Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026 is over: Feel the adrenaline in our high-octane recap of the event

What does it take to start 2026 in the heart of the Saudi Arabian desert, surrounded by like-minded adventurous spirits, racing through the sands under blazing heat, meeting Dakar Rally legends, making friends with locals, snapping photos with camels, and living through truly unforgettable moments?

The answer is as clear as the Saudi Arabian sky in 40°C heat: it takes being part of the Wialon community. We enjoy pushing our limits and seeing what we can achieve — and we do it with style (sunglasses on, obviously).

Turning challenges into moments worth remembering

Welcome to the ultimate recap of our latest and boldest community event: Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026. Keep reading to find out who’s the greatest rubber duck hunter, what connection is there between Michelin and the desert, and, of course, which team earned the Wialon Challenge winner title.

Prologue: The origin story

Being part of the Wialon community means never standing still. With our partners, we’re always on the move — sometimes quite literally. One year, we’re climbing an active volcano and conquering the second-highest peak in Indonesia. The next, we’re running side by side with partners from all over the world in a global challenge stretching 4,000 kilometres. This constant sense of motion, shared energy, and bold ideas is what makes being a Wialon partner truly special. 

That same drive led us straight to the Dakar Rally. Since 2024, Gurtam’s name has been proudly displayed on Benediktas Vanagas’s car — the face and driving force of Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Baltics — after we became the team’s naming partner. In 2025, Aliaksandr Kuushynau, Head of Wialon, joined the team in Saudi Arabia to support them on-site and see the Dakar Rally up close. It was there that the idea for our next challenge was born.

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Over the months leading up to the event, our team put in a tremendous amount of work to make it happen. Route planning, challenge design, merchandise, equipment rental and much, much more — as it turned out, the word Challenge in the title applied not only to the participants but to the organizers as well.

In the end, after countless hours of planning, the Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026 was finally ready. On January 2, 2026, our desert racers arrived in Jeddah to begin what would become our wildest adventure yet.

The main stages: The mind blowing experience

So, what exactly was the plan? Here’s a quick recap of the event concept:

• 16 participants arranged into 4 racing teams: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue
• Team composition: 1 Gurtam member + 3 Wialon partners per car
• 5 days of challenging tasks in the desert to complete and earn points
• The team with the most points earned by the end of the event is the winner of Wialon Challenge!

Looks simple on paper — feels crazy in the moment. Every day was filled with adrenaline from start to finish. The teams went into a full-on challenge-completing frenzy, and the passion and energy were undeniable. No words can truly describe the raw energy of these days — but we will try our best and treat you with the top highlights just below.

First steps

The very first challenge the teams faced was to install trackers and connect their vehicles to Wialon. The hardware part went smoothly: Teltonika provided the devices, and no one needed an introduction to how they worked. The connectivity was ensured by Onomondo providing SIM cards with international coverage. However, there was a catch. Each tracker’s unique ID had been already intentionally registered in another Wialon account, forcing teams to look for a workaround. The only way forward was through our technical support, turning the challenge into a real-time problem-solving exercise that took most teams about 45 minutes. 

In the end, the fastest team succeeded because they remembered alarm@wialon.com, an address meant for truly high-severity cases, such as security incidents or data loss… but during the Wialon Challenge, being stuck in the desert with vehicles stubbornly offline felt like a fair exception to the rule. 

Meeting Dakar professionals

One of the key landmarks of the day was the starting point of the Dakar Rally Prologue stage. Teams headed there immediately after connecting their vehicles to Wialon. Covering more than 300 kilometers in just 3 hours, while tackling extra challenges on the route, was when participants truly began to understand what the Wialon Challenge Dakar was about. The Yellow team reached the official rally starting point 1st, with the other teams arriving shortly after.

After watching Benediktas Vanagas take off into the desert in his beloved “Black Hawk”, our desert crews headed for the official Dakar bivouac — one of the most iconic locations of the Dakar Rally. The best way to describe it would be “something between a giant garage and a Burning Man festival”. In this massive mobile city in the desert professional racing teams recover and prepare their vehicles for the next stages, and the hustle never stops there.

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The bivouac quickly turned into the heart of the experience. We prepared a variety of bivouac-themed challenges: talking your way inside a real Dakar racing vehicle, trading souvenirs with a team, doing a short interview with professional drivers, or finding someone who speaks your native language. 

The Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026 adventurers together with Benediktas Vanagas and Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Baltics at the bivouac

For the whole evening our adventurers were surrounded by professional crews and mechanics from all around the world — who all turned out to be extremely open and friendly people, ready to share their thoughts on the experience. 

As the night fell, 8 out of 16 Wialon Challenge participants decided to fully live the Dakar spirit, spending the night in the bivouac — and earning some extra points for their teams by doing that. Where’s the challenge in lying in a tent, you might ask? Well, firstly, the tent must be set up right — and of course, we made a competition out of that, encouraging teams to pitch camp as fast as possible. And, secondly, Dakar bivouac never really sleeps — the cars are being serviced all night long, and the rally stages begin as early as 5 a.m., making a truly relaxing nap far more challenging than it might seem.

