With each year that passes, the legend of the Dakar Rally grows – and Motul is proud to be an ongoing part of the world’s most renowned rally-raid event.
The 44th edition of the Dakar Rally will take place from 1 – 14 January 2022, entirely within the borders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). By returning as the main partner for the Dakar for the fifth consecutive year, Motul is underlining its commitment to motorsport in general, and to the rally-raid format in particular.
The Dakar also offers the ultimate test of the performance and reliability of Motul’s products and a strong technical team from the Motul Lab will be present in the bivouac throughout the event, collecting and analysing data that will not only assist all the competitors in the 2022 Dakar Rally, but will also feed into Motul’s continuous product improvement initiatives. Products that can deliver a winning performance in the deserts of KSA will equally be able to perform under all conditions that Motul customers are likely to encounter in their day-to-day lives.
As well as being the main partner for the Dakar once again, Motul will also be supporting individual teams and competitors and providing products for the competitors in the Original by Motul category – riders who are otherwise unsupported for the duration of the race.
Bike-Category teams sponsored by Motul at the 2022 Dakar Rally will include the Monster Energy Honda Team, featuring 2021 Dakar winner Ricky Brabec; the Sherco Racing Factory team led by 2021’s sixth-placed rider, Lorenzo Santolino; and Hero Motorsports. Each of these sponsored teams will be using Motul products including the recently relaunched 300V 4T Factory Line Off Road 15W60.
Naturally, Motul’s involvement in the Dakar extends beyond the Bike Category, and they will also be sponsoring the exciting South racing Can-Am team in the SSV Category, plus two of the top three finishers in the Quad Category from 2021, namely Manuel Andujar (2021 winner) and Pablo Copetti (third place).
In the Car Category, Motul will be backing the Toyota Land Cruisers of Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body, the Optimus Evo 3 and Evo 4 Buggies of the MD Rallye Sport team and the SRT Serradori Team, stage winners from Dakar 2021. The roster of Motul-sponsored teams will be rounded out by two all-French contingents: RIC Rallye in the Truck Category and Team Elite au Dakar in the Classic Category.
As has often been the case, the Original by Motul Category will have a strong southern African presence, with three SA riders including Dakar veteran Stuart Gregory, who will be looking for a second consecutive Dakar finish – something he knows is far from guaranteed. They will be joined by Werner Kennedy and Live Lesotho’s Charan Moore, plus John Kelly who will be looking to follow in the tyre tracks of fellow Botswana citizen and previous Dakar competitor, Ross Branch.
“I’m very much looking forward to swapping the Race Director’s chair for being a competitor myself,” commented Moore, fresh from organising the latest edition of the Motul Roof of Africa. “The dunes of Saudi Arabia may be very different to the mountains of Lesotho, but motorsports fans can look forward to outstanding action, made possible once again by the support of Motul,” he added.
Motul’s media team will be reporting daily from the Dakar under the theme of “1001 Stories – the Dakar stories never end”. This approach is inspired by the stories told by Scheherazade in the classical Arabic work of literature, “One Thousand and One Nights”. Just like the emperor who cannot wait to see how each story unfolds, Motul is confident that the narrative threads that come together to weave the rich patterns of the Dakar will keep rally-raid fans spellbound for the duration of the event.
You can follow all the Dakar action via Motul’s Facebook page. For other great content around this and other Motul sponsored events closer to home, go to Motul SA’s Facebook page and Instagram profile.
