The South Africans in Dakar Rally 2019 17.01.2019: Multiple former South African Cross Country Moto champion but a Dakar rookie, Pretoria’s Kenny Gilbert started the week in 42nd on his Husqvarna before moving steadily up the leaderboar

Multiple former South African Cross Country Moto champion but a Dakar rookie, Pretoria’s Kenny Gilbert started the week in 42nd on his Husqvarna before moving steadily up the leaderboard on his Husqvarna to end up 25th overall and third of the bike rookies by Saturday’s rest day. Kenny continued to make up places through week 2 to wind up a stunning 19th overall and second amongst the rookies.


Gilbert’s arch-rival on home soil, Botswana’s reigning SA champion Ross Branch was another to star on his Dakar debut aboard his KTM.  Branch climbed the leaderboard to sit 22nd by Friday before moving up to 17th on Saturday to take the rookie lead into the rest day. Ross then picked up a position a day through the second week to start Thursday’s final stage in 13th overall en route to that motorcycle rookie victory.




Dakar legend Giniel de Villiers was leading the cars on Day 2, but the Gazoo Toyota Hilux ace hit a rock and lost several hours on Wednesday and then lost more time assisting teammate Ten Brink on Thursday to start Friday 40th. Undeterred, the former Dakar winner fought back to end up ninth in a consistent fightback to add to a stunning Dakar record. His Proudly South African team Toyota teammate Nasser Al Attiyah meanwhile finally brought Dakar glory to Toyota.


Another South African to earn a Dakar 2019 finisher’s prize was truck crew member Sean Berriman, who raced alongside Germans, driver Mathias Beringher and Stefan Henken in a MAN as part of South Racing’s fast response team. The trio enjoyed a positive race in between emergency servicing their teammates to come in 12th overall among the behemoths.




Two other South African entries starred in the Dakar, but did not make the finish — car rookies and the first SA team of colour to tackle the epic race, Shameer Variawa and Zaheer Bodhanya enjoyed a Dakar baptism of fire, arriving in Peru with a brand new SA developed Red Lined Nissan Navara and zero dune driving experience. They nonetheless acquitted themselves well, but struggled to overcome a low starting position on a dusty and difficult Dakar.


’The Overtakers’ spent much of the first week moving up the field each morning only to be thwarted by another problem in the afternoon and do it all over again the next day, often racing into the dark and the crew working through the night. Their efforts were finally thwarted when the Navara hit a hidden rock in visibility, severely hampered by a combination of fog and fesh fesh dust to force its retirement on day 8. They will be back!


Another SA competitor to show ultimate grit was Original class bike racer Stuart Gregory, who raced without any service assistance out of a trunk containing all his spares and tools carried from stage to stage in a truck, quietly and effectively progressed day by day. The Port Edward KZN adventurer’s Dakar came to an end on Tuesday, when he suffered the despair of an engine failure on his KTM to end a stirring debut effort.






Husqvarna Motorcycles SA, Shameer Variawa Racing and Red Lined Motoring Adventures by motorsportmedia.co.za