The great duck hunters

One of the bivouac challenges required some serious treasure hunting skills: the participants had to find as many hidden Wialon rubber duckies as possible. Maybe it has something to do with green being the color of nature, but in this challenge the Green team proved truly unstoppable, uncovering 13 of the talismans — more than the three other teams combined!

Peter Chalhoub (Lebanon) shows off his duck hunting prowess at the Dakar bivouac

A tiring adventure

While racing through the sands, the Red team ran into an unexpected setback — a puncture so severe that the tire was literally in pieces. This kind of damage doesn’t happen often, so in a way, they got “lucky.” The team stopped immediately, and another team pulled over to help, showing the true supportive atmosphere of the event.

Everyone wanted a photo with the shredded wheel

The tire was then replaced on the spot. What they didn’t realize at the time was that this seemingly unfortunate event was actually a perfect warm-up — the very next day, one of the challenges would be changing a wheel as fast as possible.

Desert or dessert? 

An epic adventure calls for equally epic meals to keep the energy up. One of the challenges, Michelin Five Stars, was all about that — each team had to create the most aesthetic and picturesque desert picnic possible, using local products and signature treats brought from their home countries. The resulting international food lineup was truly impressive: Serbian ajvar, Mexican oranges with Tajín, jerky from South Africa and Australia, Baltic sprats on black bread, homemade sweets from Morocco and more. The table of every team became a tasty showcase of the Wialon community’s diversity.

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Navigating like Dakar pros

One of the most immersive moments of Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026 was when teams were asked to forget digital aids and navigate the desert the old-school way. Using a real analogue roadbook — identical to the one Dakar navigators rely on — participants had to follow directions and read terrain cues to pass a series of checkpoints, with each successful pass recorded in Wialon. The challenge combined navigation, endurance, and precise driving through heavily broken terrain, pushing teams well beyond their comfort zones. Out of all tasks our adventurers faced during the event, this was the closest possible experience to competing in the Dakar Rally itself.

Water in the sands

The desert can be tough and unpredictable, but with sharp instincts and a bit of luck, water can still be found among the dunes. This was one of the optional challenges teams could complete each day, and one crew clearly stood out. The Blue team leaned into their color’s element, locating water sources three times — more than anyone else. Safe to say, they know their way around the desert.

Sometimes, the desert can even look like this — who would have thought!

Hot pursuit

The last day brought pure action. In the SVR chase challenge, one team became the target while another set off in pursuit, tracking the vehicle live in Wialon and scanning the area in real time. What followed was fast-paced, tactical, and incredibly fun. At the same time, the scenario mirrored a real-world use case: stolen vehicle recovery, a service delivered daily by Wialon partners.

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Every moment captured 

If you’re interested to see more highlights from the craziest event we’ve ever done, head to our dedicated Wialon Challenge Instagram page. There, we documented the adventure every day, showing the Dakar atmosphere through our lens and sharing extra behind-the-scenes and fun moments with our followers.

And now — time for the grand reveal.

The finish line: Congratulations to the winners!

Who came out on top in the ultimate desert challenge? From the very beginning, this team pushed hard, completing challenges back to back and showing impressive teamwork, commitment, and resilience. In the end, their determination paid off, and the Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026 winner is — drum roll — the Green team!

Huge congratulations to all participants of the Green team:

• Matt Cooper, Managing Director, Fleetware, Australia
• Suhail Sherif, Managing Director, Afritrack, Tanzania
• Peter Chalhoub, Regional Sales Manager, MaliaTec, Lebanon
• Paulius Sabaliauskas, VP of Customer Service, Wialon, Lithuania

While these 4 brave adventurers now have the ultimate conversation starter — and some serious bragging rights — the other 3 teams were not far behind. They showed the same determination and ability to take on every challenge. Hats off to Red, Yellow and Blue teams for their outstanding performance and dedication!

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The award ceremony on January 8th was filled with positive energy and heartfelt words from the participants. It was a moment to celebrate shared experiences, teamwork, and everything that made this challenge special. Below, we’ve gathered just a few of the thoughts and reflections people were happy to share.

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Aliaksandr Kuushynau
Head of Wialon

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone — both the organizers and the participants. Thank you for accepting the challenge and making it all possible. None of this would have happened without your energy.

Ultimately, every participant of Wialon Challenge Dakar 2026 is a true hero. It was not an easy journey, but every single one of you handled it perfectly.

As you return to your countries, keep embracing the challenges and ideas that come your way. You’ve proven that you can handle anything — and even more. Keep that spirit alive and win at whatever life brings next.”

Epilogue: Getting ready for more

Even though our Dakar story has come to an end, it is just one of the many chapters in the giant book of our shared adventures and victories. Together, we will write even more impressive stories, live through thousands of unforgettable moments, reach plenty of new milestones and make hundreds of new friends along the way. That’s who we are — not just a group of business acquaintances, but a true passionate community, bonded by challenges and strengthened by success. 

We keep on going — and we are already looking forward to more awesome experiences like this. 

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