Buggyra to race with four vehicles at Dakar Rally 2022, and Saleh Al-Saif announced as new acquisition!
Great performances of Buggyra Racing at Hail Rally have been noticed, and especially Aliyyah Koloc’s win in the T3 category. Less than three weeks before the start of the Dakar Rally, so at the very last minute, the team will be joined by Saleh Al-Saif, who is going to join Josef Macháček in the light prototype category.
Probably the biggest move of the upcoming Dakar Rally has happened very quickly, even though the preliminary talks started much earlier in the second half of the year. “In Saudi Arabia, Dakar is becoming a big thing. And all the long testing, which is unusual in Europe, has been noticed by media and even competitors,” says Jan Kalivoda, the head of communication at Buggyra.
“While we’re defending our victory at Dakar, our success is in good teamwork. Saleh won one of the stages last year and he knows the local environment. Our communication was getting stronger during the Hail Rally, and when the two-time Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah also came and played a role in our talks, the deal was done. It’s simple, we all share the same goal – to win,” says the team principal Martin Koloc about the new cooperation.
And of course, the driver, known as Captain Saleh, is delighted about the news as well. “I’m now part of an ambitious team that took a victory at Dakar in January, and that says it all. The most important thing is, that the team aims to keep winning. Also, I was very impressed by how well the team worked at Hail Rally. I believe that I can make a strong team with Josef.”
And Josef Macháček, who will be defending the light prototypes victory, shares the same view. As he says, Middle East racing drivers have the advantage of knowing the local environment so well. “They have the best training facilities right behind their houses and driving in a desert is usually a good and common fun here, which I see as a big advantage. And, if a local driver decides to race with our team, it says a lot.”
In the Hail Rally post-race press conference, the two-time Dakar winner in the Cars category Nasser Al-Attiyah then thanked Buggyra Racing for hiring Saleh, and for being able to put together a deal so quickly and professionally. “I’m convinced that we see a connection between two subjects that can help each other a lot.”
That means the BUGGYRA ZM Racing team is entering the 44th edition of Dakar Rally now with two trucks TATRA with Calase and Calvet, and two Can-Am prototypes with Macháček and Al-Saif.
