Ottavio Missoni Jr. comes from a legendary family in the fashion world as his grandfather Ottavio Sr. founded the Missoni line. Missoni Jr. was heavily involved in the family business as president and sales director of its American division, but has also gone out to pursue his own interests like rally raid. In 2023, he will head to the Dakar Rally for the first time when he competes in the Bike category.
Racing a Honda 450 as a privateer, Missoni secured his entry at the Andalucía Rally in October, finishing twelfth overall in the Rally2 class. The Andalucía Rally is a Road to Dakar event, which rewards top performing racers with free admission to the Dakar Rally if they have no prior experience. Others to earn spots at Dakar via this programme include Stefano Caimi, Ruben Saldaña Goñi, and Toomas Triisa at the Rallye du Maroc, Luis Diaz Soza at the Atacama Rally, and David Pearson at the Sonora Rally.
While he grew up in a fashion-focused family, Missoni’s interest in racing also developed from an early age. In a Wednesday Instagram post, Missoni explained his interest in the Dakar Rally began in his youth when the event’s opening leg was in France. His father Vittorio, CEO of Missoni and a rally bike rider in the 1980s, encouraged him to take up the sport and the two had aspired to race together before the older Missoni died in a 2013 plane crash.
Since then, he has participated in events like the Merzouga Rally in Morocco and Swank Rally di Sardegna. His motorsport also extends to four wheels, racing a Fiat Panda 4×4 at the Mongol Rally and attending the Lamborghini Winter Academy in 2018.
“Since I was a kid my biggest dream was to be able to take part in this race, when as a young fantastic rider I was watching Lucky Explorer vehicles starting from the Cagiva plants of Paris on a huge adventure,” wrote Missoni. “It’s my adventurous spirit that drives me to challenge myself in new ways, always raising the bar. My father was the first person to put me on a motorcycle, my partner of many kilometres riding, and with him one day we would have wanted to do something like this together; unfortunately fate wanted otherwise. But he was also the person who taught me to chase my dreams and here, fate can’t do anything about it… So I decided to give it a shot!
“Those who don’t know Dakar have no idea how many sacrifices one has to make just to try to be there, time, family, money, plus one has to go through a selective process related to sporting results obtained in different races. Now I’ve been informed that my name is officially on the starting list!”
The 2023 Dakar Rally will begin on 31 December 2022. Missoni joins a long list of riders who will race for the first time.
