After competing in a wide variety of cross-country rallies, Souad Mouktadiri will get to finally add the Dakar Rally to her portfolio in 2025. She will be the first Moroccan driver to compete in the SSV category at the Dakar.
Naturally, much of Mouktadiri’s rally experience has come in races held in her home country including the Morocco Desert Challenge, the M’Hamid Express, and the Rallye du Maroc. The lattermost, which she has entered five times, is part of the World Rally-Raid Championship with her latest entry in 2023.
In 2021, she ran her first European rally at the Andalucía Rally in Spain (a former W2RC round), driving a Nissan Patrol as an Open entry.
Mouktadiri returned to Europe for the starting leg of the Africa Eco Race in January, a race that runs through Morocco and neighbouring countries before ending in Senegal along the original Dakar Rally route. Racing a Can-Am Maverick with Frederic Villers d’Arbouet as co-driver, she finished thirteenth overall and second in the T4 class.
“Thank you to those who shared the information today, very moved by your comments and messages on the announcement,” wrote Mouktadiri on Rally Raid Spirit‘s report about her début. “I hope to live up to it and go all the way, onto the podium of Dakar Rally and raise our flag high.”
The 2025 Dakar Rally will take place on 3–17 January.
Written in collaboration with Rally Raid Spirit