Automotive Business Review February 2015 | Page 46

By Roger McCleery

GLOBAL MOTORSPORT OVERVIEW

2015 Starts well
for motorsport

The 9300km and 13 stages of the 26th Dakar for car, trucks, motorcycles and quads run through Argentina,
Chile and Bolivia has got to be the most extreme event on this planet, bar none. Not only for competitors and
navigators but the thousands of support crew, designers, engineers, medical personnel, marshals, TV crews
and cameramen and of course the officials themselves.

P

ressure on the people involved
and the hammering the vehicles
take is the equivalent to the entire
Formula 1 season of 19 races run over
2 weeks without a break, over the
roughest terrain in the worst weather
conditions imaginable.
Our talented South Africans who entered
have done us proud. Besides winning a
Dakar, Giniel de Villiers (Imperial Toyota
Hilux) has been on the podium three times
with our South African flag flying high.
Keen competitors from South Africa took
the plunge to race in South America in
three different classes - cars, bikes and
quads. Glyn Hall, the genius behind
HallSport, built three Toyotas that finished
in the top 7.
What about our privateer, Willem
Saaijman on his quad, winning the final
stage (South Africa’s only stage win) and
move up to 9th overall in the class after
two weeks of setbacks.
Leeroy Poulter, our South African Rally
Champion came 2nd in the final stage in
his Castrol Toyota Hilux just 25.5 seconds
behind the winner, Robby Gordon (USA).
Leeroy and navigator Rob Howie, were
16th overall in the car class after also
suffering problems on the way.

together with material brought in by
helicopter from all over the place, plus
still cameramen and onboard shots to
their mobile base.
With the Formula 1 season due to start
in Melbourne on Sunday 15th March it
has been pretty quiet on the Western
Front.
There are a couple of driver changes,
like Alonso to McLaren, now powered
by Honda getting back into the scene.
Vettel has gone to Ferrari who hopefully
have got a better car in 2015 than the
non-competitive red racer of 2014.
Mercedes is sure to dominate again
with Williams in with a shout using
Mercedes Benz power. Red Bull has
lost its championship winning designer,
Adrian Newey, and of course their
4-time World Champion. Their whole act
will need to bond again with their new
driver line-up.
The other teams however will struggle
along to fill their lesser places with the
old lucky break coming their way and
podium finishes.

Enduros which have attracted overseas
competition is the training school for the
skill needed to enter the Dakar.
Of course, a war goes on amongst the
manufacturers – Toyota and Ford – for
top honours whilst KTM rules the roost
in the bike classes with not much official
support by the distributors of Japanese
motorcycles.
Strongest of the circuit racing on our
seven tracks (not many countries can post
this number of top circuits) is the Historic
classes where upwards of 300