Dakar 2023 is history. Who dominated each category and how did the Czechs do?

45. the Dakar Rally started at the very end of last year and ended on Sunday 15 January. The famous race was held for the fourth time in a row in Saudi Arabia. Once again it offered challenging tests for the participants and an interesting spectacle for motorsport fans. How did the battles in the individual categories turn out, in which the Czech representatives did not lose?

Cars

Successful defence of last year’s championship was achieved by the Qatari car racer Nasser al-Attiyah, who was navigated by Mathieu Baumel from France in his Toyota.

It was his compatriot Sébastien Loeb who drove the Gallic cock country to second place again after a year, this time with a loss of eighty minutes. Third place belongs to Brazilian Lucas Moraes.

The Czech national team’s Martin Prokop also did well, who, in collaboration with his navigator Viktor Chytka, equalled his Dakar best. Thanks to them, the Orlen Benzina Team celebrates a very good position in the form of the final sixth position.

Motorcycles

The best motorcyclists fought an even battle until the last kilometres. In the end, Argentina’s Kevin Benavides, the 2021 champion, rejoiced in his second triumph.

Australian Toby Price finished just 43 seconds behind him, with Skyler Howes of the USA in third place, five minutes behind the winner.

The most successful Czech on a motorcycle this year was Martin Michek of Orion – Moto Racing Group, who finished eleventh, one position behind his best result. He was also the best of the riders who do not have the support of the factory team.

Other domestic riders also showed solid performances. Let’s mention 31st Jan Brabec or 36th Jan Brabec. David Pabiska. On the other hand, Milan Engel and the injured Libor Podmol did not finish the main competition.

Trucks

The absence of the Russian Kamazs promised the success of Czech crews, who really did well in the Arabian dunes. From the beginning, they fought mainly with their Dutch rivals. Martin Macík took six stage wins for our colours, Aleš Loprais two.

On 10 January, during the ninth stage, he hit an Italian spectator standing in a dangerous place behind a dune and he died.

On the evening of that day, when the newly forty-three-year-old driver and his co-drivers learned of the tragedy, they decided to withdraw from the race, not least to launch an investigation. This eventually confirmed the innocence of the Czech crew.

Nevertheless, Czech motorsport celebrates a podium finish as Macík brought his truck home in the final second place. He was only beaten by Dutchman Janus van Kasteren, whose compatriots Martin van den Brink and Mitchel van den Brink finished third and fourth.

In the top 10 of the results list we can find three more Czechs – Jaroslav Valtr is fifth, Martin Šoltys is sixth and Tomáš Vrátný is ninth.

Quads

The quad category has seen a low number of competitors in recent years. Frenchman Alexandre Giroud was the best of them again after one year, 43 minutes behind Francisco Moreno Flores of Argentina in second and Pablo Copetti of the USA in third, an hour and 52 minutes behind.

Zdenek Tuma of BARTH Racing withdrew after the fifth stage due to bruised thighs.

Lightweight prototypes

Josef Macháček, incidentally the winner of the quad bike competition in 2009, was not missing at the start of the Dakar Rally this year either. Although the racing legend, aged sixty-five, did not follow up his overall triumph of the previous year in his lightweight prototype with navigator David Schovánek, the final eleventh place was not bad.

Let’s complete this year’s rulers of this part of the traditional race. The champion was American Austin Jones, second place belongs to his compatriot Seth Quintero and third in the standings was Belgian Guillaume de Mevius.

SSV

The SSV category saw the Polish winner, Eryk Goczal. More than a quarter of an hour behind, Rokas Baciuška from Lithuania, second, and another Pole, Marek Goczal, took third place.

Dakar Classics

The Dakar Classics is still a new competition for historic vehicles. In this category, the race is not about time, but it is about passing the partial sections of the stage as close as possible to the predetermined speed average. Juan Morera did it best this year in his Toyota.

The Czechs also experienced a veteran ride on the Arabian Peninsula at the beginning of 2023. Ondřej Martinec also had an interesting experience in his Toyota, Ondřej Klymčiw in his Skoda L130 and Radek Vávra in his old Nissan. The Suzuki Samurai was driven by the only Czech female representative Olga Roučková.

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