Desert beating
The stark beauty of the Kalahari Desert once again played host to the 1000 Desert Race sponsored by Toyota SA. This grueling race is the ultimate offload race locally that truly separates the best from the rest, and it would be a clean sweep of the podium for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Related: Toyota Gazoo Racing is ready for Dakar 2021
Over 1000 km's of sand, rocks, and thorny brush separated the teams from the finish line and it would be Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dennis Murphy that would cross the line first followed closely by Guy Botteril and his co-driver Simon Vacy-Lyle in second place. Shameer Variawa and Danie Staasen made a late charge and passed the third-placed drivers on the final loop to take the final step of the podium, resulting in a podium sweep for the factory team.
The reigning champ, Henk Lategan, and co-driver Brett Cummings would fall foul of the course and have an altercation with a rock on the opening qualifier stage and despite a heroic fightback from last position, would retire their Hilux with further technical issues.
The desert race is not just an ultimate endurance test for man and machine but also serves as a qualifier for the Dakar event and the Desert Race in particular is also a place where rookie drivers that have never competed before, stand a chance at taking home the prize of a free Dakar entry and a sizable financial prize to help them get to the toughest race on the planet. This prize was won by the French team of Yannick and Valeria Panagoitis in the T1.2 buggy class.
With their first-place win, de Villiers and Muprhy are back in the title hunt after a somewhat disastrous first outing in the Dullstroom 400 at the start of the season, and with a full podium, Toyota Gazoo Racing is heading into the Bronkhorstspuit 400 race in mid-August with high hopes of another winning weekend.
