2023 Dakar Rally in Pictures

Of course Dakar was invented by a motorcycle racer.

If Dakar founder Thierry Sabine had been competing on four wheels, he would’ve had a navigator. This person might have kept him sane as he was dying of thirst, lost in the Libyan desert in 1977 during the Abidjan-Nice Rally. But stranded alone among the towering dunes for three days and two nights, Sabine was “inspired” to create the original Paris-Dakar rally, run the following year in 1978.

Although the off-road race hasn’t run within 3,700 miles of the West African capital since 2007, it’s fitting the Dakar name stuck. Finishing there meant traveling 12,000 kilometers through brutal Saharan desert in 10 African countries. Paris was just an ironic place to start the journey through hell.

Originally crossing through six countries and about 3,000 kilometers of unforgiving desert terrain, today it runs about 5,000 kilometers through just one country: Saudi Arabia. In 2008, the Dakar was canceled due to political instability in Africa, and held instead in South America the following year. Eleven years of annual Dakar rally raids in South America followed. This year’s Dakar marks the fourth year in the Saudi Arabian peninsula, and by all accounts the race has flourished.

This western-centric concept of adventure has occasionally had an uneasy coexistence with its environs. Motorsports is notoriously apolitical, especially when money is concerned. But this year, the Russian and Belarussian teams of Kamaz and MAZ stayed home, due to FIA’s condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Perhaps they’ll eventually condemn the state-sanctioned murder of journalists and dissidents who criticize the Saudi government.

This year’s Dakar took place over 17 days, from December 31–January 15. Several Americans were in contention, including Ricky Brabec, Mason Klein, and Skyler Howes. But in the end, Skyler “Mr. Mustache” Howes was the lone American on the podium, no mean feat considering he’s only the fifth American to reach a podium at all. Argentinian Kevin Benavides took first, with Australian Toby Price in second.

Let’s dispense with the words and let the incredible photography do the storytelling.