Dakar is a big deal.
As far as off-road racing goes, Dakar is as big, and as off-road, as the deal gets.
Take a look at the Iveco truck of Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda during Stage 11 of the 2020 Dakar. That’s around 5000 horsepower of bellowing, 13-liitre, turbocharged diesel powerplant pinned WFO inside about 8 tons of mental metal, and it’s all threatening to go maverick.
Is that logo on the bonnet appropriate, or what?
Except, they made it.
The truck didn’t cartwheel and end up with Czech Republic fright-poo sprayed all over the interior of the cabin. No. The crew kept the throttle on, burst through the pesky sand that threatened to slow them down, and made their way to the end of the section at Haradh…where they probably had to clean some small poo stains off the seats. We just don’t know.
The stage between Shubaytah and Haradh was 744 km, a sizable chunk of it Saudi Arabian dunes on a monumental scale. Close calls like this one were happening all the time.