Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings of Gazoo Racing Toyota Hilux. Picture: Nadia Jordaan.
The famous saying goes: “It’s not how we fall, but how we get back up again.” Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Henk Lategan fits this bill like a glove.
As an ambitious rookie, he took on motorsport’s toughest challenge at the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January last year and was lying in fifth place overall after two podium stage finishes. But his campaign ended in tears on stage five, when he had to be airlifted to hospital after breaking his shoulder in a crash.
His recovery from a serious operation meant he had to watch the opening race of the South African Cross Country Series from the sidelines, not an easy thing to do for the then reigning two-time champion.
But Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings nonetheless came storming back during the course of the season to eventually clinch the 2021 South African Cross Country Production Vehicle title at the final event in Parys last month. It was their third consecutive title and probably their most special one, too.
Now one year older, wiser and brimming with confidence, Lategan takes on the Dakar, which started on Saturday, again alongside Cummings. “We had to play catch-up for most of the season and it was hugely satisfying to win three events and the title.
“Now, it is time for a totally different mindset as we get ready for the Dakar Rally,” Lategan told The Citizen before leaving. “I really have some unfinished business this time around. And we will have a much better idea of the challenges involved.”
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The 27 year old, who started reading notes as navigator for his dad Hein Lategan at the age of 15, vividly recalls the events that ended his 2021 race.
“I did not know what to expect in [the 2021] race, so we spent the first two days at a much too cautious pace. Then, I ended up setting a competitive time in the third stage,” Lategan recalls. “Sadly, a ditch caught me out the next day and we crashed, with me hurting my shoulder.”
Lategan is joined by three other Hilux crews as part of Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) in Saudi Arabia. These include two former champions, Giniel de Villiers and Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who team up with Dennis Murphy and Frenchman Mathieu Baumel respectively, and Shameer Variawa and co-driver Danie Stassen under the watchful eye of TGRSA team principal Glyn Hall.
Hall oversees production of these specially built racing machines at his workshop in Midrand.
De Villiers became the only South African to win the event back in 2009 driving a Volkswagen Touareg, with three-time champion Al-Attiyah winning South Africa’s first constructor’s title with TGRSA in 2019.
All four bakkies will be powered by a 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 engine, sourced from the new Toyota Land Cruiser 300. These power plants replace the 5.0-litre V8 naturally aspirated engines that powered the Hiluxes at the event in the past.
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