26 Jun 2017

It was a case of the same storyline but different cast at this year’s Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1 000 Desert race, round three of the South African Cross Country motor championship.

Once again, Toyota team under  the stewardship of former Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers and his co-driver pulled their first win of the season in the production vehicles category.

The duo finished just six seconds ahead of team mates and defending national champion Leeroy Poulter and Robert Howie.

Even though Ford Ranger beat new entrant Renault Duster in the overall final results, the pair of Johan Van Staden and Mike Lawrenson made a good first impression by coming third in the Class FIA.

In the closely contested class T category the final podium place went to Mpumalanga brothers Johan and Werner Horn in a Malalane Toyota Hilux.

In the special vehicles category, Marius Fourie and Jolinda Fourie drove their BAT to first position followed by Coetzee Labuscagne and Sandra Labuscagne with a Porter.

In an interview, Giniel de Villiers said even though he managed to win the race for the first time, the journey was challenging as it needed more concentration especially where the road was narrow.

“You need a lot of concentration in this race because there were sections where the road was very narrow in the bush and you need to really concentrate well to get through without hitting anything,” he said.

He also said the Toyota 1 000km Desert Race was preparing them for the Dakar Rally as it gave them the opportunity to test their vehicles.

He said even though the Desert Race was only for two days, the experience was exciting and the enthusiastic supporters motivated them.

For the national defending champion Poulter, this year was not the best of his experiences as he had a puncture on Saturday which influenced the final result.

He was however optimistic about a better performance in other races to come. He was also looking forward to a change of environment for the Desert Race next year.

“I am looking forward to a probably fresh ground because here we have used up most of the roads and they are now damaged,” he said.

The Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) spokesperson Keitumetse Setlang said even though the final evaluation was yet to be done, the race generally went well without any major challenges.

She said the race has been growing for the past four years that it was held in Jwaneng.

She said the race has awarded the communities around Jwaneng the experience of how to stage tourism activities that can help them diversify the economy from the diamond mining.

“What we hope has been picked by communities around Jwaneng is learning in terms of now staging events, being able to now utilise what they have learnt to make sure that life in Jwaneng continues beyond the desert race.

Obviously this is a mining town but we would want to see more events taking place in Jwaneng so that it can remain in the world map,” she said. ENDS