Kyle Chaney is quiet. The kind of quiet that makes you wonder what’s going on inside his head. He appears perpetually focused, too, and will often provide quick, somewhat curt replies to complicated questions. No need to explain himself, not anymore than is necessary. This focus and ceaseless calm are the ingredients for a successful off-road racer, and Kyle has proven that with his countless successes here in the States.
But winning off-road races in the deserts of the Southwest isn’t the same as competing in the most grueling race in the world, the Dakar Rally. The landscape of Saudi Arabia is far from hospitable, and during the nearly two-week-long cross-country rally raid, competitors have only French hieroglyphics, an odometer, and waypoints to guide them around the country.
This year, racers covered a total distance of approximately 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles), nearly all of which they had to navigate using only their roadbook. What was once a scroll of paper in an enclosed case and scrolled through as the kilometers passed beneath the tires is now uploaded into a tablet or digital roadbook. But the idea has stayed the same.
You set your odometer to zero. Once your start time arrives and the green flag is waved, you follow the notations and markings in the roadbook - annotated by kilometer readings, hazard warnings, cap headings, and little sketches of what kind of terrain you’ll encounter -driving full speed into the Saudi Arabian desert. This is not a marked course, and getting lost is part of the process.
This was Kyle Chaney’s second navigation-based cross-country rally race. His first was the Rallye du Maroc, held each year in Morocco since 2000. The event is part of the World Rally-Raid Championship co-sanctioned by the FIA and FIM. Kyle finished 12th overall in the SSV (UTV) category at the 2025 iteration, about an hour and three minutes behind his Can-Am teammate, Hunter Miller, who took home third place. Not a bad result for your first time competing in this style of racing, but again, Dakar is different.
Minutes become hours, hours turn to days, days become weeks, and somehow, you’re still racing. This year, the rally began on January 3rd in the port city of Yanbu on the Red Sea. Over the course of 14 days, the rally passed through the high mountains of Ha'il and Al-Qassim, then into Riyadh for the rest day before heading west to new regions previously unexplored by the event in Al-Bahah, Aseer, and Jizan. The 48th edition of the Dakar Rally, organized by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), was the seventh time the event was held in Saudi Arabia, and concluded back in Yanbu on January 17th.
In a race class that is less than ten years old (SSVs were recognized with their own official class in 2017), the field has grown from five vehicles in its first year to 41 competitors behind the wheel in 2026. That growth can be attributed to the overall popularity of UTVs both here in the United States and abroad, but is also evidence that the old adage of ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ is still relevant. Which means the OEMs want to make sure their vehicles is sitting at the top step of the podium when the Dakar Rally wraps up.
Kyle is one of America’s most accomplished UTV racers, having amassed victories at nearly every important off-road race in the US, to include cross-country events, the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC), and short-course competitions, along with being a four-time winner of the UTV Hammers Championship held at King of the Hammers (KOH). Kyle began his off-road racing career on a dirt bike at the age of 11, transitioning to four wheels at age 25, and moving into the UTV category in 2011. Kyle made history in 2025 after becoming the first driver to win the 4400 Unlimited Class at KOH in a modified UTV, the new Can-Am Maverick R. Prior to Kyle’s success, the class had been dominated by custom- built trucks with significantly higher horsepower, which made his victory in a UTV even more remarkable.
But why does it matter that Kyle finished second overall at the 2026 Dakar Rally? He didn’t win after all.
Americans have always had a tough time at the Dakar Rally. Until the 42nd edition of the historic race in 2020, no American had ever claimed victory, in any racing category, at the event. But a young, scrappy kid from the high desert of Southern California eventually broke the curse. Ricky Brabec became the first American to win the Dakar Rally in 2020 riding for the Monster Energy Honda Team. Brabec broke an 18-year winning streak by KTM in the process and went on to win his second Dakar Rally in 2024.
This year Ricky came in second, just two-seconds behind the eventual winner, Luciano Benavides, in what was both a historic and heartbreaking finish for the American racer. Fellow American Skyler Howes finished 4th overall in the bike category, while rookie racer Preston Campbell, the son of legendary Baja 1000 champion, Johnny Campbell, took home a 10th place overall finish at his first Dakar Rally. In the SSV category, Brock Heger won his second Dakar in a row driving for Polaris, with Kyle Chaney taking home second place, just one hour (+01:01:39) behind Brock.
And while he didn’t achieve what I am sure was his ultimate goal, Kyle’s success at this year’s Dakar Rally shows that American off-road racers mean business, and that even though we haven’t been competing in roadbook style, cross-country rally raids as long as folks from other countries, the experience that Kyle gained from competing in the deserts of Southern California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona paid dividends behind the wheel of this Can-Am this year.
Can the quiet man from Ohio claim victory in the ultimate off-road adventure? I suppose we’ll have to wait another eleven months to find out.
