Javier “Javi” Campos Dono became eligible to compete in the Dakar Rally after taking part in the 2022 Rallye du Maroc, and he hopes to fulfill that in 2024 when he competes on a bike in Rally2. To prepare him for the entry, he intends to enter various rallies and possibly the 2023 Rallye du Maroc.
The Rallye du Maroc is a round of the World Rally-Raid Championship and part of the Road to Dakar programme, the latter rewarding outstanding competitors with free admission to the Dakar Rally at select events if they never competed at Dakar. Riders Stéfano Caimi and Ruben Saldaña Goñi made their Dakar Rally debuts in January after performing well at the 2022 Rallye du Maroc, while the first Road to Dakar leg of 2023 rewarded Tobias Ebster for winning Rally2 at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Road to Dakar winners are allowed to roll over their Dakar entries to the following year, as is the case with Campos. Riding in the Rally2 category, he finished forty-third overall and eighth among the fourteen Veteran Trophy entries for riders over the age of forty-five.
“All the steps have been taken so that in October I can receive the new KTM 450 Rally 2024 motorcycle,” posted Campos on social media. “This motorcycle, of which only a limited number of units are manufactured, will be the one that I will use in the Dakar 2024. Anca Vigo will be in charge of giving the necessary touch-ups to start it up.”
The Rallye du Maroc will run on 12–18 October, likely coinciding with the arrival of his new bike should he take part. Until then, he told Faro de Vigo that he plans to take part in the Hellas Rally Raid in Greece, which will be held on 22–28 May, and assisting with overseeing the Adventure Galicia Rally in Spain on 25–30 September; both rallies are rounds of the FIM’s European Rally Raid Championship alongside the RoRallyMarathon (Romania) and Dinaric Rally (Croatia and Bosnia), with Galicia being the finale. Campos is the head organiser of the Adventure Galicia Rally, which renders him ineligible to take part as a competitor but he will test the course beforehand.
His Dakar début will take place with Joyride Race Service and coaching from Armand Monleón. Monleón, a former FIM and Spanish Enduro rider, has competed at Dakar as a co-driver since 2018, working with Jakub Przygonski in a T1 for X-raid Team at the 2023 race. Joyride lent their support to Campos in Morocco, while doing the same for Thomas Kongshøj and Eduardo Iglesias Sánchez for the 2023 Dakar Rally (Ignacio Sanchís was also due to race for the team there before suffering an injury in final testing).
