“You’re never prepared enough”

After climbing the rallying ladder together, partners Dave Klaassen and Tessa Rooth face their first Dakar in 2023. Klaassen began off-road racing in 2014, with Rooth starting navigation duties alongside him two years later. Their build-up to the Dakar began in earnest 1.5 years ago with events in South Africa and the Tunisia Desert Challenge: “We said ‘if we manage the dunes in Tunisia, we’re ready for the Dakar’.” Knowing it’s impossible to be over-prepared for the Dakar, the pair will bring enough spare parts to build their 5.6-litre Nissan Navara twice over.

D.K.: “When I was a kid, I always watched the Dakar and dreamed that maybe once in my life I could participate. I started off-road racing in 2014 in local Dutch events and then went straight to Morocco in 2015, but it was too early for me. So I took a step back and returned to local racing before progressing to bigger events and now the Dakar..
“You're never prepared enough, but we also did some dune training in Namibia in October and we have enough spare parts to build the car twice over! We’ve also done a lot of sports as well, so we’re quite fit.
“Having a relationship can make it more challenging in the car, but if we argue over the route or something it’s over after two minutes. We’re really enjoying this game together. It's a way of life for us.
“Like every race, when we get into the second week, we should see who our natural competitors are. Of course, we can't expect to fight against the best at the Dakar, but we do want to drive at a good pace compared to other competitors with similar cars. But our main goal is to finish, that’s it.”


T.R.: “When we started our relationship together, Dave didn't have a navigator. We did some old vintage car touring together, but I found it a little bit slow and I asked him, ‘can you go a little bit faster?’ We should have been doing some games along the way etc, but we only wanted to be the fastest! After that, he asked me. Do you want to be my rally navigator? At first I told him no, but at the last moment I went with him. And I'm still here!
“Being a couple together in the car is a bit more challenging than only doing the race! We’re not only together in the car but also after as well. We are also very competitive. So every time we are at the start, we’re a bit nervous and say to each other, ‘why are we doing this?’ But after 10 seconds the nerves are gone and we go for it. So we get to experience all the highs and lows together, which is very nice.”