Jaroslav Valtr will be in a familiar vehicle for the 2023 Dakar Rally as he rejoins Tatra Buggyra Racing. He last raced with the team in 2016, where he finished eighth in the Truck catgory. René Kilián and Tomáš Šikola will serve as his team-mates.
“I would like to try a better and more powerful truck. I was mainly looking for a truck with an automatic transmission,” said Valtr. “After the experience with the Tatra in 2016, I agreed with Martin Koloc (Buggyra owner) to try the Dakar again with the Buggyra team, and I am glad that I got this opportunity. We would like to establish a longer cooperation regarding the development of trucks, or the joint construction of a new special.”
Valtr has raced at Dakar for multiple teams, particularly those from his native Czech Republic, including an IVECO for MM Technology and a MAN for KM Racing. In July, competing as a privateer, he piloted an IVECO PowerStar to the Truck victory at the Baja Aragón in Spain.
The reunion with Buggyra first took place at the Baja Poland in September, where he drove a Tatra Phoenix against his son Michal.
“I have already driven six Dakars in four teams, so I have a general overview of Czech teams and trucks,” he continued. “Each has its pros and cons, and I returned to the Buggyra team precisely because the automat and the huge power of the engine fascinate me, and the stages in Saudi Arabia demand exactly that.
“René Kilián and Tomáš Šikola will ride with me in the crew. I know Tomáš from my previous experience with Buggyra, and although René is a little boisterous like me, he is an excellent mechanic and navigates well. Tomáš and I rode together at the Baja Poland at the end of summer, we match each other, so I really believe in a decent result. I think it is necessary to set the highest goals. We want to win, but we know that the Dakar is such a difficult competition that we can evaluate it only at the end after crossing the finish line of the last stage.”
His eldest son Jaroslav Jr. is a member of Instaforex Loprais Praga, who finished twenty-first in Trucks at the 2022 Dakar Rally with Aleš Loprais. He and Loprais will once again team up for 2023, though the older Valtr added they are “both ready to help each other in case of a problem. I would like to put my second son in the Valtr Racing team truck to cover my back. I think Dakar will be interesting and we will have fun as a family. We’re already joking around and making bets, it’s sure to be fun for our family.”
Valtr replaces Ignacio Casale, who ran the last two Dakar Rallies in the Tatra but announced his departure in September. Buggyra is also fielding an SSV for Koloc’s daughters Aliyyah and Yasmeen Koloc; to prepare the twins for Dakar, Buggyra skipped the final two rounds of the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season.
“We have prepared a plan for the next three years,” said Martin Koloc. “We will focus on the development of new cars. However, due to unclear technical rules, the project was postponed for a year so that we could optimalize the new truck and make it as competitive as possible for Dakar 2024. For the following Dakar, we managed to partially improve the technology. Our trucks should be as reliable as possible, but as for the speed, the trucks have their limitations due to being overweight. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything about the weight now. But I think we should still be competitive, both in terms of speed and reliability.”
Buggyra also ran an SSV for Josef Macháček and a Light Prototype for Saleh Al-Saif in 2022, neither of whom have revealed their plans. Nevertheless, Macháček has remained involved with the team’s NASCAR programme.
The 2023 Dakar Rally begins on 31 December 2022.