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The funeral had to wait for a whole constellation of riders until they returned from Saudi Arabia to the Czech Republic after the race and were able to say goodbye to their mentor. Karel Loprais was one of the first and also by far the most successful. It was he who inspired other riders, navigators and mechanics. Thanks to him, Czech pilots ruled or co-ruled Dakar trucks for twenty years, from 1987 to 2007.
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The time was very successful for the Czech colors – 23 riders reached the medal in the overall standings. The Czech crews were on the podium a total of 21 times. They finished in 6th place 6 times (always with Tatra cars, historically only the Russian Kamaz was better), 6 times they finished in second and 9 times in third place. Always on Tatra or Liaz cars. The News list compiled an overview of the most successful participants of the Dakar Rally.
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Czech trucks still run Dakar and are still in the top places.
Karel Loprais
The man nicknamed “Monsieur Dakar” was the absolute best of the Czechs and Moravians. 6 times he won, 4 times he was second and once third. Only Russian Vladimir Chagin and Kamaz have a better balance in trucks.
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Karel Loprais was connected for life with the Tatra car manufacturer, where he joined in 1967. First as a worker, car mechanic, later as a test driver. Thanks to eleven months of testing the Tatra T-815 on a construction site in Libya, together with Radomír Stachura, he was in a wider selection of crews for the first participation in the race in 1986. A year later they were second and in 1988 even the first.
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However, Loprais’ biggest success at Dakar was the victory in 1994, when he was also classified as sixth in the common car-truck category. No one has yet surpassed this, although much more powerful twin-engine monsters have begun to dominate the trucks. Karel Loprais achieved all the success with the Tatra 815.
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But he also had a hard time. The worst happened in 2003, when he jumped on uneven terrain and turned a ten-ton truck at 100 km / h six times. Loprais suffered a spinal injury, but returned to Dakar three years later. In 2006, his nephew Aleš made him a navigator. At one stage, Karel Loprais had to brake hard to prevent a collision with the motorcyclist, the vertebral injuries returned and the crew had to resign four stages before the finish. Since then, nephew Aleš Loprais has taken over the family relay.
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Jiří Moskal
Jiří Moskal is the second big Czech star at Dakar and one of the first participants from Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. As one of the few, he was not associated with the Tatra – throughout his career he represented the Liaz brand. He finished second once in Dakar, once third, then 13th and did not finish once.
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At that time, he was already an experienced driver who took part in hill climbs, circuits and, briefly, classic rallies. In 1988, together with Loprais, they were involved in an incredible drama in Dakar. Moskal led nine stages, but then he had an accident and knocked out the windshield. From that moment on, he only chased his Czech colleague in vain and reached the finish line in second place.
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Aleš Loprais
Karel Loprais’ nephew has been racing in Dakar since 2006, when he participated as a navigator in his uncle’s crew. They resigned from the 5th place after the 11th stage due to Karel Loprais’ health problems. A year later, he finished third with Petr Gilar. And from 2013 to the present, he was placed between 4th and 7th place.
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Zdeněk Kahánek
Dakar rode during the era of Karel Loprais and even started as the number one team in the Tatras. He reached the podium in 1990, when he placed third.
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Karel Loprais recalled fighting with Kahánek for the victory in Dakar in 1986, but in the end both Tatras ended up in the swamps near the village of N´Djago, where they were led by the organizers’ mistake. Everyone finally reached the finish line, but only after the time limit.
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Vlastimil Buchtyár
A legend from the beginnings of Czech success at Dakar. In 1987, he sat in one of Kopřivnice’s six-wheelers as a test driver for Tatra. His crew finished in 18th place, when most of the rally passed after technical problems with only one functional axle.
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Today, the Dakar rides in the dunes of the Saudi desert.
A year later, Buchtyár moved into an eight-year round and in the next three years he provided the service car for the organizers. He got into the competition Tatrovka (4 × 4) again only in 1992, when the Dakar Rally headed from Paris to Cape Town. The biggest success was the year 1995, when his crew placed 3rd. Although the Dakar never won, for many he became the personification of tenacity and perseverance.
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Ladislav Fajtl
Another Dakar fighter who participated in the competition many times, either as a driver or navigator. The biggest success for him was the third place overall in the Tatras in 1996.
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20th year heroes
In 1998, the twentieth anniversary of the rally took place. Karel Loprais won the truck final again, but during the race the indigenous fighters attacked two other Czech crews.
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Three Tatra cars started the competition. In the phase that preceded the day of rest on the borders of Mauritania and Mali, masked terrorists in balaclavas and Kalashnikov’s two of them attacked. Milan Koněný, Martin Kahánek and Jaroslav Lamač competed in one. The other three Bedřich Sklenovský, Petr Hamerla and Tomáš Tomeček drove in a truck with spare parts.
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It was a real drama back then described by Michal Štěpanovský on auto.cz. The Czechs then pulled out of the car with their hands over their heads and led them aside. “It was the worst hour of my life,” Sklenovský recalled. The youngest of the Czechs, Kahánek, whose son was born just before he left for Dakar, thought at that time that he would never see him again.
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The bandits transferred everything that went to Sklenovský’s truck. They stripped the Czechs in their shorts and took everything from them. At the other, the trucks lined up the wheels, sat in the loaded Tatra truck, and drove off.
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It was not until half an hour later that the Malian soldiers arrived and contacted the director of the competition, Hubert Auriol. In the meantime, the Czech riders made their bikes and got into the bivouac. Fortunately, the next day was free. The Czech trio managed to get spare clothes and were able to go to the race again. And it almost happened a miracle. Koreny et al. they reached the finish line three, seven hours behind the victorious Loprais.
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The second trio without a truck managed to get to Dakar by air, where Ambassador Ota Holubář was at the time, and he helped the competitors a lot.
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Martin Macik
In 2013, he started for the first time as a truck navigator. After only two years, however, he exchanged the roadbook for a steering wheel. He then finished in Dakar 2021 for three winning stages and fourth place overall.
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Josef Macháček
He was the only one to catch up with Karel Loprais and also dominate the Dakar six times – but he has nothing to do with trucks. Josef Macháček won quad bikes at the Dakar in 2009 (but before that he won four times in the unofficial race). Last year, he and Pavel Vyoral mastered light prototypes.
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Few countries can boast of such a balance in Dakar.
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