Pictures by Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool
Text by Mike Charopka
A closer look at the voices of the riders—Skyler Howes, Jacob Argubright, and Mason Klein—who lived through the brutal second stage of Dakar 2025.
One must be a theater-drama writer to describe everything we witnessed during this second Stage of the Dakar Rally 2025. The favorites fell to ashes, and the underdogs rose to the tops. The Dakar is like a good drama show: no one can stay emotionless. Today, we start with the primary battle between two giants, and later, we give the voice to the main participants of the extreme spectacle on the sandy Stage of Saudi Arabia.
Ford vs. Dacia
The Frenchman Sébastian Loeb regained almost half the time he lost during the first part of the 48H-Chrono Stage. The crew did some magic during the night and experienced no more electronic glitches.
Another Dacia Sandrider racer, Nasser Al-Attiyah, finished Stage 5th but stayed 3rd overall with an 11mins14secs gap behind the race leader Henk Lategan from Toyota Gazoo Racing.
However, on the downside, the Dacia Sandrider’s female driver, Cristina Gutiérrez, left the special accompanied by her assistance truck.
Ford also experienced losses. The race officials didn’t allow Carlos Sainz to continue the race because of the structural damage to his safety cage after the rollover at the first part of the 48H Chrono Stage.
Nani Rome, the racer who worked on the Ford Raptor T1+ project from the very beginning, also left the Stage accompanied by his assistance truck. That’s sad news for Ford.
However, Mattias Ekström and young American talent Mitch Guthrie Jr. are still in action. The number of prizefighters in the rivalry Ford vs. Dacia equalized. We shall follow it to learn what prevails: Ford’s young energy or Dacia’s experience?
The second part of this day’s review will be dedicated to the participants and their replicas.
Racing Monologues
The day’s hero is Skyler Howes from Monster Energy Honda HRC team. He finished the stage second and climbed to the second position overall. His words about the Stage from his Instagram account: “Dakar Rally 48hr Chrono: P-2 has been a wild 2 days! With the reverse starting order, about 15 of us rode in a group for most of the 2 days. It was pretty hectic in the soft dunes and then in the fast dusty valleys, things got crazy. I’m happy to make it through clean and now sitting 2nd in the general standings. Last night we camped out in the desert and I think I slept a total of 30 minutes so l’m happy to be back in the bivouac to rest for the night and gear up for another big day tomorrow.”
We continue in the Bikes category, and the second replica belongs to Jacob Argubright from the RSMOTO Honda Rally Team. He finished 14th and placed 19th overall after the second Stage: “Stage 2 – P14 OA and P3 Rally 2. Much better Stage for me! Tested me mentally and physically damn it was fun. Also one of my favorite stages l’ve ever done, bring on stage 3!”
For Mason Klein, the Second Stage was really tough. But better to listen the main actor: “It’s been 48 hours, to say the least. Fighting off being sick wasn’t enough-l ran into major clutch issues that eventually resulted in a broken engine. Luckily, the spirit of the rally came through when two incredible competitors towed me a total of 80 kilometers by rope. Big respect and gratitude to them for getting me through when things looked grim. Before all that, l actually got a chance to open for a good stretch, which felt amazing until my bike decided it had other plans. Despite everything, I’m grateful to have made it to the finish line of the Stage. It’s moments like these that remind me why I love this sport-the challenges, the camaraderie, and the determination to keep moving forward no matter what. The bike and I are getting sorted and ready to hit the ground running for tomorrow’s Stage 3. Let’s do this!” Klein is 65th overall.
Jamie Lambert from the Colorado Motorsport team summoned their participation in the Dakar: “After a series of unfortunate events with the last one being rolling down a 50′ dune in the middle of the night in the desert, we had to retire from the 48-hour chrono stage. Not the result we traveled 8,000 miles for, but luckily we are able to rejoin tomorrow for the 800+km Stage going into Hail, where it has been snowing and raining for a few days. So this should get interesting to say the least. Always a good time here at the Dakar Rally with Colorado.”
The rookies of the Dakar from the Can-Am Factory Team have a couple words to add, too. Hunter Miller was able to improve his position in the table. They are 16th overall in the SSV category: “Gnarly… Really, really gnarly. You can’t escape the dust here. If it’s not in front of you, it’s coming through the bottom of the car, creating a fog inside until you can’t see your steering wheel. It’s even worse at night with the navigation instruments’ lights blinding you. It’s brutal.”
The triumphants of the Stage Brock Heger and Max Eddy from SEBASTIEN LOEB RACING – RZR FACTORY RACING wrap up today’s theatrical review. Listen to Max in this video:
CHECK THE RESULTS ON THE OFFICIAL DAKAR DAKAR RALLY WEBSITE: https://www.dakar.live.worldrallyraidchampionship.com/en/car/2/standings
Also read my latest weekly newsletter about the Dakar Rally and some other events here
Racing Mindset 
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