2023 Dakar Rally Kicks Off as Price, Ekstrom Win Prologue

Each year, the global motorsport calendar kicks off with one of the toughest racing events in the world, as the Dakar Rally puts many of the world’s top off-road racers to the test over two weeks of competition through the Saudi Arabian desert. The event kicked off earlier today with a return to seaside action, as today’s Prologue stage from Sea Camp near Yanbu gave racers a 13-kilometer shakedown in preparation for one of the most grueling challenges in motorsport.

When all was said and done, it was a pair of versatile racing legends—Australia’s Toby Price on his familiar KTM motorcycle, and Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom in Audi’s updated car class challenger—who topped the standings. Ekstrom completed the course in an even eight minutes, just a second ahead of WRC legend Sebastien Loeb, while Price’s 8:22 was also good for a one-second victory over fellow Australian rider Daniel Sanders. Other class winners included France’s Alexandre Giroud in Quads, the Czech Republic’s Martin Macik in Trucks, Spain’s Cristina Gutierrez in T3/Lightweight Prototype, and Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuska in T4/SSV.

American racers enter this year’s event in the conversation for multiple class victories, especially in the T3 division. Seth Quintero’s dominance of last year’s event, where he won a whopping 12 of 13 stages, was rendered moot thanks to a broken differential early in the event that proved insurmountable, but he kicked off this year’s Dakar by finishing second in the Prologue, just two seconds behind Gutierrez.

Quintero’s teammate Mitch Guthrie Jr., who missed last year’s event, was four seconds behind Quintero in fourth, while last year’s T4 winner AJ Jones was 12th in his move up to T3. On the bikes, two Americans placed within the top 20, with 2020 Dakar winner Ricky Brabec in 11th and last year’s top rookie Mason Klein in 18th.

Tomorrow’s Stage 1 of the Dakar Rally will see racers take on a 367-kilometer loop stage, both starting and finishing at Sea Camp near the edge of the Red Sea. Peacock will present daily updates from the event starting with Stage 1, with coverage airing at 6:30PM ET each day.