SAA Cargo ships cars, spares of 8,500 kgs for 2019 Dakar Rally

Jan 09, 2019: South African Airways (SAA) Cargo, the official airfreight partner of the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Team at the 2019 Dakar Rally, will transport two vehicles and spares, which weigh about 8,500 kilograms. The partnership, which has been in place since 2012, involves transportation of the racing vehicles to Sao Paulo, Brazil en route to Lima, Peru.  The race takes place from January 6 to 17 in South America. 

“Transporting our race cars to South America could take months if we sent them via sea freight. With SAA, the transport time is vastly reduced, giving us extra time to develop and prepare the cars for the race,” explained Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Team principal Glyn Hall. 

It takes nearly a day for the shipment to reach its destination. “The long-standing partnership is a demonstration of trust placed on us by Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Team to handle their most valuable shipment. Through this partnership, we can showcase SAA Cargo’s capability as the provider of air freight solutions.  It takes about two months to prepare for the journey, in order to ensure seamless transportation. At the centre of this, is our commitment to deliver consistently on customer expectations.  We rely on our capable team to make it possible,” said Justice Luthuli, SAA Cargo’s acting general manager.

• Facts
• The racing vehicles are designed in line with size restrictions for commercial cargo holds and thus built in such a way that they can be disassembled to the size of the pallet and container to be used.
• It takes about 3 hours to disassemble each car and 6 hours to reassemble.
• Each car weighs approximately 2000 kgs.

The 41st edition of the Dakar Rally will start and end in Lima, Peru. The event takes place over a period of 11 days and involves 10 racing stages. There will be 450 cars, trucks, motorcycles and quads which will cover a total distance of some 6,500 kilometres. The Dakar Rally is one of the biggest motorsports events in the world and is seen as the pinnacle in off-road motor racing and the ultimate test of vehicle durability.  

The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team will be represented by veteran Giniel de Villiers and navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz; Nasser Al Attiyah and navigator Mathieu Baumel; and Dutch driver Bernhard ten Brinke with navigator Xavier Panseri next to him.