Janus van Kasteren skipping 2025 Dakar Rally, switching to car in 2026

Janus van Kasteren will be sitting out the Dakar Rally in 2025, but reports from Dutch media indicate he plans to return in a car for the 2026 race.

The 2026 team, whose name and vehicles were not immediately revealed, will consist of three cars for himself and fellow Dutchmen Michiel Becx and Roger Grouwels.

Van Kasteren had exclusively raced at Dakar in the Truck class since 2018, winning the 2023 edition and eventually the category’s final World Rally-Raid Championship. His sixth career Dakar in January started off strong when he won the Prologue followed by three of the first four stages, but his hopes of a repeat were dashed by a mechanical failure during the Chrono Stage. He ultimately salvaged a fourth-place run.

Team de Rooy, whom he had worked with since 2020, revealed their 2025 Dakar lineup on Tuesday without van Kasteren. Anja Van Loon is the team’s only returning driver from 2024, while they have added this year’s runner-up Aleš Loprais and car racer Vaidotas Žala to the fold.

Becx also raced a truck for de Rooy in 2024, finishing behind van Kasteren in fifth; he is no stranger to driving a car at Dakar, having made his début in a MitJet Offroad buggy in 2019. Grouwels, a former one-make pavement racer and two-time Supercar Challenge Super GT champion, piloted a Can-Am Maverick in the latest Dakar’s Challenger class for Dakar Team Spierings RaceArt but retired after halfway.