PUNE — Top Indian
rally driver Sanjay Takale’s debut at the iconic Dakar 2025 will be a historic
day for India, as it will be the first time ever an Indian will take part in
the four-wheel section of any class at the Mother of all Rallies, Dakar, which
is beginning from January 3, 2025, in Saudi Arabia. The gruelling route with 12
stages of over 8000 km is a daunting task even for the experienced.
Pune’s aerpace racer Takale, the first Indian to win an Asia
Pacific Rally Championship title in the production class, has partnered with
Compagnie Saharienne, a French Historic Rally Team, to race a Toyota Land
Cruiser HZJ78 at the 2025 Dakar Classic. He will be the first Indian to race
the Dakar Classic as a car driver with Maxime Raud as his co-driver.
“My goal is to simply experience the might of Dakar and have
fun driving in the dunes. It is a long journey and will be a good learning
experience. I am also very proud to be the first Indian to get this opportunity
to drive on a four-wheeler at Dakar,” said Takale.
Some regions of the route have been a nostalgic experience
for this Pune driver, who, as a backpacker, visited more than 100 countries
from 2001 to 2007.
The motorsport addict began his career with motocross races
in June 1987 and won over 100 trophies till 2001 and bid goodbye with a big win
at the bike national round at Nashik as a TVS factory rider before he drifted
into endurance rallies in 2009. A veteran in the Indian National Rally
Championship and the Malaysian Rally Championship, he is a regular in the
Asia-Pacific Rallies.
After many more laurels in the four-wheel section, he became
the first Indian to get glory for India at the APRC, winning the Production
class title in 2013. In 2018, he switched up gears and made his Rally3 debut at
the World Rally Championship3 at Rally Finland.
He bagged a creditable 14th in his class behind the wheel of
a Ford Fiesta R2, despite virtually no seat time, along with co-driver Darren
Garrod, and repeated it at the 2019 edition. In 2022, he represented Team India
at the FIA Motorsport Games and finished eighth, along with co-driver Mike
Young, in his first tarmac rally in a Peugeot 208 Rally4.
Takale is also a regular at the Asia Cross-Country Rally,
winning the T2 category in an Isuzu D-Max in 2011. In August 2024, he drove his
Toyota Hilux Revo to 13th place in the T1D class, for an overall 23rd.
Born on February 2, 1968 in Manjri village, the director of
Aerpace, an Indian transportation company, will have Frenchman Maxime Raud as
the co-driver and the duo will be piloting a Toyota Land Cruiser HZJ78.
The 2025 Dakar Classic runs along with the main Dakar Rally
from January 3 to 17 in its 47th edition, the sixth in Saudi Arabia. The route
starts at Bisha, crosses the Empty Quarter, and will finish in Shubaytah on
January 17.
The race format consists of 14 days of racing, divided into
12 stages. The marathon 48-hour "chrono" stage will be 950 km long.
Five stages will feature separate routes for cars and bikes and there will be
one mass start stage.
This Dakar promises more navigation and a classic run with
94 cars in the fray with 36 rookies and is being treated as a learning debut
for the Indian speed maestro from Pune, who intends to make a mark among the
rookies. The ‘86 to 98 low average class driver will be on a 722 number car,
the only car from India in Dakar 2025.
