The street to the Dakar Rally will not be a simple one to traverse. Rolando Martínez discovered this the exhausting manner, lastly receiving his acceptance letter for the 2025 race after a journey that included the very best of highs and the bottom of lows. Somos Dakar spoke with Martínez about making the race and his targets, which incorporates educating his fellow Paraguayans on what cross-country rally is basically like.
Martínez has been working rallies in Paraguay since 2019, profitable the Desafío Guaraní (a former Dakar Sequence race) in 2019 earlier than competing within the home and Argentinian championships. He lastly determined to attempt signing up for the 2024 Dakar however was turned down by the Amaury Sport Organisation as a result of an absence of expertise.
As such, he regarded on the 4 World Rally-Raid Championship rounds that may very well be used to qualify. He made his début on the 2023 Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina, the place he completed eleventh in Rally2. An extra begin on the Rallye du Maroc would have taken place had he been accepted for the 2024 Dakar.
With the 2025 Dakar as his main goal, he deliberate to run the total W2RC in 2024. On the Abu Dhabi Desert Problem, Martínez crashed on the ultimate day and broke two vertebrae whereas sitting seventeenth in Rally2 and coming off a thirteenth in Stage #4. The harm sidelined him for the BP Final Rally-Raid, and he needed to wait till the DR 40 in June earlier than making one other begin.
The 38-year-old impressed in Argentina with a seventh in school with two tenths in Phases #3 and #5.
“I acquired the prospect and achieved a terrific consequence, so we have been capable of full the necessities of the Dakar organisers,” he informed Somos Dakar. “That was how they accepted our registration for 2025.”
Together with his acceptance letter confirmed, Martínez’s focus is now on accumulating extra seat time. The Rallye du Maroc, the ultimate race of the W2RC calendar, will not be till October. Within the meantime, he’s working the Rally dos Sertões in Brazil; whereas its surroundings will not be precisely the identical because the deserts of Saudi Arabia that Dakar runs by means of, its eight-stage size will assist him put together for the Dakar’s longer distance.
In addition to racing for himself, Martínez additionally pressured to that “considered one of my targets with this challenge is to advertise cross-country rally in Paraguay.” The nation’s capital Asunción hosted the primary leg of the Dakar Rally in 2017, whereas Oscar Santos Peralta was the lone Paraguayan on the newest version in January when he completed eleventh in Challenger.
Though his compatriots usually benefit from the sport, he defined it’s a little bit of a “taboo” as a result of its risks in comparison with different types of racing.
“We all know that the rally is harmful, however that’s the case for all motorsport. Perhaps they assume that we at all times go all out,” he stated. “The aim is to ask individuals and for them to grasp and study what rally is.”
The 2025 Dakar Rally runs 3–17 January.
