“Since Morocco we’ve raised our expectations a little”

Sara Price might be relatively unknown in the world of rally raid but back in the States she’s a very big deal indeed. She started riding dirt bikes at the age of 8 and is still the most winningest amateur female motocrosser to date. In 2010 she became the first fully supported female factory MX racer under Monster Energy Kawasaki where she metaled in X Game. After 2 wheels Sara got behind the wheel of her first SSV and started racing all she can as a driver, winning multiple championships showing she has what it takes behind the wheel in many disciplines. She was the first woman to race in Stadium Super Trucks leading her into driving Trophy Trucks where in 2019 she made history winning the prestige Baja Mexico Trophy Truck Spec Championship where she drove every mile of the series including the famous Baja 1000 that took her 19 and half hours to finish to secure the championship in the competitive Truck class. More recently she’s been racing in the Extreme E series and when she isn’t racing she is a Stunt Woman driving and riding in Hollywood. You get the picture -she’s a tough competitor and something of a pioneer. Which meant that, driven by passion rather than the desire for an easy life, back in 2015 she entered the Rallye des Gazelles in Morocco. Her interest in rally raid ignited, she’s been trying to get to the Dakar ever since, a project that took a major step forward this summer at the Sonora Rally when she won the Road to Dakar category which comes with a free entry to the 2024 edition. Then at the Rallye du Maroc in October she won her first ever special on stage 2 and to prove it was no fluke backed that up with another stage win the very next day! Suddenly her Dakar T4 expectations took on a whole new dimension.

S.P.: “The Rallye du Maroc proved to be an extremely positive experience for us. Sure, it was great to win the two stages and finish second overall in T4 but what was really useful was all that we learnt, especially in terms of the pace we could run at and how far we could push the car. It has meant that we will be able to get up to speed much quicker in Saudi Arabia. And inevitably it has meant that we’ve raised our expectations a little. We’d still be immensely proud just to finish such a mythical race but now a podium is a realistic possibility and would be a really amazing result. If we’re smart and stay humble and don’t focus too much on our position it could just be that the result comes to us.”

J.G.: “I won the Sonora Rally a while back co-driving for Chris Blais, so I already had some experience with road book navigation. Then with Sara we won the Road to Dakar this year in Mexico and things went well again in Morocco in October. Those two results have inevitably raised expectations but we’ll just feel it out in January and keep doing what we’ve been doing.”