Daniel Sanders, better known as Chucky, has been on the edge of greatness for several years. To start 2025 he rode right up to that edge and jumped his KTM 450 Rally right over it and secured his place in history with a dominant win in the gruelling Dakar Rally.
It was only his fifth attempt at the event, but this one was different for a few key reasons. With KTM scaling back its team, the focus was on Sanders and the Australian finally arrived at the two-week rally in good physical condition after years of struggles with injuries.
“ It was mainly [I] came in fit and healthy, which we haven’t done for a couple of years,” Sanders tells Torquecafe. “That’s one part that helps a lot to come in fit and healthy. All the other years I had the speed and still felt good, but just working on the bike to make it better, like we struggled with it last year, as the whole team did, so we had to turn around with KTM and make it happen.”
With the departure of previous Dakar winners Toby Price and Sam Sutherland from the KTM factory team, Sanders found himself as the star rider for 2025 and that helped him get the bike exactly to his liking.
“Luckily we worked hard and we got that bike sorted at [Rallye du] Morocco and that just gave myself that extra booster of, I could finally ride how I’ve been wanting to ride the last four on this rally bike,” he said.
“Like, since I came in and we’ve designed a bike now, but this last year, I actually got to design it without having five other riders put input in.”
Away from the punishing demands of his ‘day job’ Sanders enjoys time on his family’s Apple Orchard, where he combines relaxing farm work with building training tracks to constantly improve his craft.
So, what would the 2025 Dakar Rally champion put in his Dream Garage?
Daily driver: Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior
As his profile has risen, Sanders has found himself with plenty of support. While he rides two wheels for KTM, on four wheels he’s a Nissan ambassador and has a Navara ute on the family farm – which is ideal for his lifestyle.
“It’s just good that I can chuck mountain bikes in it, tow machines around, fill up the fuel in the jump making machines – you know, the excavator, bulldozer and that – and then go away training out of it as well, so that’s the daily for me.”
Something Special: KTM 450 Rally
What something special for the man who has raced across the desert? Naturally it’s the bike that he took to the biggest win of his career. Thanks to some good planning, Sanders negotiated to keep the winning bike as part of his contract, so the KTM 450 Rally will soon be taking pride of place in his garage.
“ So that’s definitely going to be the special one, especially when I get to put it up on the wall with my Six Day [Enduro] bike as well,” he says. “To have those two sitting there, that’s going to be a pretty cool moment when I get to hang those two up.”
Track Toy: Bulldozer
Obviously Sanders is more famous for what he does away from sealed surfaces, so his version of a ‘Track Toy’ is very different to most people.
“ Like for on a track? Oh, I’d take a ‘dozer and build a track. That’d be my fun. Ha ha”
Not that he’s completely a novice when it comes to track riding, revealing he did a track day at The Bend Motorsport Park in 2024 on KTM’s latest 1390 Super Duke R.
“ Yeah, it was actually good. I wasn’t scared of the speed,” he says.
“I was riding that 1390 and I just wanted to obviously feel the power of everything and give it to it. So that was exciting, but I’d like to go on a big full open track and really click, you know, 300[km/h] and get the real feeling of it all.”
— with Stephen Ottley
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