"I'll need to learn to be more patient"

Since bursting onto the rally-raid scene a couple of years ago, Mason Klein has proven himself to be one of the most talented young bikers out there. The 22-year-old from California has followed in the footsteps of his father Larry, who rode dirtbikes for many years and was drawn to offroad racing because there were opportunities to get his kids involved. Mason and his younger brother Carter have therefore been competing for over a decade in events like AMA Hare & Hound and Best in the Desert, which Mason has won twice in the 300 Pro class. In 2018, he got his first look at a KTM rally bike and couldn't resist the siren song of rally raid, entering his first Sonora Rally in 2020. It has been a steep learning curve for the young American, who improved from 26th at Sonora in 2020 to fifth in 2021, before embarking on his first Dakar in 2022. Plenty of observers began to sit up and pay attention when he finished his debut in ninth overall as the top rookie, aged just 20, and he just kept going from strength to strength. In 2022 he dominated the Rally 2 class in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), moving up to the elite RallyGP class for Dakar 2023. He was right up at the business end of the standings in the first week, winning Stage 2 and reaching the rest day just 13 seconds off the overall lead. However, he crashed heavily on Stage 9 after a collision with Adrien Van Beveren, sustaining head and neck injuries. Despite soldiering on for a few days, he eventually withdrew before Stage 13 and was no doubt left wondering what might have been. Mason says he has learned from those experiences and is hoping to enjoy a successful Dakar 2024 with his family team, KORR Off-road Racing, after leaving BAS World KTM midway through 2023. For his third outing in Saudi Arabia, he'll be sporting number #98 in a nod to his mother's great uncle J. C. Agajanian (1913-1984), a pioneering motorsport promoter and Motorcycle Hall of Famer who would no doubt have followed Mason's exploits with the keenest interest. Mason didn't have the best of luck in the W2RC this season, but secured a confidence-boosting overall victory -his first in rally-raid- at the Rally dos Sertoes in Brazil. He certainly has the speed to fight with the big boys.

M.K.: "I'm pretty happy with the results I had at Dakar 2023, besides not seeing the finish line. I have much more knowledge about the racing, and I think I have an even better strategy. I have good odds of riding safer and faster, and hopefully getting a really good result. The secrets I learned I would rather not say, to keep that competitive advantage! But I will say I confirmed that prologue position means nothing, and if I want to win, I'll need to learn to be more patient. Last year I crashed because I was navigating and racing at the same time. I have to remember to keep those two things separate. I've decided to race with my own team for Dakar 2024 because I needed a change of environment in order to improve my results. The hardest part of Dakar is making the start, so success for me is starting the rally; everything else after that is a win."