Giniel de Villiers

Giniel de Villiers 2014

Giniel de Villiers (born March 25, 1972 in Robertson , South Africa ) is a South African racing driver and marathon rally driver .

Career

In 1993 de Villiers contested his first touring car race in South Africa. In 1994 he won the South African Production Car Championship. From 1997 to 2000 he was the South African touring car champion. In 2000 he became the South African off-road champion, and the following year in the production car class.

Giniel de Villiers has been taking part in marathon rallies since 2003. In the Nissan factory team, he finished fifth in the 2003 Dakar Rally and won the Morocco Rally . In 2004 he finished the Dakar Rally in seventh place, a year later in fourth. In May 2005 he switched to Volkswagen Motorsport and has been driving a VW Race Touareg ever since . He started with his new team with second places in the Rally Morocco and the Rally d'Orient . At the 2006 Dakar Rally he was only beaten by Stéphane Peterhansel . In the same year he won the Transsiberico Rally and the Morocco Rally. In 2007 de Villiers was able to win the Morocco Rally again. He finished the 2007 Dakar Rally in eleventh place, but achieved four stage wins. He finished the marathon rally world cup in second place. In 2008 he won the Rally dos Sertões . He also took part in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in a new VW Scirocco and finished in 15th place overall. At the 2009 Dakar Rally , he and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz achieved overall victory for the first time. This makes de Villiers the first African and also the first driver of a diesel vehicle to win this rally. At the 2011 Dakar Rally , de Villiers took second place.

In 2012 and 2013 Giniel de Villiers and his co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz took part in the Dakar Rally with a Toyota Hilux Double Cab Pickup for Team Toyota South Africa. At the 2013 Dakar Rally , the two finished second again. In 2014 they finished fourth. In 2015 they took second place in the overall ranking.