Dakar 2020 a landmark year for competitors

When Thierry Sabine got lost in the Abidjan-Nice rally in 1977, the idea for the Dakar was born. An idea that he expressed in these words: “A challenge for those who go and a dream for those who stay behind.” Forty years later, the Dakar is as tough as it gets, despite all the technological advances to support competitors in this gruelling race.

And while Dakar 2020 will ultimately be remembered for Carlos Sainz Sr winning his third race in a third different make of car, Ricky Brabec taking his first bike win and Honda’s first since 1989, and also for the loss of the life of Dakar motorcycle hero Paulo Gonçalves, it will also go down as the best ever for Southern Africans.

Drivers, riders, teams and cars from south of the Limpopo starred with stage wins, podium finishes and heroic efforts all-round, as Sean Berriman navigated US driver Casey Currie to the SSV win and several others delivered top ten finishes.

Three wins in three different brands

Spanish former double world rally champion Sainz added a third Dakar win aboard his Mini buggy to his 2010 Volkswagen and 2018 Peugeot victories.

He beat Qatari 2019 winner Nasser Al Attiyah’s South African-built and run factory Gazoo Racing Toyota Hilux and former 13-time Dakar winner on two and four wheels, Stephane Peterhansel’s Mini, after that pair started the final day split by just six seconds.

Saudi home hero Yazeed Al Rajhi (Hilux) came home fourth ahead of South Africa’s former Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers (Gazoo SA Hilux), the consistent Argentine Orlando Terranova (Mini AWD) and Dutch driver Bernhard ten Brinke (Gazoo SA Hilux), while Dakar rookie winner, former double F1 world champion and two-time Le Mans 24-hour winner, Fernando Alonso, ended 13th overall after rolling his Gazoo SA Hilux among several other adventures over the past two weeks.

Giniel de Villiers added another stage win to his incredible Dakar CV on day 2, but he had to work hard to overcome several punctures and a few navigation issues early on, with punctures set to be another point to remember in the early days of this year’s race.

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Dakar 2020 was also a great race for tiny Johannesburg race car maker, Century, after Frenchman Mattieu Serradori took the team’s first ever Dakar day win en route to a splendid eigth overall aboard the Corvette-powered machine in a truly giant-killing performance.

It was a tough, but rewarding race for Kyalami-based Red-Lined Motoring Adventures, that ran a pair of Nissan Navaras for gentleman crews, but Dakar delivered a poisonous sting in the tail to TreasuryOne duo, 2018 Dakar Rookie of the Year Hennie de Klerk and Johann Smalberger racing out of Pretoria, who started 27th in Friday’s final stage off a fine week following a difficult start, only to be left stranded within spitting distance of the finish with transmission failure.

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They duly made it to the finish to claim 34th overall, two places ahead of their Dubai-based British teammates Thomas Bell and Patrick McMurren.

A relatively new Dakar class, the side-by-side vehicles, delivered a thrilling race throughout with positions changing by the waypoint literally throughout the two weeks, but American Casey Currie driving with SA lad Sean Berriman now racing on a US licence, managed to be most consistent to take an ultimately easy win over Russian Sergei Kariakin, Chilean Francisco Lopez Contardo and Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach.

Source: Dakar 2020 coverage TreasuryOne Motorsport, Red-Lined