Summarize

It’s been a difficult second week, and especially tough Tuesday for South African competitors. But as it does, the Dakar pendulum swung back their way with considerable style on Wednesday. Not only did Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings power their Toyota Gazoo Hilux back into the overall lead of the Dakar Cars race, but SA biker Michael Docherty pulled off what many considered to be impossible when he won the Bike day overall against the pro Rally GP field on his amateur Rally 2 KTM.

It was a good day all-round for the South Africans. Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer brought their SA-built Century CR7 home fourth ahead of another locally produced car. WCT Engineering’s new Amarok is built to deliver competitive performance to amateur and gentleman drivers at a fraction of the cost of the factory cars. That much German Daniel Schröder and South African Henry Köhne proved beyond any doubt with a fantastic fourth on Wednesday.

Lategan and Cummings may only have come home tenth on the day, but the stage proved treacherous to the overall leaders who opened it. Spaniards Nani Roma and Alex Haro’s Ford Raptor took the win from Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon’s Gazoo Hilux, Baragwanath, Schröder, Argentine Juan and Cruz Yacopini and Daniel Oliveras’ Hilux, and lady racer Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno’s Dacia Sandrider.

Behind them, Tuesday’s top three, overnight leaders Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk’s Hilux, third men Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist in a Ford Raptor and Dacia duo Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger took their turn to open the road. That cost them considerable time in the dunes, just as Lategan had done on Tuesday’s sand tracks. 

The upshot sees Lategan back into a 2 minute 27 second lead over Al Rajhi, with Ekstrom 26 minutes, and Attiyah over half an hour adrift in fourth. Century CR7 crews Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier sit sixth, a tantalising five minutes behind Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch’s Ford Raptor, with Baragwanath and Cremer tenth. Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet’s Gazoo Hilux has recovered to 21st and  lady driver Aliyyah Koloc and Sebastien Delaunay are up to 25th in the best of the Red-Lined REVOs.

 

Moving over to the Bikes, Michael Docherty became only the second Rally 2 rider to ever win a Dakar stage, since Moto GP star Danilo Petrucci in 2022. Kempton Park born Dubai-based dune specialist Docherty led the day from start to finish to win from Portuguese rider Rui Goncalves’ Sherco and factory KTM Rally 2 rookie rival Edgar Canet.

The regular frontrunners literally disappeared from the leaderboard. Overall leader Daniel Sanders was eleventh, his closest rival Tosha Schareina 17th and his third placed Honda teammate Adrien van Beveren Honda 19th in an odd day in the desert. Docherty sits 15th overall after his drama earlier in the week, while his SA amateur compatriots, Dwain Barnard rode 47th and  Willem Avenant 90th. 

Two more days in the dunes remain en route to the finish on Friday, a 308 km loop around Shubaytah on Thursday and another short, sharp final sting in the tail to the line.