“I still consider myself a rookie on the rally!”

Martin Soltys is gearing up for his third Dakar with the Tatra Buggyra Racing team, but the 46-year-old admits that he still has a lot to learn about tackling the world's toughest rally, having enjoyed mixed fortunes in his two participations to date. On his maiden outing in 2018, the Czech driver claimed an impressive 12th place just behind team leader Martin Kolomy. But last year, despite running as high as 7th overall after six stages, his adventure came to a premature end because of technical problems in the Peruvian dunes. For this first edition in Saudi Arabia, Martin will be Buggyra Racing's main man in the trucks; Kolomy has left to join MP-Sports and Dakar legend Josef Machacek has taken his place, although the five-time quads winner will be competing in an SSV. For Martin, this is an opportunity to demonstrate that he has the makings of a leader and the ability to land a top-10 finish. He is once again joined by navigator David Schovanek and mechanic Tomas Sikola in a Tatra Phoenix, and will be looking to upset some of the bigger names in the highly competitive trucks class.

M.S.: “Our target is to survive until the end. I still consider myself a rookie on the rally, so I'm keeping my feet on the ground. But we have also shown in the past that if we stick to our style, we can reach the top 10. For me, the main goal is to focus on our driving style and to reach the finish line in the best possible position. What's important is that we'll be alone on the track, with no assistance, so we have to be very careful with our decisions. But that's not very different from previous editions. Last year we had some technical difficulties in the high dunes. We tried to fix it, but it took a lot of time, and when night fell it was impossible to continue. We had to wait until the morning, but then the fog rolled in and our race was over. We did at least manage to help some other competitors reach the bivouac after they ended up in the same place. It was a sad experience, but I believe it will move us forward. We're certainly looking forward to Saudi Arabia. The new destination looks interesting, and the more information we gather about the rally, the more confident we are that it'll be a fascinating race. With David and Tomas we had a long testing session in Tunisia during the first half of the year. After that we had a lot of practice in the Czech Republic, and in November, we'll be going with our new colleague Josef Machacek and the team to Spain for two final weeks of testing. I think we'll be ready!”