The countdown to the start of the International Spirit of Amarok Trophy has begun! The competition challenges 20 teams from around the world, putting their off-road driving skills to the test.
The Spirit of Amarok competition takes place on 14-18 September 2015, in Botswana. Each country will be represented by five teams, each of these teams consisting of two individuals. The four countries competing include: Australia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
In this years Spirit of Amarok competition, the contestants face some of the toughest 4×4 challenges that Africa has to offer! The teams from the African countries have been selected from the finals of the Spirit of Africa Trophy competition -“ hosted by motorsport legend -“ Sarel van der Merwe. The Australian entrants have been selected from an equally challenging competition, quite aptly named – "Mud Swear and Gears" in Victoria, Australia.
Van der Merwe said:
“The concept of the international competition is based on the principles of the Spirit of Africa Trophy which are aimed at testing the 4×4 technical skills and abilities of the drivers in some of Africa’s toughest terrains like steep dongas, rocky ascents and plunging valleys.”
Contestants will use the Amarok Double Cab to face 30 challenges over the course of five days. These challenges are split into two categories -“ ‘technical’ and ‘speed’. With the technical aspect involving extreme off-road conditions, while the ‘speed’ challenges will simulate motorsport rally stages – with longer farm style paths.
“A new addition to the competition includes a team strategy session after each challenge. Once a challenge has been completed, each country will get a chance to decide which team’s score or time will be submitted to their overall scoring. Each team must have an opportunity to submit its times to its country’s overall scoring. This will enhance the team spirit for the event as well as create suspense on the leaderboard, which will be kept secret until the final results are announced at the end of the competition,”
added van der Merwe.
The winning team will receive the Wolf Trophy and R40 000 prize money. Each member of the winning country will receive R10 000. The winning team per country will also receive R10 000.
Jaco Steenekamp, General Manager: Sales and Marketing for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles said:
“Sarel and his team have created speed and technical challenges that will allow Amarok to showcase its off-road prowess in the testing rugged terrain of Africa.”
