2025 will mark the 14th and final Dakar Rally in a Toyota Hilux for Giniel de Villiers, who enters the 2025 edition looking for his 22nd straight finish in as many starts. He will race the Toyota GR IMT Hilux EVO for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa, one of four trucks fielded by the team alongside Guy Botterill, Henk Lategan, and Saood Variawa.

De Villiers joined Toyota South Africa’s newly formed rally raid program in 2012, finishing third that year followed by a second in 2013. He scored top-ten finishes in all 13 Dakars to date with the Hilux, including five podiums and stage wins apiece.

The 2009 winner currently holds the record for most consecutive Dakars with a finish, dating back to 2003. He surpassed Yoshimasa Sugawara at the latest edition with a seventh-place effort.

“I’ve had a really good career,” de Villiers said during TGRSA’s press conference earlier this month. “This is my 22nd Dakar, I’ve been fortunate to finish every single one of them.

“There comes a time for everything. I’m very grateful and very thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to be involved for so long. I’ve been with some really great teams. To end up with a local team like Toyota, which I’ve been involved with now for the last 13 years, they absolutely feel like a family. It just makes sense.”

Should the 52-year-old continue racing at Dakar in the future, he has not revealed what ride he could be looking at. He made his first three starts in the race with Nissan before spending five years and winning with Volkswagen.

Before anyone asks, he will not be racing on two wheels.

“Definitely not on a bike. That is a definite no,” he remarked with a laugh. “I’ll run out of talent very fast on a bike, that’s for sure. […] If you see me on a bike, it’s definitely not me; it’s my brother.”

Dirk von Zitzewitz returns as his navigator, the two having won the 2009 Dakar together and last partnering up in 2019. Von Zitzewitz retired from full-time navigating at the end of 2023 due to injuries but left the door open for Dakar. De Villiers quipped their reunion is similar to “getting your old wife back.”

TGRSA will head into Dakar having won two of the last three South African Rally-Raid Championships. De Villiers claimed the T1+ title in 2022 while Lategan, who missed the 2024 Dakar because of injury, went on to win the most recent SARRC.

Featured image credit: Eric Vargiolu / DPPI