The South African Toyota Hilux Dakar Rally Team arrived back home in South Africa today on the 20th of January 2014. We here at Car Site were invited to the press conference and to be part of the welcoming committee to welcome back the South African Dakar Rally Hero’s. The press conference were slightly different from the last Toyota Dakar Press Conference I attended in 2011 when the Toyota Dakar Rally team (Giniel De Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz brought back a Dakar 3rd place trophy).
Today’s press conference were far more relaxed and the Drivers, Toyota South Africa Members and Dakar Team Manager Glyn Hall spoke to the media in a much more relaxed atmosphere. Glyn Hall spoke about the South African Dakar Rally Team effort and said that the spirits of the Toyota South African team were comparable to the atmosphere of the Rugby World Cup 1995. He talked about the incredible guts the South African riders and support team members have shown and the sportsmanship and support among fellow South Africans at the Dakar 2014 although they were not even on the same team!
“Today I was proud to be a South African, and proud to be listening to the incredible Dakar 2014 Stories Giniel De Villiers, Leroy Poulter, Rob Howie and Glyn Hall shared during the press conference. Although we did not win a Dakar Trophy this year experiencing the dedication and guts of the riders were incredible! Personally after listerning to the technical aspects of the Dakar Rally, the challenges and the different vehicle technical specs I believe that the Toyota South African Toyota Hilux bakkie is one of the best “True Production” vehicles partaking in the Rally and their fourth place is almost as good as a win!
YouTube Video Dakar 2014 – Giniel De Villiers
In a special interview with Giniel De Villiers he thanked the Car Site website visitors and fans for their support during the Dakar 2014 rally, and all those who helped raising awareness of the Toyota South Africa Dakar 2014 efforts!
You can watch the short interview with Geniel De Villiers below:
Glyn Hall – Hallspeed Dakar 2014
We also got to speak to Glyn Hall who are mostly responsible for the managing of the Toyota Dakar Rally Team. It is always interesting to listen to Glyn Hall talking passionately about the Dakar Rally and the Toyota Team members performance. Glyn is very passionate about the sport, and after listening to him talking about the Dakar 2014 rally I want to invite him over for a barbeque to just listen to the incredible adventure that makes up the Dakar Rally.
Below Glyn Hall gives a short breakdown of the Dakar Rally and the Toyota Team’s performance.
