Summarize

South African cars and drivers are once again set to star when Dakar 2026 blasts off on Saturday 3 January. With eleven Southern African drivers and navigators, and countless locally developed, built, and prepared machines ready to race, local fans can, as ever look forward to the thrill of the chase through the quiet of early January.

In an interesting twist, South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings will lead a three-car team of new Glyn Hall developed Overdrive Gazoo Toyota Hiluxes built in Belgium. Not to be confused with the Kyalami built SVR Gazoo machines, the next generation Overdrive cars have a stiffer, lighter tubular chassis and reinforced transmission.

2025 South Africans, champion Saood Variawa and SA-based Frenchman Francois Cazalet, and Guy Botterill and Spaniard Oriol Mena continue with the SVR Gazoo team. Other top local car crews include Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer’s SA Century Factory C7R and German-South African father and son, Jürgen, and Daniel Schröder with former biker Stuart Gregory and Henry Köhne navigating in a pair of Kyalami-built WCT Amaroks.

Stellenbosch lass Puck Klaassen and Argentine Augusto Sanz should be a factor in T3 Challenger, while South African notes men Dennis Murphy will be reading in Lawrence Janesky’s Can-Am and Leander Pienaar for Abdullah Al-Fahhad in the T4 Side by Sides. Another South African, Grant Ballington navigates in Tomas Tomecek’s Tatra and Angolan Paulo Oliveira is with Alberto Herrero in a Scania in the Trucks.

Lategan and Cummings, Americans Seth Quintero and Andrew Short and former bike winner Toby Price and Armand Monleon will race new Overdrive Hiluxes. Variawa and Botterill are part of a six-car SVR Gazoo SA line-up alongside Saudi crews, Shaikh Al Qassimi and Khalid Alkendi, and Khaled Alferaihi and Cándido Carrera, Argentine Juan Yacopini and Dani Oliveras and Brazilians Marcos Moraes and Fabio Pedroso.

Other Hiluxes to keep an eye on are 2025 winners, Saudi home hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk, Portuguese crew João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro, and Frenchmen, Ronan Chabot, and Gilles Pillot. Speaking about Frenchmen, nine time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb will be looking for his first Dakar win on his ninth attempt alongside Édouard Boulanger in their Dacia Sandrider.

They will first need to beat Dacia teammates, five-time winner, Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin, Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz and Spanish lady star Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno. Ford is another major Dakar 2026 factor with legendary Spanish four-time winner Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz, former car and bike winner Nani Roma and Álex Haro, German Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist and 

US crew Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch on a strong four-Raptor line-up.

They’re backed by Czech crew Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka and Kyrgyzstani duo Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov in two privateer Raptors. Mini is back as ever with Belgian Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel, French couple Lionel and Lucie Baud Mini and girl crew, Portuguese Maria Gameiro and Rosa Romero among the John Cooper Works entries.

Looking at the rest of the South African cars, Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier and Spaniard Jesús Calleja and Eduardo Blanco join Baragwanath and Cremer in the Century Factory squad. Tim Coronel is another strong CR7 entry. Father and daughter Martin and Aliyyah Koloc will race a pair of Kyalami-built Red-Lined REVO T1+s, with Chinese crews Wei Han and Li Ma and Po Tian and Simuren Ha in a pair of similar HWM Red-Lined cars. And Dave and Tessa Klaassen in a Red-Lined based DKR Evo.

Keep an eye on the buggies as always with Simon Vitse, Ronan Chabot and Christian Lavieille in three latest MD Optimus, and lady star Laia Sanz’s Ebro. The rebranded Dakar Stock class has attracted none other than Mr. Dakar, Stéphane Peterhansel and Michaël Metge, Lithuanian Challenger graduate Rokas Baciuska and Sara Price’s Land Rover Defenders to take on Miura Akira and Ronald Basso’s Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR Sports and Al-Thunyyan in a Nissan Patrol.

Puck Klaassen and her G Rally can expect T3 Challenger competition from unrelated SA regular, Dutch driver Pim Klaassen, WRC legend Bruno Saby and double bike winner Kevin Benavides’ Taurus entries. Add Former F1 and Le Mans man Stéphane Sarrazin. Also watch for quad refugees Alexandre Giroud, Pablo Copetti and Nicolas Cavigliasso as well as quick Saudi Yasir Seaidan amongst the large Challenger contingent.

Besides local navigators Dennis Murphy and Leander Pienaar, other T4 Side by Sides to watch include former multiple winner Francisco Lopez, former bikers Xavier de Soultrait and Hélder Rodrigues and two more former quad man Manuel Andujar Jeremías Gonzalez. Them, Factory Can-Am trio João Monteiro, Kyle Chaney, and Hunter Miller and Polaris man Brock Heger can all expect to have their work cut out by rookie multiple World Rallycross Champion, Johan Kristoffersson.

Last, but very much not least, the Dakar Trucks. Iveco has a huge entry including 2024 and 5 winner Martin Macik, Mitchel and Martin van den Brink, Claudio Bellina and Ben, Richard and William de Groot, Ales Loprais and Michal Valtr behind the wheel. They have Tatra trio Martin Soltys, Karel Posledni and Tomas Tomecek with South African Grant Ballington in his crew, Teruhito Sugawara’s Hino, Gert Huzink in a Renault, Alberto Herrero with Angolan Paulo Oliveira in his Scania, Tariq Al-Rammah’s Volvo Jordi Esteve’s DAF, and Jürgen Hellgeth’s Mercedes Unimog among their rivals.

With 5000 kilometres of racing on a total route of 8000 km, Dakar 2025 starts with the 23 km Prologue at Yanbu on Saturday 3 January 2026, before a 305 km loop there on Sunday. Then it’s a 400 km run to Al-Ula before a 422 km lap there on Tuesday. Wednesday brings the Marathon to the mid-desert no service refuge bivouacs before heading to Ha'il Thursday and on to Riyadh for the Saturday rest day.

Week 2 commences with a 462 km Sunday run to Wadi ad-Dawasir before a 481 km loop there on Monday and the 418 km to another desert refuge bivouac Tuesday evening. A dune-rich 371 km run to Bisha follows Wednesday before 347 km to Al Henakiyah Thursday and 310 km back to Yanbu on Friday, before a final 105 km run to the finish there on Saturday 17 January.