Heart surgery sidelines Ondrej Martinec for 2024 Dakar Classic

Ondřej Martinec will miss the 2024 Dakar Classic after having to undergo heart surgery. He and co-driver Olga Roučková were supposed to share a Toyota Land Cruiser 90 under the Czech Samurais banner.

“It is a difficult decision for the entire team, but health and life come first and we will have to cancel Toyota’s participation in the Dakar Classic rally. Ollie fully supports Ondřej’s decision,” reads a statement from Czech Samurais. “We are so sorry and it hurts so much. Thank you all for your understanding and support.”

Martinec made his Dakar Classic debut in 2023 in a Land Cruiser with Gabriel Žúbor as his navigator, finishing thirty-seventh overall. Roučková, who previously raced the main Dakar Rally in a quad and SSV in 2018 and 2019, placed fifty-first overall and third in the H0 class in her Suzuki Samurai.

For the 2024 race, Czech Samurais was to unite Martinec and Roučková in the same Land Cruiser while also fielding a 1979 Citroën 2CV for Barbora Holická and Lucie Engová. The Citroën is nicknamed “Duckar” for its duck-themed livery and Holická’s programme to raise ducks at Safari Park Dvůr Králové; Holická will be racing the Dakar for the first time after competing in the Czech rally championship, which Engová also races as the navigator for her brother and ex-Formula One and Le Mans driver Tomáš Enge.

Their Land Cruiser formerly competed in the Intercontinental Rally, which runs along the original Dakar Rally route starting in Paris and finishing in Dakar, and was going to be scrapped before the team restored it. The car features a 3.4-litre six-cylinder engine with 230 horsepower, while the chassis has been modified.

The 2024 Dakar Classic, a navigation-based counterpart to the Dakar Rally for vehicles before 1999, will begin on 5 January.