“The Dakar seemed totally out of reach…”
En bref
P R:
- Phil Pryor has worked in the energy industry for over 35 years, 25 in a corporate before setting up his own business as a consultant and developer 10 years ago.
- In between work and family commitments (married + 2 daughters) he’s managed to fit in plenty of adventures: motorcycle and camper van trips, both on and off-road, long distance and downhill mountain bike races and snowboarding holidays.
- An adventurous spirit that brought him into contact with 10 times Dakar competitor Si Pavey and British Dakar Classic pioneer Andrew Graham. Although as a young man he was initially tempted by the idea of competing on a motorcycle, common sense and a well-developed survival instinct born of age and experience steered him towards the Dakar Classic.
- He originally intended to take part in the race in 2027 after completing a few warm up events, but the sudden death of a close friend persuaded him to bring his plans forward.
- To compensate for their lack of dune and sand driving experience Phil and his co-driver David did a rally-raid driving course with Polish Dakar legends Marek and Konrad Dabrowski of Duust Team fame at their Rally Training Centre. An experience that might well see them back at the Dakar in an SSV sometime in the future.
D S
- *Dave Steer has a very similar career path to that of his friend Phil Pryor. After debut in the military, he worked in the energy industry for 40 years. Then a couple of years ago he decided to take the leap into semi-retirement as a consultant. Outside work Dave has been involved as director and chair of a number of social action charitable organisations.
- Dave worked with Phil for about 10 years and they have stayed in touch ever since. But they’ve been seeing a lot more of each other since Dave agreed to be Phil’s co-driver.
- Dave admits that his family (married with two sons) are slightly bemused by his decision to spend the best part of January navigating the Saudi Arabian desert but they are ‘basically supportive’. He sold the idea as being his 60th birthday present to himself.
- When not watching YouTube videos on how to read road books and the particularities of regularity rallies, Dave likes to stay fit by running and swimming. This year, at the age of 60 he completed his 100th 5-kilometre Parkrun. An adept of wild swimming, Dave admits to getting the wet suit out once the water temperature dips below 12 degrees centigrade.
Ambition
P R: “I suppose, like for a lot of people that follow it, the Dakar seemed totally out of reach. But 2024 Dakar Classic competitor and owner of Allisport, Andrew Graham persuaded me otherwise. Initially the idea was to convince him to sell his Defender 90 but he was very attached to the car, so with Andrew’s help I ended up buying a Toyota from a Croatian competitor, Juraj Sebalj. He’d bought if off an Italian competitor called Paolo Bedeschi who built the car and finished third in it on two previous editions. The idea was to buy a vehicle with history that wouldn’t need any work but in the end it didn’t quite work out like that… In addition to doing a lot of work on the car to suit us based on Andrew’s advice, we decided to create a homage to the 1989/90 Dakar Tamiya ACP Land Cruiser livery while raising awareness of some small but amazing UK companies, we think it looks really striking. We’ve never raced an off-road rally before, let alone a regularity rally, so our ambitions are limited but we’ll do our best and we have purchased a very complicated looking computer to help us out! The real goal is to enjoy the experience, meet some amazing and passionate people and get ourselves and the car to the finish line. In the future I’d really like to put a team together and come back with friends and family and give them the opportunity to live a dream, experience the adventure. Or we might have a go at racing in the SSV category. Or both. Let’s see how the 2026 edition goes first!”
D S: “Competing on the Dakar had never been on my agenda. I’ve followed it for years but never thought I’d ever actually take part. I think that basically I got the job because I didn’t ‘no’ quickly enough. Phil asked me if I’d be interested around March of this year and then put the pressure on at the Le Mans Classic in July and eventually I caved in. That was when I thought we’d be going in 2027 and would have plenty of time to prepare. Then a close friend of Phil’s died suddenly and he brought the whole project forward by a year. So instead of doing a couple of warm up events we went off to Dubai for four days of intensive training with the guys from Duust. Fortunately it was as organised as it was enjoyable and we learnt a lot. To be honest we’re probably as ready as we’ll ever be. I think that until you’re actually on the event there’s only so much you can learn. What I have however realised is that I have drawn the shot straw, because while I will be knee deep in computers, tables and stop watches all Phil has to do is drive and enjoy the scenery!”
