Michael Docherty
“It’s been a very difficult year, with too many crashes and too many injuries. I think if I hadn’t been able to finish the 2024 Rallye du Maroc we would have had to have a serious look at the future. As it was, the last round of the W2RC went pretty much according to plan and once again I showed I had the pace. Now I really have to get a solid finish on the 2025 Dakar. Finding the budget to race rally-raid as a privateer isn’t easy and not sustainable in the long term. The problem is that to attract a factory ride you have to show your worth and that means pushing the envelope, with the risks that entails. I think now all the decision makers know I have the speed. What I need to prove to them is that I also have the consistency. Hopefully a solid 2025 Dakar with a win in Rally 2 and a Top 10 Overall result will unlock a few doors.
About me
Michael Docherty started racing motorcycles at the tender age of 6 and at 8 won the South Africa National 65cc Championship. Since then he has had considerable success in the discipline racing in the States, Europe and the Middle East. Living in Dubai these last 3 years he inevitably started riding in the desert and in 2021 entered his first rally-raid, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, going on to win the Rally2 class. He was back again in 2022 and won the prologue and the first stage before crashing out on day 2. In 2023, with help from SRG Motorsports in Dubai and HT Rally Raid he finally got himself to the Dakar. He started slightly injured and had a big crash on day 3 that left him with a dislocated wrist. Most would have probably called it quits but the tough young South African gritted his teeth and went on to win 4 stages in Rally2, while regularly getting amongst the RallyGP top guns. At the end of the race he’d worked his way up to third overall in the Rally2 class and took the coveted Best Rookie award.