Karel Loprais

Karel Loprais

Tatra 815 4x4 - The 1988 rallye winner in the Koprivnice Technical Museum

Karel Loprais (born March 4, 1949 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech rally raid driver and 6-time winner of the Dakar Rally in the truck category.

He started working in Tatra, Kopřivnice, as a factory worker in 1967, later becoming a test driver. He competed with a Tatra 815 truck in the Dakar Rally for the first time in 1986,^[1] being disqualified from the 2nd place for arriving late to the last stage start. He competed 19 times between 1986-2006 and claimed six titles (1988, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001), four second places (1987, 1996, 2000, 2002), one third place (1992), two fourth places (1990, 1991) and one seventh place (2004). After his second victory in 1994, when he placed at the 6th place in the common auto-camion category some media started to call him Monsieur Dakar.^[1][2]

After the Dakar he took part in the Paris-Moscow-Beijing rally in 1993 (3rd place), the Master Rallye in 1995 (4th place) and the UAE Desert Challenge in 1999 (3rd place) and 2000 (2nd place).

Dakar Rally results

Year	Class	Vehicle	Position	Stages won
1986	Trucks	Tatra	DNF	?
1987			2nd	?
1988			1st	?
1989	Trucks category not held.
1990	Trucks	Tatra	4th	?
1991			4th	?
1992			3rd	?
1993
1994	Trucks	Tatra	1st	?
1995			1st	?
1996			2nd	?
1997			DNF	2
1998			1st	2
1999			1st	1
2000			2nd	3
2001			1st	8
2002			2nd	1
2003			DNF	1
2004			7th	2
2005			DNF	0
2006			DNF	0

References

1. Sverak, Jakub. "The call of the road". Prague Post, February 21, 2001. Retrieved on May 17, 2013.
2. Agence France-Presse. "Karel Loprais forfait pour le Dakar". Réseau des sports, November 2, 2006. Retrieved on May 17, 2013.

External links

• Official website (Czech) (English)