Two-time Dakar Rally winners Toby Price and Sam Sunderland will switch from the motorcycle category to make their T1+ car debuts at the 2025 edition in January, joining forces at the wheel of an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux.
Price, who has been left without a ride in the classic rally raid following the decision from KTM to not renew his contract for 2025, has long been linked to a move into the car class, having contested the famous Finke Desert Race in his native Australia.
Price also won the Baja 400 earlier this year, alongside former Supercars driver Paul Weel in a Mason.
In a post on social media, Price – who won the Dakar in 2016 and 2019 – said: “I am super excited to announce that we are going to Dakar in January with Overdrive Racing and going to jump in a T1+ car and see what we can do.
“The other good news is that I’ll be teaming up with a good mate of mine, Sammy Sunderland, who will sit alongside me and we’ll see what we can come up with. It’s going to be super exciting and a lot of hard work for us.
Price is a two-time winner of Dakar on bikes
“A big thanks to Blackrock Motor Resort, they have really come to the table to make this work and hopefully we can do the job.”
His navigator Sunderland is also a two-time winner of the Dakar, in 2017 and 2022, and recently announced his retirement from the bike class this year. He became the first British rider to win a stage for more than 15 years in 2014, but has struggled with persistent injuries, the most recent coming last year when he broke his shoulder on the Dakar and ankle on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Overdrive Racing team principal Jean Marc Fortin is confident his two car rookies will be able to deliver.
“This is one of the most exciting driver pairings we at Overdrive Racing have announced since the team’s inception in 2006,” he said.
“To have four-time Dakar Rally Champions Toby Price and Sam Sunderland in the same car is nothing short of sensational and is a project that we are incredibly thrilled about.
Sunderland, also a double Dakar winner, brings navigation expertise
“We’re confident in Price’s skill behind the wheel, and Sam’s experience with navigation in the bikes category makes this pairing very formidable.
“This is very exciting news for the Dakar Rally, and equipped with an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux, we believe that a great result is possible for these two drivers and collectively that’s what we will be aiming towards.”
Price and Sunderland join a long list of bike competitors who have made the switch to the car category on the Dakar Rally.
Fourteen-time event winner Stéphane Peterhansel won six times on a bike before moving to four wheels in 1999 at the wheel of a Nissan, while current M-Sport Ford Performance driver Nani Roma won the bike category in 2004 before repeating the feat in cars 10 years later.
Former Dakar Rally event director, the late Hubert Auriol led the way in the early 1990s by becoming the first bike winner to also win in cars when he took victory on the Paris-Cape Town edition back in 1992.
