#153 🇱🇸Werner Kennedy – Original by Motul

“I INTEND TO BE THE FIRST PERSON FROM LESOTHO TO FINISH THE DAKAR”

42 year old Werner Kennedy is a busy man. He’s got a business to run that he started from scratch not long after leaving school and he has a young family, with two boys aged 14 and 12 and a little girl of 6. But he also has a dream that he’s been nursing now for 32 years. The dream of finishing the Dakar and luckily for him his wife and children are right behind him. Given that he has neither unlimited time nor finance he’s gone about achieving his dream in the most efficient manner possible. He qualified for the 2022 Dakar by taking part in the 2019 Rallye du Maroc and with that under his belt Werner took himself off to Portugal for two weeks training with Lyndon Poskitt Racing to learn the fine art of navigation and how to look after his bike unassisted over 12 days of racing in the Original by Motul class.

“I remember when I was 10 telling my Dad that one day I’d race the Dakar and here I am. But it is a big undertaking with a family and a business to take care of, so this is a one-off for me. All my preparation has been about using my time the best way I can to make sure I have the best chance of getting to the finish line. After work I do cardio and weights with a personal trainer and at the weekends I ride. I’ve stopped racing because on the last event I did I injured myself and I can’t afford to take those kind of risks in the run up to January. Obviously having done just one road book rally to qualify for Dakar I was light on ‘rally craft’. I could have done more races but it would have been both costly and time consuming. Going riding with Lyndon Poskitt allowed me to gain a maximum amount of knowledge in the minimum of time. I’m no professional rider so I’ll be just riding at 75% of my race speed and hopefully that will allow me to be the first person from Lesotho to finish the race.”