“I do everything in my power to fulfil my dreams”
CREW FACTS
M.G.
- Apart from a couple of very local events in uncompetitive cars back in 2009, Maria Gameiro has only been racing since 2022. And she only started because she was fed up sitting around twiddling her thumbs while her husband raced.
- But it turns out she has quite a bit of talent. In only her second year of racing she won the ladies trophy in both the Portuguese and Spanish national championships aboard her T1.
- Then in 2024 she switched to a T1+ Mini and finished third in the Spanish championships – overall! She would have finished second except that she wanted to get some dune practice in for the Dakar and so missed the last round to race the Rallye du Maroc – which she DNFed after rolling her car and bending the roll cage.
- For her first Dakar she has entered the Challenger category in an X-Raid Fenic as it is a little bit easier to drive and a little bit cheaper to run, but in 2026 her intention is to return in a T1+.
- Her husband has become Maria’s team manager. He’ll be accompanying her on the Dakar in that role, after deciding in 2024 that it was time to quit driving.
- The two are used to working together, as jointly they run a machine construction business. They don’t have any children together, but Maria has a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Duke. He normally goes everywhere with her but will have to watch the TV in January if he wants to catch sight of his mistress.
J.M.
- If Maria’s off-road career has been relatively short, Jose Marques has been extremely long! A helicopter flight engineer in the Portuguese military, he decided to switch to being a professional co-driver when they moved him to a desk job. To date he has over 160 rallies on his CV!
- The high point of his career so far was his victory in the truck class on the 2019 Africa Eco Race with another fast Portuguese lady, Elisabete Jacinto.
- When Elisabete retired from racing Jose ‘went to work’ for the Lithuanian driver Gintas Petrus before being recruited by Maria.
- When not racing, Jose works hard on his fitness, particularly on strengthening his back which inevitably takes a lot of impacts. He also likes to travel, sample local cuisine and learn languages. In addition to perfect English, French and Spanish he has been learning Italian, a country he particularly likes to visit.
2025 AMBITIONS
M G: “I have three ambitions as far as my first Dakar is concerned. The first one is to get to the start line. I have a few sponsors but I’m essentially self-funding so already that is a big achievement. The second is to finish. One of my sponsor’s colors is pink/magenta, so the car and my driving suit are in that color. My co-driver Jose had the option of black with a bit of pink but out of solidarity he opted for ‘full’ pink as well. Anyway, I digress -many people thought we were all in pink because that is the color of the breast cancer charity in Portugal, so I have decided to donate a euro for every kilometer of special stage we complete to that charity. So that’s my second goal, to get to the finish. If anybody would also like to donate depending on the number of kilometers I complete they can follow the link: www.mlgameiro.pt to make a pledge as well. And then my third goal is to perform well enough to be able to come back next year in a T1+. If I do that, I’ll give a euro for every kilometer of special and liaison I cover!”
J.M.: “I started as a co-driver in a Baja on the Portuguese championship - I’ve had the passion for motorsport since I was one year old, because I grew up in a city with a racing circuit and a long tradition in motorsport. After some years, I started doing expeditions in the Sahara Desert and then started racing as a co-driver in cross-country rallies. The 2024 season with Maria has gone really well. She is both very talented and very brave. If I tell her she can go flat out, she goes flat out! She has great potential but obviously lacks experience which is why our No 1 priority for this Dakar is to finish and learn as much as possible before coming back with more ambitions.
