FORTUNE(R) FAVOURS THE BRAVE!

What to do when you want to buy a Toyota Fortuner, but circumstances beyond your control scupper your plans? You make like Anneri Kemp of Melkbosstrand and win one!

After winning the gruelling final round of the Toyota Fortuner Challenge, Anneri, Media24’s entry for the competition, stopped dreaming of a second-hand Fortuner: as the winner, she drove away with a brand-new dream rig.

The Boeing pilot – a keen duathlon and triathlon competitor – says she wanted to buy a Fortuner, but when she and her husband Tinus found a second-hand one last year and made an offer, the dealer had just sold it to someone else. To make matters worse, Anneri heard two days later that the company she worked for was closing its doors due to the economic consequences of the pandemic. Not only was she without an income for several months, but any plans to buy a Fortuner had to be abandoned.

“One afternoon, I was sitting with Tinus while he was getting chemotherapy treatment for liver cancer, and I told him that if I couldn’t buy a car, then I would have to win one. I searched online and came across the Drive & Camp entry form for the Toyota Fortuner Challenge. I couldn’t believe it. It was definitely a sign from above, and I immediately entered,” says Anneri, who was later selected as a semi-finalist and then finally as Media24’s finalist for the challenge.

The final round of the sixth annual Toyota Fortuner Challenge had participants from four media companies – Media24, SuperSport, the Independent Group, and Arena Media – gather at the Kloofzicht Lodge and Spa in Gauteng. Each finalist was partnered with a celebrity, and together the team faced a series of six challenges.

Anneri’s teammate was Dakar Rally legend Giniel de Villiers, who knows a thing or two about Toyota. “I was so happy it was Giniel. I’m a motorsport fan and I had a feeling we would work well together as a team.”

Anneri and Giniel indeed made for a formidable team and were crowned

winners at the end of an exhausting day. Anneri is also the first female winner in the history of the challenge.

“The final challenge – where we first had to overcome obstacles and then put together a complicated puzzle – was undoubtedly the most difficult. I’m not good with obstacles and neither is Giniel, and the competition was still wide open, but fortunately we managed to make it up with the puzzle and won the challenge.”

Anneri and Tinus are already planning their trips with her new Fortuner. “We love adventure and are dreaming of all the destinations and wonderful sights that lie ahead for us with this special vehicle,” she says.