is designed to be slightly more affordable compared to the full FIA category.

The Neil Woolridge Motorsport Team

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