Jatin Jain “slowly inching towards my dream to stand” at 2025 Dakar Rally

Jatin Jain has run every World Rally-Raid Championship round in 2024 with the exception of the biggest one. That will change when the 2025 season begins as he has been accepted for his Dakar Rally début.

Jain has regularly vied for the Road to Dakar scholarship since his W2RC début at the 2023 Sonora Rally; the RtD awards the best performing rider at each select events with free registration for Dakar. The first Indian to race at Sonora, he finished eighteenth in the National Enduro class (independent of FIM sanction) and sixth in the Road to Dakar.

He increased his calendar for 2024 and has run all three of the non-Dakar rounds to date on a Kove 450 Rally. After finishing thirty-first in the Rally2 class at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, he improved to twenty-seventh at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid.

His most recent start at the Desafío Ruta 40 in June proved to be a misadventure even before it began. Jain had arrived in Argentina to learn his return flights were cancelled, forcing him to rebook them, then had a rock knock the chain guide off his bike in Stage #1 and lose him time. A crash on the third day resulted in an engine failure that ended his race.

Despite the disappointing end, his efforts overall did not unnoticed by the Amaury Sport Organisation and he received his acceptance letter in late July.

Vamcy Merla, an Indian businessman who oversees Maitri Estates and is the promoter of the Otago Rally’s Asia-Pacific Rally Championship Pacific Cup, will back Jain’s Dakar effort.

“Super stoked to start my run towards DAKAR 2025 with the blessings of Vamcy Merla sir. With his support, Im slowly inching towards my dream to stand at the start line of the ultimate challenge for any rally raid pilot,” wrote Jain. “I have been given a chance to fight this amazing battle and Im gonna give it my very best. As it says, Dream, Dare, Live it. And I’m gonna dare and live my dream to the fullest. Dakar! Here I come.”

Jain has mainly competed without the assistance of crews as a Malle Moto rider, which have their own Rally2 subcategory at the Dakar Rally dubbed Original by Motul. This led to an especially challenging BP Ultimate Rally-Raid as his bike struggled in the mud and rain, suffering a battery failure on the first stage before local spectators came to the rescue, while also completing two stages on bald tyres.

Before breaking into rally, Jain competed in supercross and was a two-time FMSCI National Rally Group 1A Champion in 2018 and 2019.

The 2025 Dakar Rally runs 3–17 January.