The Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race – round three of the Donaldson Cross Country Motor Racing Championship from June 24 to 26 – is an event steeped in history.
Legendary names in South African motorsport are to be found among the list of winners of a race run between 1975 and 1979 as the Total Trans Kalahari. In 1980 the event was backed by IGI, with Toyota sponsoring the race for the first time in 1981 and until 1990 was run in the Vryburg area.
The decision to move the event to Botswana came in 1991, and the following year saw another change. Motorsport South Africa decided to split the off road championship which only made provision for an overall winner, into Special Vehicle and Production Vehicle categories with overall winners recognised in each category.
From 1991 until the move to Kumakwane in 2010, the race started from high profile venues in the city of Gaborone. The route primarily ran in the north east region with an overnight stop at Mantshwabisi, before heading back to Gaborone for the finish.
When the overnight halt at Mantshwabisi came to an end in 2004 the event moved to the west taking in the Kumakwane and Molopolole areas. Rapid growth and commercialisation of the greater CBD saw another change in 2010 and race headquarters and the start/finish moved to Kumakwane on the outskirts of Gaborone.
In 2014, at the request of the Botswana Tourism Organisation which is keen to see communities benefit from the impact of the event, the race moved to Jwaneng, home of the world’s biggest diamond mine.
On the competition front six wins spread over the past 24 years see veteran South African cross country and rally co-driver Richard Leeke lead the Toyota 1000 Desert Race roll of honour. Not far behind Leeke in terms of wins are former South African champions Apie Reyneke, who tragically died in a helicopter accident last year, and Hannes Grobler each with five victories.
Robin Houghton’s four victories with Reyneke in a Toyota Land Cruisers leave him one ahead of other multiple winners Dennis Murphy (Toyota Hilux) and Rob Howie (Toyota Hilux) alongside Duncan Vos in 2012 and Leeroy Poulter in 2015.
Drivers with multiple wins in the Production Vehicle category include Duncan Vos (4), Neil Woolridge (3), Anthony Taylor (3) and Kassie Coetzee (2). Woolridge won SA championships on two and four wheels, and his three Botswana wins all came in different vehicles – Nissan Sani, Mitsubishi Pajero and Ford Ranger.
Among the special vehicle competitors the father and son combination of Franz Czepek senior and Franz junior top the victory list with four wins. The pair won three times in a row between 1997 and 1999 and again in 2001.
Buks Carolin, Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau, now chief executive officer of SANORA, are next on the list with Carolin winning with his brother Richard in 1995, followed up by back to back wins with Atang Makgekgenene in 2004 and 2005. 2008 to 2010 belonged to Variawa and Rousseau in a Porter.
Apart from the Czepeks other father and son winners include Nick and Ryan Harper in 2006, Kallie and Quintin Sullwald in 2007 and 2011 and Herman and Wichard Sullwald in 2013. Wichard then became the first competitor to win as both driver and co-driver when he and father Herman won the second heat of the race in 2014.
After the win by Reyneke/Houghton in 1999 the event was dominated by Nissan teams, under team manager Glyn Hall, who won eight times in a row between 2002 and 2009. Toyota had to wait longer than a decade for their next win when Vos and Howie broke the drought in 2012 with Hall now at the helm of the Castrol Toyota Hilux factory team.
Since then the balance of power has shifted back to Toyota who went through last season unbeaten in the Donaldson Cross Country Championship. Taylor and Murphy won in 2013 and 2014, and last year shared wins with Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie in the two heats.
Down the years the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race, the only marathon event on the Donaldson calendar, has produced triumph and heartbreak with high drama always around the next corner. The race invariably produces a sting in the tail and this year is unlikely to be any different.
Ends
TOYOTA 1 000 DESERT RACE ROLL OF HONOUR
1991 Klaus Degener/Derrick Pinnoy (Chenowth).
Production Vehicles
1992 Kassie Coetzee/Richard Leeke (Toyota); 1993 Kassie Coetzee/Richard Leeke (Toyota); 1994 Apie Reyneke/Lukas Dreyer (Toyota Land Cruiser); 1995 Apie Reyneke/Robin Houghton (Toyota Land Cruiser); 1996 Neil Woolridge/Paul Vermaak (Nissan Sani); 1997 Apie Reyneke/Robin Houghton (Toyota Land Cruiser); 1998 Apie Reyneke/Robin Houghton (Toyota Land Cruiser); 1999 Apie Reyneke/Robin Houghton (Toyota Land Cruiser); 2000 Neil Woolridge/Kenny Skjoldhammer (Mitsubishi Pajero); 2001 Neil Woolridge/Kenny Skjoldhammer (Ford); 2002 Hannes Grobler/Richard Leeke (Nissan); 2003 Hannes Grobler/Richard Leeke (Nissan); 2004 (Hannes Grobler/Richard Leeke (Nissan); 2005 Alfie Cox/Ralph Pitchford (Nissan); 2006 Hannes Grobler/Francois Jordaan (Nissan); 2007 Duncan Vos/Richard Leeke (Nissan); 2008 Duncan Vos/Louis Weichelt (Nissan); 2009 Duncan Vos/Ralph Pitchford (Nissan); 2010 Hannes Grobler/Hennie ter Stege (BMW X3); 2011 Chris Visser/Japie Badenhorst (Ford TDCi); 2012 Duncan Vos/Rob Howie (Toyota Hilux); 2013 Anthony Taylor/Dennis Murphy (Toyota Hilux); 2014 Heat 1 – Anthony Taylor / Dennis Murphy (Toyota Hilux); Heat 2 – Anthony Taylor/Dennis Murphy (Toyota Hilux); 2015 Heat 1 Leeroy Poulter / Rob Howie; (Toyota Hilux) Heat 2 Anthony Taylor / Denis Murphy (Toyota Hilux)
Special Vehicles
1992 Craig Hopkinson/Martin Spencer (VW); 1993 John Lambert/Eric Scholtz (Porsche); 1994 Rob Wark (Raceco); 1995 Richard/Buks Carolin (Raceco); 1996 Marius Beaurain (Mighty Mag); 1997 Franz Czepek snr/Franz Czepek jnr (Raceco); 1998 Franz Czpeke snr/Franz Czepek jnr (Raceco); 1999 Franz Czepek snr/Franz Czepek jnr (Raceco); 2000 Mark Corbett/Juan Mohr (Jimco); 2001 Franz
Czepek snr/Franz Czepek jnr (Raceco); 2002 Greg Daus/VZ van Zyl (Raceco); 2003 John Weir-Smith/Geoff Minnitt (Jimco); 2004 Atang Makgekgenene/Buks Carolin (Jimco); 2005 Atang Makgekgenene/Buks Carolin (Jimco); 2006 Nick/Ryan Harper (BAT); 2007 Karl-Heinz/Quintin Sullwald (BAT); 2008 Shameer Variawa/Siegfried Rousseau (Porter); 2009 Shameer Variawa/Siegfried Rousseau (Porter); 2010 Shameer Variawa/Siegfried Rousseau); 2011 Karl-Heinz/Quintin Sullwald (BAT); 2012 Evan Hutchison/Danie Stassen (BAT); 2013 Herman/Wichard Sullwald (Stryker); 2014 Heat 1 – Laurence du Plessis/Gielie le Roux (Zarco); Heat 2 – Wichard Sullwald/Hermann Sullwald (Port