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South Africa’s Giniel De Villiers has been dubbed ‘Mr Dakar’ after completing the 2024 Dakar to set a record of 21 consecutive finishes since he entered the world’s most gruelling race for the first time in 2003.

Becoming Mr Dakar means he has broken Japan’s Yoshimasa Sugawara’s longstanding record of 20 consecutive finishes between 1989 and 2009, which Gniel matched in 2023.

Just finishing the Dakar Rally is already equivalent to taking a medal in the Olympics, but De Villiers’s record includes being in the top 10 for almost every year, except in 2007, when he finished in 11th place. As News24 reports, “By making the record his own, De Villiers has now elevated himself to god-like status in the Dakar’s annals”.

The exciting 12-stage event took motorsport enthusiasts from Alula to Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, travelling around 5,000km in total. It was the 46th edition of the rally and the 5th time Saudi Arabia has hosted the event. race took place between 5 and 19 January 2024.

Rightly described as one of the toughest races in the world, the terrain that the competitors cross is much tougher than in conventional rallying, and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles and motorcycles, rather than modified on-road vehicles like your jacked-up Subaru.

 

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Besides De Villiers, several other South Africans were also part of the lineup, with the team of David Guy Botterill and Brett Cummings managing to take the 6th spot overall. Bradley Cox – on a motorcycle – finished 13th overall, with Charan Moore – also on two wheels, following closely with a 21st-place finish.

“It’s obviously not really the way we wanted it, but we’re here; we finished,” De Villiers, the 2009 Dakar champion, said.

This is the one race where just crossing the finish line makes you a winner already.