Pune, Dec 27 (IANS): Top Indian rally driver Sanjay Takale’s debut at the iconic Dakar 2025 will be a historic day for India, as it will be the first time ever an Indian will take part in the four-wheel section of any class at the Mother of all Rallies, Dakar, which is beginning from January 3, 2025, in Saudi Arabia. The gruelling route with 12 stages of over 8000 km is a daunting task even for the experienced.

Pune’s aerpace racer Takale, the first Indian to win an Asia Pacific Rally Championship title in the production class, has partnered with Compagnie Saharienne, a French Historic Rally Team, to race a Toyota Land Cruiser HZJ78 at the 2025 Dakar Classic. He will be the first Indian to race the Dakar Classic as a car driver with Maxime Raud as his co-driver.

“My goal is to simply experience the might of Dakar and have fun driving in the dunes. It is a long journey and will be a good learning experience. I am also very proud to be the first Indian to get this opportunity to drive on a four-wheeler at Dakar,” said Takale.

Some regions of the route have been a nostalgic experience for this Pune driver, who, as a backpacker, visited more than 100 countries from 2001 to 2007.

The motorsport addict began his career with motocross races in June 1987 and won over 100 trophies till 2001 and bid goodbye with a big win at the bike national round at Nashik as a TVS factory rider before he drifted into endurance rallies in 2009. A veteran in the Indian National Rally Championship and the Malaysian Rally Championship, he is a regular in the Asia-Pacific Rallies.

After many more laurels in the four-wheel section, he became the first Indian to get glory for India at the APRC, winning the Production class title in 2013. In 2018, he switched up gears and made his Rally3 debut at the World Rally Championship3 at Rally Finland.

He bagged a creditable 14th in his class behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta R2, despite virtually no seat time, along with co-driver Darren Garrod, and repeated it at the 2019 edition. In 2022, he represented Team India at the FIA Motorsport Games and finished eighth, along with co-driver Mike Young, in his first tarmac rally in a Peugeot 208 Rally4.

Takale is also a regular at the Asia Cross-Country Rally, winning the T2 category in an Isuzu D-Max in 2011. In August 2024, he drove his Toyota Hilux Revo to 13th place in the T1D class, for an overall 23rd.

Born on February 2, 1968 in Manjri village, the director of Aerpace, an Indian transportation company, will have Frenchman Maxime Raud as the co-driver and the duo will be piloting a Toyota Land Cruiser HZJ78.

The 2025 Dakar Classic runs along with the main Dakar Rally from January 3 to 17 in its 47th edition, the sixth in Saudi Arabia. The route starts at Bisha, crosses the Empty Quarter, and will finish in Shubaytah on January 17.

The race format consists of 14 days of racing, divided into 12 stages. The marathon 48-hour "chrono" stage will be 950 km long. Five stages will feature separate routes for cars and bikes and there will be one mass start stage.

This Dakar promises more navigation and a classic run with 94 cars in the fray with 36 rookies and is being treated as a learning debut for the Indian speed maestro from Pune, who intends to make a mark among the rookies. The ‘86 to 98 low average class driver will be on a 722 number car, the only car from India in Dakar 2025.