RUSTENBURG HERALD - RUSTENBURG - The 47th edition of the Dakar Rally that took place over 14 days from 4 to 17 January in Saudi Arabia, will go down in the history books as one of the most demanding, toughest and testing and will be remembered by many for formidable racing, perseverance and determination, while the number of awards and accompanying silverware will serve as a reminder of how well South Africans performed.
In the end, the SA team of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings finished in a close second place with their locally built Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux EVO, in the extremely competitive Ultimate T1+ Class, after finishing a total of 7 828 kilometres.
The team won the Prologue on the first day, while they also won Stage 8 and led the field until Stage 9 before their closest rivals, another Toyota Hilux team, Saudi heroes, Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk, benefitted from the leading team having to open the road. But the defending SA champions fought back and regained the lead after Stage 10.
They had to, however, relinquish it again to Al Rajhi/Gottschalk after Stage 11 when the local driver started the stage in the ‘Empty Quarter’ with a better road position and made up time against the South Africans, and despite clawing back time on the very last stage, Lategan/Cummings had to settle for the runner-up position albeit by a mere 3min 57s.
The overall podium was rounded off by the Ford Raptor of Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, while the multiple Dakar Rally winner, Nasser Al-Attiya/Edouard Boulanger finished fourth in the Dacia Sandrider.
Four GR teams completed the Dakar Rally in the top 20 with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz finishing ninth overall, Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon 14th and the 19 year-old South African, Sawood Variawa and his French navigator, Francois Cazalet, in 20th. Variawa also became the youngest driver to win a stage.
Another Midrand-based race vehicle manufacturer, Century Racing, also returned home with good results. Ten CR vehicles started the event with three teams finishing in the top 15. The SA team of Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer were 10th while their French counterparts, Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier, brought their CR home in sixth place overall. Seven CR vehicles completed the race.
There were also full marks for the South African vehicle manufacturer, Red-Lined, with all four the vehicles surviving this gruelling event.
(Images: Toyota Gazoo; Century Racing; Puck Klaassen; Red-Line and WCT Engineering)
