Mindaugas Sidabras is going to the Dakar Rally. He finished seventh overall in SSV at the Rallye du Maroc, the best of the nine drivers signed up for the Road to Dakar, earning him free registration for the 2026 or 2027 Dakars.

Sidabras is the managing director of JSC Izoton, a Lithuanian insulation installation provider, and the company also lends its name to his team. He typically competes in the Polish Cross-Country Rally Championship and also finished 15th in SSV at Rallye Breslau in June; he was also third in SSV at the Baja Poland. A week before the Rallye du Maroc, he made his desert rally debut at the Baja Morocco where he and navigator Ernestas Česokas placed 37th overall.

With a week in the desert already under their belt, they got to work.

Maciej Oleksowicz, a Polish rally driver and president of Inter Cars, drew first blood by being the fastest of the nine RtD entrants in the Prologue. However, Oleksowicz eventually fell behind as Sidabras avoided trouble to top the challenge across the first two timed legs. The only major problem he faced early on was a bent rim in Stage 1, but he reached the finish otherwise.

Things eventually got tricky in the second half with Sidabras having to ride in the dust from the faster Challenger cars. Still, he had over two hours on Oleksowicz even with the latter’s stage wins entering the last day.

That cushion seemed to be all he needed when disaster seemed to strike on the fifth and final day. In the closing stretch, Sidabras rolled his Can-Am down a large dune.

“When I got out of the car, I thought our rally was over, but when we got out, we saw everything was not so bad,” Sidabras told TV3. “The buggy was lying on its side, four wheels were off the ground. We put the jacks on and wheels underneath and gradually turned it over. We changed two wheels, blew the other two on the rims and somehow managed to get out of those dunes.”

Back on track, they safely got away to secure 14th in SSV for Stage 5 and seventh in class overall.

Other Road to Dakar winners in 2025 include Fouché Blignaut at the South African Safari Rally and Paulo Rodrigues at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal.

Results

Finish	Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	7	43	429	Mindaugas Sidabras*	Ernestas Česokas	Izoton Sport	SSV1	21:37:38	Leader
2	8	48	418	Maciej Oleksowicz*	Marcin Sienkiewicz	South Racing	SSV1	23:38:57	+ 2:01:19
3	9	49	432	Oscar Masó*	Pedro Lopez	Pedregà Team	T4	24:09:43	+ 2:32:05
4	11	60	436	Rui Rodrigues da Silva*	Francisco Peixoto	TH-Trucks Team	T4	34:25:16	+ 12:47:38
5	14	65	410	Rui Serpa*	Rui Pita	Santag Racing	T4	36:02:48	+ 14:25:10
6	22	81	431	José María Camí*	Cristian Camí	Buggy Masters Team	SSV1	55:30:01	+ 33:52:23
7	24	85	425	Michael Devos*	Karim Ez-Zouaq	BTR	T4	74:27:22	+ 52:49:44
DNF	DNF	DNF	434	Pedro Caparrós*	Abel Montoya	Pedregà Team	T4	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	DNF	435	Benoît Delmas*	Firdaouss Al-Fannane	Objectif Maroc MMP	T4	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Class	Driver	Time
Prologue	46	7	Maciej Oleksowicz*	13:42.1
Stage 1	55	8	Mindaugas Sidabras*	3:30:16
Stage 2	41	7	Mindaugas Sidabras*	4:19:52
Stage 3	58	8	Rui Silva*	5:04:32
Stage 4	56	8	Maciej Oleksowicz*	3:29:10
Stage 5	56	8	Maciej Oleksowicz*	3:51:41
Power Stage	43	7	Mindaugas Sidabras*	23:49

Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI / ASO