“It's been a big year of learning”
CREW FACTS
P.K.
- Puck Klaassen is gearing up for her second Dakar, having completed Dakar Classic in 2024 with her father Sebastiaan in a Porsche Martiny. In 2025, the 22-year-old will be getting behind the wheel of a G Rally Team OT3 in the Challenger class, alongside former Original by Motul winner Charan Moore. Sebastiaan will be joining again as part of her support crew.
- While her family originally comes from the Netherlands, Puck grew up in South Africa, where Sebastiaan owns a vineyard. She raced motorbikes and go karts as a child then spent seven years focusing on show jumping. Three years ago, she took up motocross, but after sustaining a leg injury she switched to driving cars. Sebastiaan passed on his love of outdoor activities to all of his kids: one of Puck's two sisters still rides horses, while her brother is a downhill mountain biker.
- Puck did her first race in the Challengers at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2024, finishing 8th. She did her first outings with Argentine co-driver Augusto Sanz, who'll be navigating for Ahmed Alkuwari at Dakar 2025. She and Charan have only raced once together at the Rallye du Maroc, but they will do the full World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) season together in 2025
- For Dakar 2025, Puck requested -and was attributed- race number 302, in a nod to the year she was born (2002). "I love the number," she admits. "But it's kind of scary when you look at the names around me!"
C.M.
- Charan Moore is a star biker who made his first two Dakar appearances in the hardcore Original by Motul class, where riders have no assistance. After coming 4th on his 2022 debut, the 33-year-old South African won the OBM title in 2023. He returned as a privateer in 2024 with support from HT Rally Raid and finished just outside the Top 20 (9th in Rally 2).
- His father used to race Sandmasters and big American buggies, so growing up Charan would navigate for him and did quite a bit of driving. He says it has been "easy to adapt from bike to car". He also has a huge amount of navigation experience from all his years on two wheels.
- Charan has spent 14 years racing bikes in domestic and international offroad events. His CV includes a gold medal at the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE), two national cross-country crowns and an Africa Motocross of Nations title.
2025 AMBITIONS
P.K.: “I did the Challenger class in 2024 but I didn't expect to be doing it at Dakar 2025. Everything happened quite quickly. It's been a big year of learning. Dakar 2024 was crazy because it was my first rally. My dad and I had watched the Dakar on TV before, but actually being there was a huge shock for both of us. We knew we wanted to finish and were very happy when we did. That Porsche was incredible. I'd never driven it before but what a cool car it was. Seeing the whole Dakar was a big eye-opener and I immediately thought, this is what I want to do. We reached out to Taurus, and they emailed back saying Mitch Guthrie wouldn't be racing in Abu Dhabi and they had a spare car. So, I had a week to get myself an international licence and sort everything out! Dakar Classic is cool, but it's not really racing. Doing the T3s at the Desert Challenge was an even bigger eye-opener. I teamed up with G Rally later in the year, at Baja Aragon. I loved the car, but for me it was more about the team and how they ran things. Guillaume is amazing and I've learned a lot from him. And the engineers and mechanics are so passionate, you can see it's way more than a job for them. We got to know Charan in Namibia before Dakar 2024, and in my head he was focused on the bikes, but when he made his announcement I thought, this could be a really cool partnership. We clicked straight away. Pretty quickly we asked if he wanted to do the Dakar and world championship season with me. It was all very spontaneous. I'm very competitive so I want to do the best I can. Any good result puts me in a good mood, but sometimes it backfires when I put too much pressure on myself. Now I'm not focused on results but just consistency.”
C.M.: “I think winning Original by Motul marked a legacy for myself, my family and for the country. A culmination of years of service to the sport. It's really cool to achieve that, to say you've done the Dakar in the hardest way. It was so special. However, in the bikes it got to the point where the stress of acquiring the funding for Dakar just became too much for me. So, I made the call early, back in July, that I wasn't going back on a bike. Within three days of making the decision, I had numerous phone calls about the potential of navigating! You have to struggle through so much to get to Dakar, but the experience you get is next level. The car fraternity have different struggles in getting to Dakar, that's why I think a lot of bikers make good co-drivers. And with my malle-moto background, people know I've got more skills and heart than just my riding. I heard from a few major teams but Puck and her setup really appealed to me. We tested in Namibia in September with proper roadbooks and they saw what I could do, so it was full steam ahead for Morocco. We had a big crash there, on Stage 2 I think. A pure racing incident but a high-speed crash in a car is a breeze compared to a bike! Puck can really drive, and she is motivated to succeed. The thing is the maturity, and what we have already been through is creating the foundation to succeed. I was surprised with how comfortable she was at pushing that limit. Our goal is to finish the rally. In the Challenger class, if you can have a clean Dakar and finish, you're going to be right up there.”
