With both the overall and Class FIA championships already in the bag for Toyota Gazoo Racing SA, courtesy of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, the team will use the final round of the 2019 South African Cross-Country Series, the Parys 400, as final preparation for Dakar 2020.
With this in mind, Giniel de Villiers’ new co-driver, Alex Haro, will be taking over Dennis Murphy’s seat for the final round. The Spaniard recently won the Rally of Morocco with De Villiers, and the pair will use the Parys 400 as an opportunity to continue building their in-car rapport.
At the same time, the team will use the race to validate a number of technical changes that were tested before and during the Rally of Morocco, early in October.
“This really is the last race for Giniel and Alex, before we travel to Saudi Arabia for the Dakar Rally,” said Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Team Principal, Glyn Hall. “And it is the last real chance for us to make sure that everything we learnt during testing works as expected, before locking in the specs for Dakar.”
At the same time, newly crowned SACCS Production Champions, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, will be joining Shameer Variawa and Juan Möhr as has been the case throughout the 2019 season. Variawa/Möhr have posted highly consistent results throughout the season, and will be aiming to continue their good form.
The Parys 400 will get under way with a qualifying session, which is scheduled for 13:00 on Friday, November 1st. The main race will kick off at 08:00 on Saturday, November 2nd. The Designated Service Park (DSP) and race HQ will be based at the Parys Airfield. Spectators can enjoy the action free of charge, or follow the event on the RallySafe App, which is available for both iOS and Android devices.
