“I’d never raced a road book rally before Sonora”

Ronald Venter is yet another South African Dakar rookie who’s been riding since he learnt to walk. Although he rode bikes as a kid, he actually started his competitive career on quads before switching back to two wheels later on and focusing on extreme enduro. Back home he won the National Senior Championship in 2022 and has also raced aboard at the Romaniacs and the Sea to Sky in Turkey. A bit older than his young gun countrymen such as Bradley Cox and Kerim Fitz-Gerald, unlike them, Ronald isn’t planning on making a career out of rally raid. With a wife and two small kids he’s flat out with his family and his mining and engineering business. The 2024 Dakar isn’t however just a bucket list ticking exercise for this self-financing rider. Rather, he plans on doing a series of 5 Dakars with the ultimate goal of doing at least one Dakar with each of his sons, either on a bike or in a car. Fortunately, his wife is also mad keen on motorsport and while her husband is away racing she takes one of their sons to the different series in which he has entered and for which he has just won rookie of the year!

“Although I’ve ridden a lot of extreme enduro and cross country I’ve always wanted to do the Dakar and so to qualify for the 2024 edition I went this year to Mexico to race the Sonora Rally with the Freedom Rally Team. I’d never raced a road book rally before it went OK - I finished 4th in the national classifications which was enough to win my ticket to Saudi Arabia. After that I went to race the Romaniacs, flew back home and a day later was on the start line for the Crono Rally here in South Africa. So despite being busy at work and at home I’m managing to get plenty of time in on the bike ready for next January.”