One year ago, Carl Searles and Craig Searles had their applications for the 2025 Dakar Rally declined by the ASO because their desert rally experience was deemed insufficient. Fortunately, the organizers added they only needed “one more rally done” to clinch their spot.

One year and one more rally later, their bids to run the 2026 Dakar have been approved.

“We knew that qualifying to race in the Dakar Rally wasn’t going to be easy. Between us in the last two years, we’ve covered over 10,000km in rally stages around the world,” reads a post from the brothers after receiving their acceptance letters.

“Non[e] of this could’ve been done without the support of our followers and sponsors.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved and can now finally say:

“WE’RE GOING TO DAKAR 2026!!”

The brothers’ Dakar project, titled Searles2Dakar, began in 2023 with goals of making the 2025 race. The effort began with the 2023 Rallye du Maroc, where Carl finished 53rd in Rally2 ahead of his younger brother (by two years) who placed 58th. However, the start was not deemed enough by the ASO for the 2025 Dakar.

As reassurance and motivation, the ASO stressed their pace in Morocco was good enough for Dakar but just needed the extra experience in desert rallies. Thus, they entered the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February.

The race proved to be a tough one, especially for Carl as his navigation equipment glitched out in Stage 1 before crashing two legs later. Despite the struggles, Craig stayed by his side and they finished together with Carl 23rd in Rally2 and Craig in 24th. Carl’s best stage finish was 18th in Stage 5 while Craig’s was 19th in Stage 2.

Outside of racing, the two are managers at their family-owned water treatment company Liquitech Ltd. They are also instructors at BMW Off Road Skills in Wales and have competed in BMW motorcycle events like the BMW GS Trophy.

Featured image credit: Matteo Gebbia / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO