De Villiers on pole for Dakar
South Africa's international off-road racing star Giniel de Villiers has been given the honour of leading the field of 171 cars at the
start of the 2012 Dakar Rally in Argentina on 1 January.
De Villiers and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz will be at the wheel of one of two South African-built Toyota Hilux V8 double cab
pickups that will contest the 15-day 9 000 kilometre marathon race in Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Four-time South African off-road champion
Duncan Vos and Rob Howie will crew the second Hilux.
De Villiers, winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally in a Volkswagen with Von Zitzewitz, will carry the number 301 on his truck in what will be
his 10th Dakar.
Vos will carry number 313 on his first attempt at the world's longest and toughest motor race. The two Hiluxes will compete
in the top T1 class for four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Normally the first driver to leave the starting ramp in the Argentine coastal resort city of Mar del Plata would be the immediate past
winner.
Qatar's Nasser Al Attiyah, who won in January this year, has not entered the 2012 race. A multiple past winner (six times on a
motorcycle and three in a car), France's Stéphane Peterhansel, heads the list of the South Africans' main rivals and will start right
behind De Villiers in car number 302, an X-Raid Mini.
Other notable contenders for an overall win are Peterhansel's teammates Krzysztof Holowczyc of Poland and Spain's Nani Roma (both in
Minis) and fellow South African Alfie Cox (Pewano Volvo).
The 33rd running of the Dakar Rally has attracted a total entry of 465 vehicles consisting of 185 motorcycles, 171 cars, 76 trucks and 33
quads.
Some 50 nationalities are represented among the competitors, whose progress over the 14 days and 14 stages of competition - there is
a rest day in Chile on 8 January - will be reported on by an army of journalists and photographers and will be televised daily to 190
countries and an estimated five million-plus viewers around the world, including on SuperSport in South Africa.
The Dakar Rally will start in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata on the Atlantic coast of South America and will finish almost
9 000 km and 14 racing special stages later in the Peruvian capital Lima on the Pacific coast on 15 January.
In between will be five racing special stages in Argentina, a crossing of the Andes Mountains, five stages in Chile including a crossing
of the Atacama Desert before a rest day on 8 January in the Chilean town of Copiapo.
Then, for the first time, the rally enters Peru for
four stages and a ceremonial finish. The total special stage distance is 4 500 kilometres.