Pál Lónyai was planning to race the Dakar Rally for a second time in 2025, but business had other plans. In an interview with Championat, navigator Alexey Kuzmich revealed he was supposed to race Dakar alongside Lónyai until the latter had to withdraw due to financial difficulties involving his company.

Had things worked out, both would have raced a Yamaha from X-raid. They had done the 2024 Rallye du Maroc together for X-raid, finishing 13th in Challenger.

Lónyai is the head of Bioextra, a pharmaceutical and food supplement manufacturer based in Hatvan near the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Although Hungary is member of NATO and the European Union, the country has maintained friendly relations with Russia and both frequently trade together.

Kuzmich, who is Russian, noted that Lónyai was one of just two European drivers to offer him a ride in the wake of Russia invading Ukraine in 2022. The FIA mandated Russians must condemn the invasion and agree not to wear their country’s emblems if they want to compete in races under its sanction, which Kuzmich complied; he raced with an Emirati flag early on before switching to a neutral “nationality”.

“People might want to race with me, but they understand perfectly well that I have a Russian passport. Who I am by nationality, what my roots are, nobody cares,” Kuzmich noted.

The two then raced Morocco, which is typically used as a dress rehearsal for those heading to Dakar. However, Kuzmich said things fell apart from there as business declined at Bioextra.

“[Pál] works with Russia and has a large pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, so he doesn’t give a damn about politics,” Kuzmich continued. “Pál is really fast, a multi-time champion of Hungary.

“Unfortunately, a month before Dakar, he said the race was too expensive for him to compete. Sales in Russia had fallen sharply due to high logistical expenses.”

This prevented Lónyai from racing Dakar for the second time. He retired from his debut in 2024, where he had Filippo Ippolito as co-driver.

With Lónyai out of the picture, Kuzmich had to look elsewhere. While he had done the Dakar with 2024 W2RC SSV champion Yasir Seaidan, they had a falling out after the 2023 race. Kuzmich recalled Seaidan and the team had “quietly stopped racing” midseason despite plans to race full time in the W2RC and Saudi Toyota Championship, leaving him sidelined. Five other drivers approached him for his services, but he rejected them as he waited for a response.

By May 2023, he was running low on money since living in Dubai was expensive, prompting him to start an HVAC business to make ends meet. In October, Kuzmich finally heard back from Seaidan’s team asking to finish out the World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas together. Kuzmich demanded he be repaid for the races he missed, plus extra because of how they fared at Dakar, after which negotiations fell through. Seaidan ultimately brought in the Metge brothers to be his navigators for his 2024 title-winning campaign.

Hamad Al-Harbi, a friend of Kuzmich’s old driver Ahmed Shegawi, enlisted Kuzmich to be his co-driver for the 2025 Dakar. The race was far from smooth, especially as Kuzmich lost his voice before the start of the rally so he had to communicate using hand signals, and they finished 25th in Challenger. Ironically, Seaidan was a spot ahead of them in 24th.

Al-Harbi and Kuzmich had planned to enter last weekend’s Saudi Baja in a Taurus T3 Max after racing a Can-Am at Dakar, but the former opted to sit out the rest of the year. Kuzmich linked up with Maha Al-Hamali for the race, placing seventh in SSV.

Once again a free agent after the Baja, Kuzmich doubts he’ll head back to Russia to compete in its national championship or the Silk Way Rally. Besides not getting any offers from home to begin with, he added there is a “Russian theme” in which “if you go live in another country, you’re a ‘traitor’.”

“Honestly, I don’t have anywhere to live in Russia now,” Kuzmich said. “I’ve sold everything. I even sold my Harley through club friends and bought a new one here.”

Featured image credit: Frederic Le Floc’h / DPPI