Preston Campbell has been on a tear in recent years with back-to-back Mint 400 wins, a Vegas to Reno victory, and a top-five NHHA points finish despite a broken wrist. It very quickly turned out his prowess extends to rally raid as well when he won the Sonora Rally in March. Now, he’s got his ticket to the 2026 Dakar Rally in hand.

The Sonora Rally was Campbell’s maiden rally, just two weeks after he and two-time Dakar winner Ricky Brabec won the Mint 400 Motorcycle Race for the second year in a row. Despite being new to the discipline, he topped the first three stages and beat runner-up Jordan Huibregtse by over one and a half hours.

A former World Rally-Raid Championship round, Sonora is part of the Road to Dakar and awards points for finishers that they can use to boost their chances of being accepted for the Dakar Rally by the ASO. Brandon Krause also earned his 2026 Dakar spot via Sonora by finishing fifth and claiming the Dakar Dreams challenge. Francisco Álvarez finished 40th in Rally2 at his Dakar debut this year after winning the RtD at the 2024 Sonora Rally.

Campbell will follow in the footsteps of his father Johnny, an 11-time Baja 1000 winner who raced the 2001 Paris–Dakar Rally and finished the best among privateers in eighth overall. While that was his only Dakar on two wheels, the older Campbell later returned as a navigator for fellow American Robby Gordon throughout the late 2000s and 2010s. Johnny also oversees Preston’s team JCR Honda.

Jamie Campbell, Johnny’s brother and Preston’s uncle, also has Dakar experience. In 2024, the former Baja 1000 class winner drove HySE’s hydrogen-powered SSV to a fourth-place run in the new Mission 1000 category.

Preston is a multi-time AMA District 37 champion in enduro, desert racing, and hare & hound, and represented the United States at the International Six Days Enduro.

Featured image credit: WESTx1000