INSIDE A RALLY DRIVER'S DAY

Henk Lategan, the Toyota Gazoo racer and one of SA’s most successful rally drivers, shows no sign of stopping.

IN AN INTERVIEW WITH GQ, 29-year-old rally driver Henk Lategan praises his father for showing him the ropes.

‘My dad started racing when he was 19, so I grew up around the racetrack. There are pictures of me from when I was two years old in a racing car. My mom says that when I started walking, she ran behind me in the pits trying to get me out of the way of the cars.

‘Rally driving has always been in the family. I’ve always been around it. I really started pushing to race in primary school, but my dad didn’t like the track-racing scene, so I didn’t get into it until later in life.’

The motorsport star says that off the field, he’s passionate about playing an integral role in his family’s business, which started very small but grew into a sizeable company.

‘I’m involved in the IT, systems and software development side, which keeps me busy outside racing, and things are becoming a little frantic, especially now that racing’s picking up. I also have a family, a wife and three children. It’s challenging to balance everything.

Last month, Henk became one of a few South Africans to finish the challenging Dakar rally, solidifying fifth place overall by finishing in fourth place in the eighth and final stage of the motorsport race.