“I think we’ll have the slowest car”
CREW FACTS
K.R.
- Karolis Raisys has entered the Dakar Classic in a Series 3 Land Rover station wagon. This might have something to do with him being a brand ambassador for Land Rover in Lithuanian.
- And he got the brand ambassador gig because as a successful rally driver, with several national titles to his name, he’s pretty famous back home in his motorsport mad country of birth where the Dakar is the second most followed sport after basketball!
- Karolis’ first close encounter with the Dakar was last year when he drove the media car for the Lithuanian press (in a Land Rover Discovery of course) and liked what he saw. Before going he thought that the Dakar Classic would be too easy. Talking to some of the competitors changed his mind. Indeed, after closer examination it seemed to him that it embodied the spirit of the original race.
- Karolis has previous form in regularity rallies having already competed in the Monte Carlo Classic in a Jaguar XK150 (no surprises there). He then switched from that model to another Jaguar – the bank robbers favourite, the Mk II - and won his class and finished 4th overall. On such a prestigious event, with over 350 cars entered, this is quite an achievement.
I.D.
- His co-driver is a professional drift driver and race car builder whose only previous experience of regularity rallies was an event held at the Nurburgring where the win goes down to less than a second!
2025 AMBITIONS
K.R.: “I’m sure we will have the slowest car on the 2025 Dakar Classic, but I still think we can win. The Land Rover we will be entering is exactly the same as the one entered by the two French Calamel brothers. Unfortunately it isn’t their actual car because that caught fire and was total destroyed while being used as an assistance vehicle in Morocco. We’ll give it a vintage livery but it won’t actually look the same. The biggest challenge we have at the moment is getting the car finished in time to take the boat to Saudi Arabia. We have just 3 weeks to do it, so basically we are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Once we get to Saudi Arabia the biggest challenge will be my navigator’s lack of experience. I did have someone with a lot of experience lined up for the job but he had to pull out for personal reasons. His replacement is currently racing a motorcycle in Morocco so that will be good road book practice. I just hope he doesn’t injure himself, because finding a third navigator is going to be tricky!”
I.D: “I’ve literally just finished the Addax Rally in Morocco and am super happy with the result -14th overall! I know Karolis is just happy that I finished without injury because he didn’t want to have to look for a third co-driver! Although me going on the rally stressed him out, it was good practice with the road book. In everyday life I have a business based at the Nurburgring called Ringfreaks that hires out track prepared cars, mainly Porsches and BMWs. It costs about 200 euros per lap in a Porsche - little bit more if you crash the car haha! On the plus side I’m a pretty good mechanic which could come in useful with an old Land Rover. On the negative side I don’t have much navigation experience. But Karolis knows all about that and we’ll do some practice in December before we leave for Saudi Arabia.”
