Some careers are built slowly, layered year by year through incremental progress and quiet consistency. Others ignite when preparation meets the right proving ground. Sara Price’s rise in rally raid belongs firmly in the second category—and it explains, better than any brochure ever could, why the Sonora Rally exists. Before Dakar, There’s Sonora: How Sara Price Found Her Way into Rally Raid’s Deep End.
Before Dakar, There’s Sonora: How Sara Price Found Her Way into Rally Raid’s Deep End
When Price lined up at the Sonora Rally in 2023, she wasn’t chasing headlines. She was chasing fluency: in navigation, in long-stage decision-making, in the particular kind of pressure that only rally raid delivers. By the time the dust settled, she had earned the Road to Dakar UTV victory, and with it, a free entry to the Dakar Rally. That moment wasn’t just a win. It was a launch.
The following year at Dakar, Price didn’t arrive as a wide-eyed newcomer. She arrived ready. Stage wins followed. So did a clear message to the paddock: she belonged at the front. Calm under pressure, precise with roadbooks, and relentlessly consistent, she demonstrated exactly what the Sonora Rally is designed to cultivate. Not survival. Competence.
It didn’t take long for the rest of the world to catch up. Price was soon named a factory driver for the Land Rover Defender Rally Raid Team, one of the most high-profile programs in the discipline. From open desert stages in Sonora to a global factory seat, the pathway did what it promised.
That pathway is not accidental.
Before Dakar, There’s Sonora: How Sara Price Found Her Way into Rally Raid’s Deep End
Sonora Rally was built as a proving ground long before it became a headline. It exists in the uncomfortable space between ambition and reality, where amateurs get their first real taste of Dakar-style navigation, and professionals sharpen their edge against authentic terrain. The dunes are real. The roadbooks are unforgiving. The stages are long enough to expose mistakes, and remote enough that consequences still matter.
For competitors, especially those in UTVs, the appeal is clarity. Sonora is demanding without being inaccessible. As Price herself puts it:
“Sonora is honestly such a great entry point because it’s super simple car builds, and it’s the only race in North America that uses Dakar-style navigation. On top of that, you can literally sign up and jump right in. Obviously, it doesn’t mean you’ll be competitive if you’re not fully prepared, but you can still have a great time and get the real rally-raid experience.”
That balance is intentional.
Before Dakar, There’s Sonora: How Sara Price Found Her Way into Rally Raid’s Deep End
That structure didn’t happen by accident. For more than a decade, Sonora Rally has quietly served as a training ground, proving ground, and launchpad for North American racers chasing Dakar—not by lowering the bar, but by teaching competitors how to clear it properly. The event was built by Darren Skilton, an eight-time Dakar finisher and two-time class winner, alongside roadbook specialist Scott Whitney, with a singular focus: deliver true Dakar-style rally raid on home soil. That means real navigation, long days, cumulative fatigue, and the kind of decision-making that separates those who simply finish from those who progress.
That philosophy continues into the 2026 Sonora Rally, where the pathway is not just conceptual. It’s tangible. For UTV competitors in particular, Sonora remains the only event in North America offering a Road to Dakar prize in the category, awarding a Dakar 2027 entry valued at more than $35,000 to the overall Road to Dakar winner (official rules apply). New for 2026, the rally also introduces a $10,000 overall UTV cash purse (when there is a minimum of 12 class entries), reinforcing that this is not just a learning exercise, but a legitimate competitive opportunity. Early registration incentives—including discounted entry and additional giveaway entries—underscore what Sonora has always aimed to do: reduce friction without reducing difficulty.
Before Dakar, There’s Sonora: How Sara Price Found Her Way into Rally Raid’s Deep End
In 2023, Sonora Rally also carried global weight, standing as the only North American round of the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. That legitimacy placed competitors on the same competitive map as the world’s biggest rally events. For Price, it meant her performance wasn’t just impressive; it was visible, measurable, and transferable.
What separates Sara Price isn’t simply speed. Rally raid has a way of stripping competitors down to their fundamentals, and she thrives there. She adapts across disciplines. She manages risk. She makes smart decisions when fatigue sets in. Dakar rewards intelligence as much as aggression, and Price has proven she understands that balance.
Her trajectory—from Sonora Rally winner, to Dakar stage victor, to factory driver—is not an outlier. It is the case study.
For UTV competitors looking toward rally raid, Sonora Rally remains the most direct and credible entry point in North America. Real navigation. Real stages. Real pressure. And, for those who earn it, real opportunity. The prizes attached to the UTV classes aren’t theoretical. They are tested.
Sara Price didn’t get lucky. She got prepared. Sonora Rally gave her the terrain, the structure, and the reality check. Dakar confirmed it. Everything that followed was earned. This is the Road to Dakar. And Price already showed where it can lead.
To learn more about this event, visit www.sonorarally.com and follow their social channels @SonoraRally on Instagram and Facebook. And click here to register for the 2026 Sonora Rally.
