“Difficult to explain you have to slow down to go faster”
معلومات عن الطاقم
T.T.
- Tomas Tomecek will be driving a fast assistance truck for South Racing at Dakar 2026, supporting their fleet of 11 SSVs. Among them are some serious contenders for overall victory, including Can-Am Factory drivers Chaleco Lopez and Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli.
- The 55-year-old Czech is a genuine Dakar legend who first did the rally back in 1995, navigating his illustrious compatriot Karel Loprais to overall victory in the trucks. He then got behind the wheel himself in 1999, taking a superb third place with his private team Letka Racing behind the Tatra and Kamaz factory crews. His best result was second overall at Dakar 2003.
- Tomas also had a memorable adventure at Dakar 1998, when the truck in which he was navigating for Bedrich Sklenovsky was stolen in Mali. It was a big loss for Czech motorsport, because that was the Tatra 815 in which Loprais had claimed Dakar victory in 1994 and 1995.
- Tomas is a five-time winner of the Africa Eco Race. Incredibly, in a testament to his all-around abilities, he was driving alone in the truck when he won in 2022 and 2024, without a navigator or mechanic ("Like a biker!" he quips). No wonder he earned himself the nickname Captain Solo!
- Also known as The Desert Master, Tomas has spent many years working as a sweeper truck driver with his own team, Tom Racing, which he set up in 2004. He has been providing fast assistance for South Racing on the Dakar since 2021, when he finished as the top-ranked assistance truck in 16th overall.
- Tomas has three daughters and a son, Metodej, who will be joining him in the truck at Dakar 2026 as the onboard navigator. South African mechanic Grant Ballington completes the crew. Their orange-and-white Tatra 815-2T0R45 is over 20 years old -Tomas drove it at Dakar 2005- and all but indestructible. It can carry up to a ton of spare parts and he refers to it as his "10-ton motorcycle".
M.T.
- Metodej Tomecek is preparing to make his Dakar debut in 2026, as the navigator for his father Tomas Tomecek in the South Racing fast assistance truck.
- The 20-year-old grew up surrounded by motorsport and has naturally followed in his father's footsteps. He has already worked as a sweeper truck navigator at the Africa Eco Race, and says he is keen to gain Dakar experience before potentially entering the main T5.1 trucks class one day.
- Metodej, the second oldest of Tomas's four children, is currently studying automotive technology in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
G.B.
- Grant Ballington is an experienced mechanic who has already done four editions of the Dakar with South Racing, although he will only be making his competitive debut in 2026.
- The 38-year-old South African worked as a mechanic for specialist manufacturer Neil Woolridge Motorsport between 2014 and 2020, then joined South Racing after meeting team boss Scott Abraham at some races in Brazil. He did his first Dakar in 2021 as part of the service crew and returned for the next three editions (2022-2024). After missing Dakar 2025, he is back in 2026 for a new kind of adventure as the mechanic on the team's fast assistance truck.
- His father used to race bikes with South African offroad legend Alfie Cox, and Grant recalls staying up until the small hours to watch Alfie competing at the Dakar in the 1990s and 2000s. He is also friends with Alfie's son Bradley Cox, who now rides for the Sherco factory team. "During races I think I follow Brad more than the car I'm working on!" he laughs.
- Away from motorsport, Grant installs solar panels back home in South Africa. He was born and still lives in Pietermaritzburg.
طموح
T.T.: “I'm looking forward to doing assistance again. It's a nice job. I would like to be racing but it's an expensive business. I have an old truck with a big Tatra V12 engine which wouldn't perform very well in the main trucks class, but it's perfect for assistance. I'm very happy to be working for Scott Abraham and South Racing again. This year the team only has one service truck and we will be supporting 11 vehicles. I can help out other competitors but only if I get the green light from Scott. He's the boss! We are there to respect team strategy and help our clients, they are the priority. This year I am bringing my son Metodej as a navigator. He's already done one Africa Eco Race in the sweeper truck, and now we're going to test him on Dakar. Let's see what happens. There is always a lot of work in the early stages. Everyone has big motivation, so they push like crazy, they don't always think about strategy. Sometimes it's difficult to explain to people that on the Dakar, you have to slow down to go faster.”
M.T.: “I'm 20 now, and I've been helping my father build trucks since way before primary school! Getting into rally-raid happened kind of naturally. I think we both knew we wanted to do it together at some point. I was keen to join the crew, he was keen to bring me on board, so here we are. It's my first time going to the Dakar and I'm super excited; I'm counting down the days. I've already been part of a service crew at the Africa Eco Race, so I have some experience. It's a good step before coming to the Dakar to race, which I think I would like to do one day.”
G.B.: “I asked if I could go in the assistance truck this year because I haven't actually raced the Dakar yet. After this year I'll be able to say I've done the race and not just attended it. I think I'm excited and nervous at the same time. It could be the best time or it could be the worst time! Depending on the days and if we get stuck and have to sleep out in the desert. But it's also exciting not knowing what will happen. That's the whole point of the adventure. We are doing fast assistance, which means that if a South Racing Can-Am breaks down or has a mechanical problem, we'll be the first ones to get there and fix it as fast as possible so they can continue the race. We can use parts that are on board the Can-Am and what we have in the truck. What would make this a great race? If all the cars we are looking after make it to the finish, as well as us in the truck. Everybody wants that medal on the final podium.”
