Here’s an interesting stat. Only three desert racers have won both on a bike and in a car since the first Dakar Rally in 1979. Nani Roma is a member of that legendary trio and now outlines his successful transition at the world’s most notorious race.

Now multidiscipline success is rare in motorsport and this rings true at the Dakar Rally. The exception is a small group of racers who have won this mega tough rally on both two and four wheels.

A Challenge Ahead

Nani Roma is part of that trio and he’ll race the 2025 Dakar Rally behind the wheel of the all-new Ford Raptor T1+. According to the Ford M-Sport driver, he feels immense pride at sharing the honour of both bike and car wins at the Dakar Rally with legends Stéphane Peterhansel and Hubert Auriol.

His 2004 bike victory was claimed in Africa when the rally was “out in the wilderness so you often felt alone and in the middle of nowhere.” The racer reveals that driving a car at the Dakar is kind of like being in a boxing match.

“You receive really heavy impacts again and again.” However something that unites Roma’s bike and car success is the passion he brings to the race: “When you do something passionately it takes away all fear.”

Central Figure

Roma was key component in developing KTM’s winning machinery. He’s now sharing his desert knowhow with Ford as they bring an all-new car to the Dakar Rally. In facing a new challenge, Roma admits it was a different challenge back then.

“The first thing to mention is that we were racing for 18 days, sometimes 20. The conditions were always really, really tough. The stages were much longer and picking the right line was an intense battle.”

In Saudi Arabia, he adds, they go to the middle of the desert, but still see people around. “Often in Africa we really felt like we were deep in the middle of nowhere. Back then we had less technology helping us, fewer luxuries and the stages were longer. It was always a massive personal, human and professional challenge to race the Dakar in Africa.”

A Swap From Two To Four

Although it may seem as a tough ask, swapping from two to four wheels was an easy decision for Roma. “I’d always been interested in the car category so when I got the opportunity to do some testing with Nissan I jumped at the chance,” he says.

“During that first test, I already felt like I had the capacity to win the Dakar in a car.” That resolve made his decision easier. “When I won my Dakar bike title in 2004 I discussed the chance of doing next year’s rally behind the wheel of a car with my agent. I’ve always tried to take my own discussions during my career and trusted that I know what’s best for me.”

Nani Roma joins Ford M-Sport’s line-up of drivers for the 2025 Dakar Rally along with Carlos Sainz, Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie Jr. They will be behind the wheel of the Ford Raptor T1+ at the world’s toughest rally, starting on January 3 and finishing on January 17.

(Images: Red Bull Content Pool)