De Villiers, Giniel

Giniel de Villiers was born on March 25, 1972 in the Western Cape . He spent part of his childhood on a family fruit farm. Giniel became interested in technology and motor sports at an early age. When the boy was 4 years old, his father Peter (a participant in regional rallies) designed a small go-cart for him. Giniel devoted all his free time to go-cart riding with friends and the construction of small race tracks in the vicinity of the farm.

Giniel later entered the gymnasium in Parla . Every weekend he attended a race track in Cape Town and learned to drive a sports car purchased by his father. At the age of 19, de Villiers first took part in an amateur club race, and in 1993 he began to compete in the South African championship in highway-ring racing in the Touring class. In the mid-1990s, de Villiers began his partnership with Nissan South Africa. The young athlete who was driving the Nissan Primera quickly progressed, gained experience and in 1997 won his country's championship in the Touring class. In 1998, 1999 and 2000, he managed to defend his championship title.

When the South African bodywork championship fell into decay, de Villiers decided to try his hand at other racing disciplines and began to participate in rally raids . In 2001, he won the South African championship in the offset of serial SUVs - again behind the wheel of a Nissan.

Soon, Nissan management decided to organize a factory team to participate in off-road rallies, including the Dakar marathon. Giniel de Villiers, who successfully defended the honor of the Japanese brand in the South African championships and took part in the development of racing cars, was invited to the factory team.

In 2003, he made his debut in Dakar. According to the results of the 25th anniversary marathon, de Villiers, not too famous outside his native country, became the fifth, which surprised many experts and fans. In the next 2 years, he continued to play for Nissan . Despite the fact that his teammates were world-famous and more titled racers - Colin Macray and Ari Vatanen - the South African confidently ahead of them. In 2004, he finished seventh (while Mackray took the 20th place, and Watanen retired), and a year later he became fourth (Mackray was forced to stop fighting after a serious accident, and Vatanen finished only 39th).

After Nissan left the rally-raids ^[1], de Villiers signed a contract with the Volkswagen factory team in the spring of 2005 ^[2] . As part of a team from Wolfsburg, the South African managed to achieve the biggest successes in his career - he won the Rally Morocco three times, became the strongest on Rally Transibérico and Rally dos Sertões. But Zhiniel’s greatest achievement is a victory in the legendary Dakar rally marathon in January 2009 ^[3] .

After the Volkswagen sports division refused to participate in the Dakar ^[4] , de Villiers joined the Imperial Toyota South Africa Team ^[5] . In January 2012, in the Latin American marathon, he spoke on the Toyota Hilux Double Cab SUV and took 3rd place ^[6] .

• Profile (inaccessible link) on the Volkswagen Motorsport team website
• Giniel de Villiers Biography
• Profile on Castrol