The South African Safari Rally is a change of scenery for Konrad Dąbrowski, more than just because this is the first World Rally-Raid Championship race in the country.

While he’s always raced for the family-run DUUST Rally Team, logistics to get to South Africa proved too costly for the team. Since a title contender wasn’t going to miss a race, BAS World KTM Racing Team was more than happy to accommodate.

According to Dąbrowski, DUUST has a set budget for the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship for equipment transport and crew that they would have exceeded had they raced in South Africa. While not the only W2RC race on the continent, it is the southernmost that the series has gone and even further from DUUST’s home base in Poland than the Sonora Rally and Desafío Ruta 40 in the Americas.

On the plus side, DUUST and BAS World both field KTMs so the latter didn’t have to make too many changes to its usual operations. If anything, Dąbrowski noted the team “made sure the motorcycle is as close as possible to the one I usually ride.”

After Saturday’s shakedown, he opined he felt “very good on the bike. Now I just need to get used to riding fast on very narrow roads, between fences and trees, and with animals running left and right.”

He is one of four riders representing BAS World at the South African Safari Rally alongside Michael Docherty, Filip Grot, and Nathan Rafferty. Libor Pletka was also on the roster for his rally raid debut but withdrew after crashing on Saturday and breaking his collarbone.

Dąbrowski is currently fourth in Rally2 points after finishing seventh in class at the Dakar Rally and second in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Featured image credit: Irina Petrichei / Edophoto / DPPI