Thanks to a longstanding tradition of starting right on or right after New Year’s, today’s start of the 47th Dakar Rally again represents the first major motorsports event on the international calendar. Upon the completion of the rally’s administration and technical inspection (scrutineering in European racing speak,) a total of 335 vehicles took Saturday’s green flag. They will carry 580 riders, drivers and co-pilots from 52 nationalities.
One might think that an off-road endurance event like Dakar would have attracted American and Baja desert racers since its inception. For much of Dakar history, that reasonable assumption was wrong.
The reasons may be multifold, but the 2025 edition of the Dakar will place a huge spotlight on talented Americans now forcing the international rally racing world to take notice. With surging numbers and ever stronger upticks in performance and results, it is safe to say the Dakar is no longer a stronghold enjoyed by the rest of the world. Unless I am missing something, there is more American presence at the Dakar this year than any time in history.
Not surprisingly, in the earliest years of the event some of the much more sophisticated off-road desert technology being perfected in the American Southwest migrated to the Dakar race, notably the Chenowth-influenced rear engine buggies built in the late 1980s and early 1990s that took Jean-Louis Schlesser to consecutive Dakar victories.
It wasn’t until 1996 that Americans took a first major step toward Dakar validity. Attacking the event with a pair of red, white and blue Hummers, the late off-road racing legend Rod Hall and son Chad became the first all-American team to finish the event. They overcame a myriad of obstacles to complete the 4,700-mile marathon fourth and fifth in class.
That story, while ultimately victorious for the Hall family, was also laced with the dangers that can come with racing in countries sometimes hostile to those calling the United States home. First time filmmaker Amy Lerner shares the harrowing story in her 2022 film One More Win, a documentary on Rod Hall and his remarkable racing life.
Multitalented Robby Gordon boosted the United States’ presence at Dakar starting in 2005 as part of the Red Bull Volkswagen team. He became the first American to win a stage in the car division, taking two in total and finishing in 12th place. He then went on to race several more rallies, wishing to be the first American to win overall. Despite the effort — and the huge popularity he gained by Robby being Robby — his best finish was third in 2009.
Another major influence in today’s American presence in Dakar was Darren Skilton. Born in England before moving to California, Skilton began racing internationally in 1995 when he became the only American driver seeded for FIA Cross Country Rallies. In 2000 he led his two-car factory Kia team to finish the Dakar Rally, a first for the Korean manufacturer.
More significantly, the bilingual Skilton began working with rally organizers to represent the rally in North America, including founding the annual Sonora Rally in Mexico that proved to be a key training ground for driving and navigating Dakar-style events for future American participants.
While Hall, Skilton and Gordon helped set the stage, it was just five years ago that American presence at the upper tiers of Dakar competition finally shook the status quo. In 2020, Californians Ricky Brabec and Casey Currie both became the first racers from the United States to win Dakar. Brabec earned his title in the motorcycle category riding an HRD Honda, while Currie become the Dakar UTV winner aboard his Monster Energy-backed Can-Am.
Brabec (pictured, top) backed up his overall motorcycle title again in 2024 and is facing this year’s event trying to overcome a leg injury at the Rallye du Maroc several weeks ago. He will be joined at Monster Energy Honda by American Skylar Howes, competing in his sixth Dakar in 2025. Mason Klein and Jason Argubright will also represent the United State in the Bike division.
And it’s not just American riders and drivers making the 2025 Dakar Rally so interesting stateside, but also the top-tier presence of the Ford’s blue oval. Built in conjunction with World Rally champion M-Sport, the radical Ford Raptor T1 vehicles come into the event as a promising favorite. Its steel spaceframe is wrapped in Red Bull-clad carbon fiber, featuring a double-wishbone design in the front and the back, adjustable Fox external-bypass dampers and almost 14 inches of wheel travel.
While the new Ford is mechanical eye candy, the team’s driver line-up is even more indicative of the effort’s serious nature. Past Dakar winners Carlos Sainz Sr. and Nani Roma will join former Audi pilot Mattias Ekstrom and young American Mitch Guthrie Jr. in the four-truck campaign. Joined by veteran Dakar co-driver Kellon Walsh, the 2025 rally marks the fifth Dakar for Guthrie Jr. but the first time the young driver will take on the rally’s premiere category.
Joining Guthrie in the car category is Seth Quintero, another Red Bull-backed athlete who made his way through the international ranks via the energy drink’s youth ladder program. Making his Dakar debut in 2021 at the age of just 18, Quintero won six stages in the Challenger/T3 category. Last year he and co-driver Dennis Zenz stepped up to the Unlimited Car class with Toyota Gazoo Racing but had mechanical issues slow their run to the finish. Thanks to Red Bull, Quintero also made his Pro 2 unlimited short course truck debut at this year’s Polaris Crandon World Championships.
As one might expect, the SSV division for side-by-sides will be another ideal fit considering the deep roots the development of these potent machines have in the U.S. Leading that charge will be recent SCORE Baja 1000 overall UTV champion and young phenom Brock Heger, who will be behind of his first Dakar behind the wheel of a factory supported Sebastien Loeb Racing Polaris. Helping Heger will be co-pilot and fellow countryman Max Eddy Jr., here for his fourth Dakar.
Heger will be completing against a stiff field of racers, none more popular than fellow American Sara Price. Price, who will take on the challenge with a Monster Energy-backed Can-Am, was the third women in history (and first American) to win a Dakar Rally stage last year. The former X Games and Formula E competitor has a truly rags-to-riches story, not to mention that she and life partner Ricky Brabec bring love American style to an often uptight Dakar bivouac.
When you add in Corbin Leaverton, Zachary Lumsden and Craig Lumsden in the Challenger division, the depth and width of America’s presence at Dakar 2025 becomes clear. Thanks to more than 4,000 hours of television coverage to 190 countries (including Peacock and MAVTV in the U.S.), for the next two weeks the rest of the world will understand it as well.
* This story has been updated to correct Robby Gordon’s best Dakar Rally finish. -Ed.