Tuck into Dakar Rally feast

SOUTH African motorsports fans will be able to see nightly TV coverage of the Dakar Rally, which started in Peru at the weekend and ends in Chile on January 20.

A half-hour race highlights package, compiled by the Dakar organisers, will be screened each day of the event between 10pm and 10.30pm on the SS2 channel with five repeats the following day.

Transmission times and channels are subject to change and viewers should check their TV programme guide.

Two racing versions of the Toyota Hilux Double Cab, built by Toyota Motorsport in its workshops near Kyalami, will contest the rally.

They are crewed by 2009 Dakar winners Giniel de Villiers and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, who finished third in last year’s event, and South African off road champions Duncan Vos and Rob Howie, who finished 10th this year.

The Dakar Rally is one of the world’s mostwatched sporting events.

Last year’s race, which took place in Argentina, Chile and Peru in January, attracted 4.5 million spectators – 1.7 million in motorsport-mad Argentina, where it started, 1.2 million in Chile and 1.5 million in Peru, where it ended.

There were one billion television viewers who watched 1 200 hours of television coverage in 190 countries, carried by 70 broadcasters including South Africa’s DStv.

Some 55 international, national and regional channels sent crews to produce their own images in addition to the programmes produced daily by the organisers.

There were 4.3 million visitors to the Dakar website www.dakar.com and five million video clips were viewed during the race.

Facebook fans totalled 470 000 and there were 40 000 Twitter followers.

Follow the South African Toyota team on Twitter at @ToyotaLive and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/toyotasouthafrica

For more in-depth updates go to www.toyota.co.za