“We’re still relatively new”
CREW FACTS…
G.B.
- It’s all about motorsports. Guy Botterill is never far from a driving seat and even his wife comes from a famous South African racing family. For Guy, it all started at the age of eight when the South African started with karting. From the World Championship ranks of that discipline he remained on circuits in production cars before the move to rallying.
- That’s when his long-term relationship started with Toyota. Very successful on the local and continental regular rally scene, the next step was off-road rallies and what better team than Toyota Gazoo to be in for such a switch.
- After competing and learning in the South-African cross-country series, the 38-year-old who also enjoys fishing and anything outdoors was finally on the start line of the Dakar last January.
- Alongside experienced Brett Cummings, Botterill impressed. Not only was he the best of the Toyota Gazoo factory drivers, not only did he finish 6th overall, he was also the best rookie of the rally.
- Born in Pietermaritzburg, he knows that he needs to confirm his fine debut. For his second Dakar, he’ll be counting on the help of Dennis Murphy who has taken over from Cummings (who returns as Henk Lategan’s co-driver). Both men were able to prepare together by competing in the South African Rally-Raid championship against the likes of De Villiers, Lategan, Baragwanath or Variawa.
D.M.
- Not only is he an excellent navigator, Dennis Murphy is also precious as a technician and mechanic. In other words, it’s always handy to have him by your side on a demanding rally like the Dakar.
- Interestingly, the 50-year-old from Johannesburg started on the Dakar 2021 as the co-driver of Shameer Variawa who now happens to be his team principal at Toyota Gazoo now. Both men managed to take their Hilux to 21st spot of the rally.
- A year later the happily married codriver and father of Ethan was given the opportunity to hop in the cockpit of Giniel De Villiers, winner of the Dakar back in 2009. Together they managed an extremely consistent run of three top 10 finishes (including 4th in 2023).
- When he wasn’t riding his bike and competing in hard enduro races like the Roof of Africa, Murphy spent his 2024 season with Guy Botterrill with whom he’ll be aiming high on the 2025 Dakar.
AMBITION 2025
G.B.: “My first Dakar was, truly phenomenal. Really. Even stage one, at one point, we were looking at possibly winning it. I've got a lot to learn. Especially in the sand dunes. That is my Achilles’ heel at the moment. The sand dunes and the navigation. In South Africa, we don't navigate the same way as on the Dakar. When we are not in the dunes, it’s fairly good. I got some good pace, a good rhythm, fairly quickly. And then, I'll just have to be extra cautious in the dunes because of my lack of experience.
It’s fantastic news for me to be going to Dakar again. I'll be sitting with Dennis Murphy who has done many Dakar rallies with Giniel de Villiers. So he's moving across to me. I've done the whole season with Dennis, in the local championship in South Africa and we've been gradually picking up the pace.
The experience we gained on one Dakar is basically like two years of our South African championship in one month. So, it's the experience that I needed. We’re still relatively new at this, but we're going really well. Dennis and I are super comfortable in the car and, we've got quite a lot of testing done.
Realistically, if you get into the top ten, you've done a fantastic job. So, you know, anywhere in the top ten would be amazing. We are always trying to improve on, the previous year, so, anything better than the top six would be truly fantastic. But you have to be realistic with the competitors and the teams that are coming into the Dakar. It's getting more and more competitive every year.
The Dakar is a funny thing. You never know what can happen. We are going to be pushing hard
in the terrain that we know and, in the terrain that we don't know, we just have to be a bit cautious. And hopefully I can get behind somebody that is, a little bit quicker than us in the dunes. And maybe I can hang on to them and they can pull me through the dunes. I can learn from them. And, we can grow our experience from there. But we are looking forward to having a good, clean run, and on a Dakar it’s very important that you make no mistakes. And, you get to the end of every single stage. That was our key at our first Dakar. We are really excited to be going again. It's a huge privilege to be driving for Toyota.”
D.M.: “Obviously I’m going with Guy this year. The couple of years with Giniel De Villiers was great fun. We got on really well together. Guy was the next step for me to carry on with racing in general. We’re looking forward to the Dakar together. We’ve had a really good season locally. We won a couple of races. Our ambitions for the Dakar are to have a clean day every day, not get out of the car and hopefully be as high up as we can. A podium is never out of the question. Guy is a very good driver and we get along well too. I think it’s going to be a good one.”
