The road to the Dakar Rally is not an easy one to traverse. Rolando Martínez learned this the hard way, finally receiving his acceptance letter for the 2025 race after a journey that included the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Somos Dakar spoke with Martínez about making the race and his goals, which includes educating his fellow Paraguayans on what cross-country rally is really like.
Martínez has been running rallies in Paraguay since 2019, winning the Desafío Guaraní (a former Dakar Series race) in 2019 before competing in the domestic and Argentinian championships. He finally decided to try signing up for the 2024 Dakar but was turned down by the Amaury Sport Organisation due to a lack of experience.
As such, he looked at the four World Rally-Raid Championship rounds that could be used to qualify. He made his début at the 2023 Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina, where he finished eleventh in Rally2. An additional start at the Rallye du Maroc would have taken place had he been accepted for the 2024 Dakar.
With the 2025 Dakar as his primary objective, he planned to run the full W2RC in 2024. At the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Martínez crashed on the final day and broke two vertebrae while sitting seventeenth in Rally2 and coming off a thirteenth in Stage #4. The injury sidelined him for the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, and he had to wait until the DR 40 in June before making another start.
The 38-year-old impressed in Argentina with a seventh in class with two tenths in Stages #3 and #5.
“I got the chance and achieved a great result, so we were able to complete the requirements of the Dakar organisers,” he told Somos Dakar. “That was how they accepted our registration for 2025.”
With his acceptance letter confirmed, Martínez’s focus is now on accumulating more seat time. The Rallye du Maroc, the final race of the W2RC calendar, is not until October. In the meantime, he is running the Rally dos Sertões in Brazil; while its environment is not exactly the same as the deserts of Saudi Arabia that Dakar runs through, its eight-stage length will help him prepare for the Dakar’s longer distance.
Besides racing for himself, Martínez also stressed to that “one of my goals with this project is to promote cross-country rally in Paraguay.” The country’s capital Asunción hosted the first leg of the Dakar Rally in 2017, while Oscar Santos Peralta was the lone Paraguayan at the latest edition in January when he finished eleventh in Challenger.
Although his compatriots generally enjoy the sport, he explained it is a bit of a “taboo” due to its dangers compared to other forms of racing.
“We know that the rally is dangerous, but that is the case for all motorsport. Maybe they think that we always go all out,” he said. “The goal is to invite people and for them to understand and learn what rally is.”
The 2025 Dakar Rally runs 3–17 January.