Sanders Fourth Outright, Awarded Best Rookie in Dakar

By Kendall Jennings

The 43rd Annual Dakar Rally has concluded. Three of the four Aussies that started the event on January 3 finished the gruelling event in Saudi Arabia, ending on January 15 at Jeddah, after 7,646km during 12 days of competition. Queensland’s Toby Price broke his collarbone at the 155km mark during stage nine.

Stage 10: Neom to Al Ula with a Liaison 241km and 342km Special Section of sand, Terre, tarmac, stones and chott 1,000m to 200m above sea level. Daniel Sanders finished sixth, Michael Burgess 29th and Andrew Houlihan 52nd.

Stage 11: Al Ula to Yanbu with a Liaison 134km and Special Section of 464km of sand, Terre, stones, dunes and chott 700m above sea level. Daniel Sanders finished fourth even after being stung by a bee, resulting in a half-swollen face, Michael Burgess 28th and Andrew Houlihan 51st. 

Stage 12: Yanbu to Jeddah with a Liaison 247km Special Section of 200km of sand, Terre, tarmac and dunes from 400m above sea level. Daniel Sanders finished fifth, Michael Burgess 30th and Andrew Houlihan 45th.

Overall, the three Victorians survived the 2021 Dakar. Gippsland’s Daniel Sanders finished fourth, an outstanding achievement, however. Toby Price’s first attempt at Dakar saw the Aussie on the third step of the podium in South America. There will be two big futures for rallying from Australia. Bendigo’s Michael Burgess finished 27th, Albury’s Andrew Houlihan 50th.

Daniel Sanders has had a tremendous off-road racing career, representing Australia in the International Six-Day Enduro, often winning outright classes. Sanders was a member of Australia’s dominance at the 2014 ISDE when Australia became the first nation to win all the ISDE Classes.

“After winning the ISDE, I was starting to look for something new; especially with the impact COVID-19 had back home. Myself, KTM and my management discussed options, and it was either compete in the GNCC series in the United States or make a start in rally racing,” Sanders recounted.

“Austria heard of my desire to compete in the rally and put together a deal for me, with KTM. Once the deal was done, I headed to Europe and the Middle East and trained for four months before lining up for this event.”

“Usually, you go from a motocross bike to an enduro bike and it’s fairly easy to adapt. This was a totally new bike, so four months wasn’t a lot of time to become accustomed to it. Then you throw in navigation; you’re trying to read your road map while travelling at 150km/h, so that can have massive consequences,” Sanders said.

“Hopefully, this puts me on the map for the future. I really enjoyed myself and am stoked to come away with fourth place on debut; I really believe it’s only upwards from here. With more practise and time on the bike, I think we can accomplish good things,” Sanders concluded.