Tough day at the office for Toyota Desert 1000

The wide open spaces of before are all but gone and the new area around Selebi-Phikwe offers up the dense bush and very little overtaking opportunities. If it was easy though, everyone would be doing it. I recently headed to Botswana to witness some of the best rally drivers battle it out in this harsh environment.

The Toyota Desert 1000 race is the second largest event in Botswana apart from their national elections. People flock from all corners of the country to witness these legends battle it out on the tight and twisty routes. Spectators line the roads at key viewing spots and try to get as close to the cars as they possibly can. Some even take chances but are quickly pulled back into line by the keen-eyed marshals.

Thankfully though, we, the media and some representatives from affiliated sponsors managed to get out to the lesser known spots for uninterrupted viewing. We found ourselves meandering through thick, thorny bushes with a fleet of Toyota Fortuners which in themselves performed admirably when getting us to these locations. Once there we got to see the rally cars up close they were spectacular, to say the least.

A long weekend fight saw Chris Visser and navigator Phillip Herselman take the honours in their Class FIA Toyota Hilux, supported by Atlas Copco. This pair are no strangers to the podium, but winning at the gruelling 2019 Desert Race was a highlight for them: “What a race! Everything just felt right, and even though we had our fair share of challenges along the way, we managed to stay out of trouble and bring the Toyota Hilux home in the first place.” Visser and Herselman were quick from the get-go, setting the fastest time in Friday’s qualifying race.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing teams of Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings, Giniel De Villiers/Dennis Murphy and Shameer Variawa/Juan Möhr, qualified well but things soon changed for two of the three Toyota Gazoo Racing SA crews on the first race day. It was first De Villiers/Murphy and then Lategan/Cummings who struggled through the tricky terrain in the eastern parts of Botswana. Each of them hit tree stumps which resulted in damaging their Toyota Hilux race cars as a result. De Villiers was the first to suffer, losing more than an hour making roadside repairs– this after setting the pace throughout the opening loop of the race.

A similar fate awaited teammates Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. Lategan was second-fastest in qualifying and set a blazing pace on the opening day of the main event. By the time the dust settled over the Botswana bush after the first race day, Lategan/Cummings was sitting pretty at the top of the standings however Botswana had other ideas for the two.

“We started okay, but suffered one puncture after the other early in the loop,” said a regretful Lategan. “Eventually, we ran out of spare wheels, but Shameer stopped to give us one of his spares, which I’m very grateful for.”

However, after changing the wheels, Lategan and Cummings found themselves in their teammates’ dust, and, once again fell foul to a tree stump as a result. “It was a terrible end to a very promising race. We had won the first day’s race, and we’re still very much in contention for overall victory until we ran into the tree stump.” The pair spent over one-and-a-half hours trying to fixing their car and eventually finished as the 14th Production Car across the line – with teammates De Villiers/Murphy going three spots better. Botswana does not go easy on you and even the giant’s cars fall to its treachery.

That said though, Variawa and Möhr kept their cool throughout the weekend, the pair qualified fourth-fastest and didn’t put a foot wrong throughout the race. Halfway through the final day, the two found themselves in second, with just Visser/Herselmal ahead of them. Keeping composure, they piloted their Toyota Hilux with confidence, avoiding trouble, their reward as a commendable second place.

Next up for the SACCS is the Bronkhorstspruit 400, which takes place during the first weekend of August 2019 as the road, or fight to Dakar which is said to take place in the Middle-East continues