The Cool Down Lap: Hennie de Klerk

The Dakar has since 1979 been the traditional curtain raiser to the international motorsport calendar and one which has been testing man and machine in some of the toughest off-road conditions to the limit for the last 41 years.

As notorious as its reputation has been since the first 182 competitors left Paris for the shores of Lac Rose on the outskirt of the Senegalese capital, it continues to draw competitors from around the globe keen on taking on what has been billed as motorsport’s ultimate adventure.

For the 351 competitors taking part in this year’s Dakar, the similarities with that first event couldn’t have been more comparable as the 42^nd edition sees yet another shift in location with the deserts of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East replacing those of Peru in South America.

With a total of 12 stages and 5 000 km competitive stage kilometres from Jeddah to Qiddiya awaiting the crews, any likely advantage from previous years have been wiped out, leaving the door open for less well-known names to feature among the fancied runners.

Although many South Africans are expected to follow the progress of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux team with their star studded line-up of defending champions Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel, local hero and 2009 winner Giniel de Villiers and Spanish co-driver Alex Haro, Bernhard ten Brinke/Tom Colsoul and of course double Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso and multiple bike winner Marc Coma, attention will also be focused on vehicle #354 that will be upholding South African honour.

The recipient of the Dakar Challenge Award in 2017, which guaranteed his entry into the event the following year, regular South African Cross Country competitor, Hennie de Klerk, surprised the off-roading contingent by not only achieving his goal of finishing the Dakar first time out, but also taking his privately run Volkswagen Amarok to 28^th position overall after starting from position 54.

Now, and after electing the sit out last year’s event, de Klerk is back with not only a new co-driver in the vastly experienced Johnn Smalberger, but a new vehicle with the Amarok having been replaced by a Nissan Navara built by former driver Terence Marsh’s Red-Lined Motorsport operation.

“[The Navara] is the new generation car where the engine has been moved backwards and slightly lower. This improves cornering and the car jumps a little better. The engine has a bit more torque low down which is great in the dunes,” de Klerk said at the unveiling of his new charger in Pretoria recently.

The only other South African team competing on four wheels in this year’s event, de Klerk stated that unfamiliarity of the Saudi desert could play a significant part in levelling out the playing field over the 12 stages, and that lessons learned from the 2018 event, as well as additional dune driving and navigation practice, will stand him and Smalberger in good stead of achieving their goal of finishing in the top 20.

“For five of the 12 stages, we will only receive the roadbook minutes before departing, which makes navigation equally difficult for professional teams as for privateer teams. In the past, the professional teams would send the roadbook to a guy in the UK who will plot the route on Google Earth and give the drivers some tips. Now we are all on equal footing so navigation is going to play a big role,” de Klerk said.

“Having done the 2018 event gave me a lot of experience in how to take on such a long and daunting race. ‘Slower means faster’ in a 12-day endurance event”.

In the hot seat!

Well before the unveiling of his new ride, this writer was afforded the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride shotgun with Hennie in his Amarok during a private testing session at an impromptu track on the outskirts of Pretoria West.

Having grown-up in the 1990s where nothing came close to matching the spectacle of motorsport, every preconceived notion I had conjured up over years of following events like the Dakar on television instantly evaporated when I was handed the helmet and balaclava to join Hennie in his office.

In addition to the helmet, I also had to put on the HANS safety device designed to prevent violent neck movements during accidents. Contorting myself into the co-driver’s seat of the left-hand-drive Amarok, the reality of off-road racing, never mind the Dakar, hit hard in a way no on-board camera footage I had seen over many years could do.

Built to FIA specification of course, getting inside the Amarok was an art itself thanks to the side bars of the roll cage, an art I immediately failed at, at which point my helmet came into contact with the cage above my head. What’s more, the presence of the HANS device means you can hardly turn your head when seated, with the cramped cocoon-like sensation being completed by the tight, and I mean tight, three-point harness.

With my intercom plugged-in, I was given one instruction by Hennie before setting off. “If we go over, grab this lever and not the roll cage,” he said, pointing to a metal grab handle located on the right of the vertical handbrake. Instruction noted. What followed next was pure magic.

Thumping the sequential gear lever of the Sadev-sourced transmission into the first gear, he then flattened the accelerator and let the Amarok’s V8 engine and his driving do the talking. Unlike Johann Smalberger however, there was no need for me to read any pace notes as I would have done a very poor job at it, a point I will get too in a bit.

Keeping my composure not yelp in excitement as the smile on my face grew progressively wider, I hardly had my eyes on the route as I was more focused on how calmly and with complete concentration Hennie went about in making the Amarok dance.

Feeling the car underneath him and applying the power where needed before hitting the brakes and making the Amarok turn on a coin by grabbing the handbrake, watching Hennie at work was sheer art-in-motion and such a joy that I had to keep reminding myself not to let lose my inner six-year old staring unmoved at the television watching legends such as Hannes Grobler, the late Apie Reyneke, Cliff Barker, Kassie Coetzee and Neil Woolridge in action.

Ignoring the thought of “am I really doing this?” that started spinning in my the head the moment the helmet went on, my time in the hot seat also put into renewed perspective the often overlooked role of the co-driver.

Clamped in his seat and nearly unable to move, never mind having to focus on the road ahead and his position in the notes whilst being rocked from side-to-side, the trust so often talked about between driver and co-driver became more and more apparent as calling out instructions such as ‘four right over crest, into medium left tight’ is frankly impossible to decipher on a sheet of paper threatening to be knocked-out of your hands.

The final flourish came into the form of a 1000 Lakes Rally style jump. Unsurprisingly, Hennie took it easy and while we did get a lot of air and landed with little ill effect, I could not prevent my inner six-year old from yelling internally, “more, more, faster, faster!”

One last tug of the handbrake to negotiate a tight and rutted hairpin bend before a short sprint to the stop point, my ride of a lifetime had come to an end and childhood dream fulfilled. It was nothing I had ever imagined it to be watching the action on the small screen all those years ago, in fact, I was that and a lot more – exciting, mesmerising and a few other descriptions I will best not mention.

My brief foray into the world of off-road racing with Hennie not only came as an incredible experience, but one where a new level of respect is appreciated for the crew who will be subjected to much more strenuous treatment over the dunes and in the boiling heat of the Saudi desert from 5 January. As per his mantra though of taking it steady is to be followed throughout the event, expect vehicle #354 to be at the finish on 17 January no doubt.

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