معلومات عن الطاقم

• Ronald was born in Vryheid (KwaZulu-Natal), a small mining town, located north of Durban, on the East part of South Africa. Although he used to play rugby (flanker) as a real South African, his first big love was motorbikes, especially when his family moved to Witbank, a little town near Pretoria. Obviously, he is a big fan of the Springboks. But his uncles are all motor bike guys, his mother is a ballet teacher and his dad, an accountant, used to do long distance running.
• After his parents got separated, he got Gareth Swanepoel (MX superstar) as a neighbour in Joburg. Ronald was going on the moto cross track with them on weekends at Zeeman’s. Back in Witbank, he had a KX 100 Kawasaki which he used to race around the mine dumps and farming areas. At 16, he bought his first KTM from Butch Hirsch KTM and the off road bug hit him.
• At the age of 18, Ronald started joining the national racing circuit : on 2 wheels the first year, quad bike racing the next 4 years, enduro and offroad racing until 2008. After that, he competed in enduro and Cross country. In 2016, he decided to start racing in different championships in South Africa, took up enduro and off road again. He wanted to participate in the Dakar but Covid appeared and put these plans on old. 2024 was the perfect year then for his one and only participation in the Dakar.
• Ronald's nickname's Doughie, it was picked up in the local South African Championships over the years, racing with the Roost KTM Race team.
• It's merely by coincidence that Ronald went to the construction business. He did some work for a mining company and ended up making the business looking after the mining equipment. Nowadays, Ronald is the owner of Expert Mining Engineering (25 years old in 2026), Pirtek Fluid Solutions (started in 2016, hydraulics and mining construction equipment) and co-owner of Manitou in Namibia. He is also very proud of his life partner, Samantha - both are together for 15 years now - and of his two sons, Ronald, 9 years old, and Grayson, 5.
• 2025 is a rest and recovery year for Ronald as he did not race at all. This 2026 edition of the Dakar will be his first big race since his 2024 accident at the South African Safari Rally. 16 months of recovery and training followed. His back and shoulders were seriously touched when hitting a hidden rock under the sand, just 4 km before the end of the stage. Nevertheless, he managed to ride to the end of the rally just to find out if he had won the category ! Doughie was supposed to make it at Rallye du Maroc but his bike didn’t as the shipping company messed up the paperwork.
• Among Ronald's idols are Alfie Cox, Fabrizio Meoni, Jeremy McGrath and, of course, Stéphane Peterhansel.
• All the family watched the F1 end of the season GP, on site, in Abu Dhabi. Grayson, Ronald's oldest son, is a big fan of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.