Hennie aims to finish in the top 20 at Dakar
HENNIE DE KLERK, South Africa’s 2018 Dakar Rally Rookie of the Year, has confirmed he will be competing in next year’s race from January 6-17 in Peru.
The Pretoria-based businessman did SA proud when he and navigator Gerhard Schutte not only completed the 2018 Dakar, but also won the rookie honours in their SA-built Volkswagen Amarok.
In 2018 De Klerk won a free entry to the Dakar Rally after he was the first of the registered Dakar challengers to cross the line at the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1 000 Desert Race last June.
The race covered a total of 1 000km over three days.
“We didn’t think the Dakar sand bug would bite us again, but we are excited to announce that we have committed to enter in 2019, and have started preparations in earnest,” De Klerk said.
“The 2019 Dakar will span over 5 000kms and will consist of 10 stages – seven of which are sand and dunes.
“As dunes are the toughest and most challenging part of the Dakar, it is also my favourite part, and we will be travelling to Namibia six times to practice on the sand as the desert there offers very similar conditions.
“During this year’s event, our strategy was to race at 80 percent of our capacity, as our goal was simply just to finish.
“It was our dream to finish in the top 30 and so we were absolutely ecstatic to end 28th overall.
“For Dakar 2019 we will aim first and foremost to complete the race, and then our objective is to improve on the 2018 results, and finish in the top 20.” – ANA