The road to the Dakar Rally is fraught with challenges that can be as tough as the race itself. Still, there is no single route to get there.
The Dakar debut for Justin Gerlach came after a rejection letter from the ASO and a roll down a dune in Abu Dhabi. Shinya Fujiwara and Nuno Silva raced it for the first time in 2026, a year after doing the ‘original’ Dakar rally in the Africa Eco Race. Tomasz Białkowski raced both European Bajas and the Baja 1000. Nathan Hayashi came all the way from Canada for his maiden Dakar in a Ford Bronco that would’ve been legal for SCORE. Wang Guorui tore it up in the biggest rally back home in China. Kim Matzen conquered King of the Hammers. Maxi Schek was at the International Six Days Enduro. Ludwig Messager? A member of France’s elite mountain infantry.
For Craig Lumsden and his son Zach? Tackling the biggest off-road races on both sides of the Atlantic.
Their efforts to make the 2025 Dakar and the race itself are the focuses of Driven by Dreams: The Underdog Racing Legacy of Colorado MotorSport, a documentary set to premiere on Tubi on Friday, August 14. It was directed by Joseph Osorio and his company Oso Video Productions in partnership with the team.
Driven by Dreams follows Colorado MotorSport’s journey to Dakar starting with the 2024 Mexican 1000. While NORRA races are regarded as lower stakes with an emphasis on having fun, hence the 1000 being nicknamed “The Happiest Race on Earth”, its multi-day rally format makes it appealing for those hoping to take the next step into the discipline.
From NORRA, they were off to the Rallye du Maroc; for most teams, Morocco is the dress rehearsal before going to Dakar. After that, another race with as legendary a status in the off-road world as Dakar: the Baja 1000. Over an hour of buildup culminates in the Lumsdens at the 2025 Dakar Rally, bringing daily coverage across all 12 stages as they battle it out in the Challenger category.
It isn’t a full recap of everything the Lumsdens did over the years. Telling those stories would bloat the run time beyond the 104-minute length. Both have tried a wide variety of disciplines and races from Pikes Peak to the Sonora Rally, the latter of which in 2023 encouraged them to pursue Dakar.
Still, what is covered in the film is extensive. Whether it be the multi-stage rallies or the single-day Baja 1000, each race gets explanations that do an admirable job in introducing the sport to audiences who might be unfamiliar with them. Don’t know what rally raid is? The narration will happily break it down in just the opening minutes. What does each stage offer? The narrator and each team member’s got you covered.
Driven by Dreams also offers behind-the-scenes looks into Colorado’s operations in the bivouac and the cockpits. Radio comms between the Lumsdens and their navigators Jamie Lambert and Shannon Moham intersperse with testimonies between stages and on-course footage (with kudos to drone operator Cesar Gonzalez and assistant editor Luis Eduardo Rodríguez). Dakar partner South Racing gets some love too, including quotes by personnel like team principal Scott Abraham.
The Lumsdens have since shifted gears to pavement racing, competing in GT America, as well as doing the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb back in their home state. Still, they’ve returned to the desert from time to time—in fact, the documentary’s premiere is on the same day they do the Vegas to Reno.
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