Toyota Motorsport and Giniel de Villiers team up for Dakar 2012

[simage=340,144,n]

Toyota Motorsport and former Volkswagen factory Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers team up for 2012 Dakar Rally. De Villiers, a former South African touring car and off-road racing champion, South Africa’s only Dakar Rally winner, will be paired with German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, who navigated the 39-year-old Stellenbosch resident to his historic Dakar victory in 2009. (Volkswagen Motorsport retired from Dakar Rally Raid racing, winning the Dakar 3 times to allocate development resources to their new WRC program for 2012) The 42-year-old from Karlshof is a multiple German motorcycle enduro champion and was rookie of the year on a KTM in the 1997 Dakar Rally. They will compete with Toyota Motorsport Team of two South African-built and -developed Toyota Hilux Double Cab pickups, under the management of team principal Glyn Hall and sponsored by Imperial Toyota, together with Duxbury Netgear and the Innovation Group. The second driver will be Duncan Vos, four times South African off-road champion. Reading the route notes for Vos will be his regular national championship co-driver Rob Howie.