The New Year opens with the 46th Dakar Rally – with famous race beginning in the heat of Saudi Arabia.
This is the fifth edition of the Dakar in the country and it promises to push man and machine harder than ever before.
The Paris-Dakar Rally formally began in 1979 with competitors racing from Paris through Spain to Morocco and then deep into the Sahara Desert, finishing in Dakar, Senegal.
It was the vision of legendary adventurer Thierry Sabine, who took part in a race from Abidjan in Ivory Coast to Nice in France. He became lost in the Sahara and while waiting to be rescued, formulated the idea of what is now the Dakar Rally.
The Dakar Rally 2024 starts with the Prologue on January 5 and finishes two weeks later with a distance of 7 891km.
This includes timed sections over 4,727km where participants compete against the clock.
Competitors will sleep in trailers, under canvas or next to their vehicles.
For South Africa, the TOYOTA GAZOO team will be fielding three crews.
The most experienced member of the team remains Giniel de Villiers, who will again be partnered with Denis Murphy.
The South African driver has one of the best records in the history of the Dakar Rally, with 20 starts to his name. Having only finished outside the Top 10 once (2007); he has been in the Top 5 fifteen times and taken overall honours once.
Guy Botterill is also in the mix for South Africa, a 37-year-old driver transitioning from rallying to rally-raid racing.
While Dakar 2024 marks Botterill’s debut at the event, he will be supported by the experienced co-driver Brett Cummings.
There are new regulations that will be applied during the 2024 Dakar Rally.
This includes that no flag is allowed besides the competitor’s name. This clause is based on FIA regulations.
So what does it take to win the Dakar Rally?
The Rally is a long-distance race going cross-country in all-terrain vehicles. Part adventure, part long distance race, the Dakar Rally sees competitors driving on public roads and then off-road, moving through waypoints to the finish line.
The competitors must be quick, versatile and super-fit. They drive their vehicles all day over punishingly rough terrain, so punctures and breakdowns are very common, making good mechanical knowledge an advantage and a tool kit essential.
