DE KLERK’S DAKAR DELIGHT – TreasuryOne lads up from 58th to 30th

South Africa’s TreasuryOne Motorsport Dakar rookies, Hennie de Klerk and Gerhard Schutte delivered a heroic drive on the second day of the 2018 race when the duo vaulted the TreasuryOne Amarok from 58th at the start Sunday morning to bring it home 30th on the day’s stage by the finish, following 267km of hard charging across the desert and dunes around the Peruvian port of Pisco. The duo now lies 32nd overall.

“We found a decent pace early on and played it safe all day,” de Klerk admitted. “So when we turned up 30th at the finish, to be very honest we were thrilled and quite surprised. “The TreasuryOne Amarok ran like a dream — it never missed a beat, Gerhard and I are communicating well and we are delighted to have made such good progress.

“I’d like to dedicate our prerformance today to our entire TreasuryOne Motorsport team — we came here looking for modest returns and so far the guys have delivered a car that is making it easy for us to end up in a far stronger position than some of us may have expected. “Make no mistake — we are fully aware of the huge challenge that still lies ahead — we have quite some work to do and we keep on taking it day by day, even if that’s with a little more spring in our step after a brilliant day today!”

Monday sees crews heading straight back into the desert for Dakar’s third special stage, once again around Pisco, before a 296km liaison down south to San Juan de Marcona. With two-thirds of the stage again through the dunes, Hennie de Klerk and the TreasuryOne boys and girls will be looking for more of the same in Stage 3.