Close call makes Lategan more determined to win Dakar Rally

After finishing the Dakar Rally as runner-up by the second smallest time margin in the cars category – three minutes 57 minutes – in its 45-year history, Henk Lategan is more determined than ever to win the world’s toughest race.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) driver and his co-driver Brett Cummings led seven out of the Saudi Arabian event’s 12 stages, but ended up as the bridesmaids behind Yazeed al Rajhi and his German navigator Time Gottschalk. The difference in the end being the local hero and his German navigator’s experience in the dunes which secured them the win on the penultimate stage in the notorious Empty Quarter.

While Lategan’s TGRSA team-mate Giniel de Villiers has stood on all three steps on the Dakar Rally podium, Lategan and Cummings’ achievement is the best ever by an all-South African crew. And as Leon Theron, Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) Senior Vice-President Sales and Marketing, likes to point out, while piloting an all-South African developed and built car in the Hilux T1+ Evo.

Local is lekker in Dakar Rally

“We mustn’t forget it is a truly 100% South African team,” Theron said this week.

“Technicians, engineers, all our support crew and the drivers with the exception of some international navigators. It makes it so much more unique.”

While Lategan and Cummings won the Prologue and Stage 8, his 20-year-old team-mate Saood Variawa alongside French navigator Francois Cazalet took the honours on Stage 3 to became the youngest stage winner in a car in Dakar Rally history.

TGRSA’s other two crews, De Villiers and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz and Guy Botterill and Denis Murphy, were both forced to throw in the towel. De Villiers on Stage 6 after a neck injury suffered by Von Zitzewitz and Botterill on Stage 10 after an horrific crash from which he and Murphy escaped unharmed.

Lategan hungry for more

The 30-year-old Lategan admitted that while it was bittersweet not to become only the second South African to win the race after De Villiers, it will serve as motivation for the Dakar Rally in future.

“Every night you get a medal for leading the race and every night they asked us if we were to be leading. I kept on saying said yes, but the only thing that will matter is still holding onto this medal at the end of the race,” Lategan, whose previous best finish was fifth place in 2023, says.

“Losing out by the second smallest margin ever is disappointing, but again serves as motivation knowing that you can win if you can come that close. We’ll continue bettering ourselves and bettering the car.”

ALSO READ: Toyota hopes to give Giniel de Villiers proper Dakar Rally send-off

Tough luck

Lategan added that the “horrible” experience of having to have watch the 2024 Dakar Rally at home with a crocked shoulder served as a major motivation for this year’s race. He suffered the injury during a crash in 2023 which ultimately cost him the defence of his SA Rally-Raid Championship title.

“Having a shoulder injury like that was a bit of bad luck. The surgeon I went to has been specialising in shoulders for about 20 years and does three surgeries a day. When I asked him how many times he has seen my injury he replied only three,” says Lategan.

“It was really motivating and awesome to finally get back in the car.”

ALSO READ: Hustle and bustle of the bivouac backbone of the Dakar Rally

Having fun key

Cummings, who navigated for Botterill during his Dakar Rally debut last year, said the pair followed a simple mantra in Saudi Arabia.

“It was nice to be with Henk again and we had some fun. It you forget to have fun, the race is seldom an enjoyable one.”

De Villiers was full of praise for his high-flying team-mates after having to retire for the first time on his 22nd start.

Lategan ‘will win’ Dakar Rally

“It was an amazing 14 years with Toyota, a time during which we finished third three times and second twice. There was just one place that eluded us and Henk now knows what it feels like. Henk and Brett did a great job and there is a lot of positives from a Toyota perspective,” said De Villiers.

“I’m sure he’s going to win the race one day. He has a hell of long time ahead of him. He showed the world what he is capable of and we’ll see what happens.”

While Lategan and Cumming are competing in the second leg of the World Rally-Raid Championship in Abu Dhabi next month and both Botterill and Variawa have local racing commitments, De Villiers says he has “no idea” what lies ahead for him.

But what about the possibility of another Dakar Rally?

“Never say never … because never is a long time,” he told The Citizen Motoring with a wry smile.