The sons have taken over

The Dakar is like a family business to the Van de Laar family. It all began with father Fried van de Laar and now his sons Jan and Ben, like in their construction company in daily life, have taken over. The sons were with their father in the truck in 2016 and since then they are on their own, as father Fried cannot race anymore due to his health situation. This situation was the reason they did not race last year: the brothers had too much on their hands in taking over the family business. Only navigator Ben was in the Dakar, helping out another team.

Jan van de Laar: “The Dakar to us is a complete reset. It’s so hard and the effort is so big, you can’t think about anything else but surviving the day and bringing the truck to the finish. You simply can’t think about work, when you are in the middle of the stage. It’s so much fun to do this together with my brother Ben, with whom I’m in the family company as well. We had to wait to register for the doctors approval concerning my father, but now that we are assured he will be okay until at least the end of January, we can take on this new adventure.”