From a B.C. coal mine to racing the Dakar Rally: Jordan Strachan’s dream is about to become reality

Jordan Strachan races during the Baja Rally in 2024. He's been working nights at a B.C. coal mine to save enough to enter the Dakar Rally which starts Friday.Supplied

For two years, Jordan Strachan, a dirt-bike racer from Pincher Creek, Alta. has been working night shifts at a coal mine just over the border with British Columbia to save enough money to enter the legendary and occasionally deadly Dakar Rally.

The gruelling two-week, 7,700-kilometre race across Saudi Arabia’s towering sand dunes, dry lakebeds and rocky wilderness kicks off Friday and, against all odds, Strachan will be there. He’s racing as a private individual against some highly paid professionals supported by factory teams from the likes of Honda, KTM and Ford.

“It’s the Dakar,” says Strachan. “There’s no sane way of explaining to people why you want to go,” he says over the phone after another night shift at the mine.

The rally involves hundreds of competitors racing motorcycles, off-road buggies and purpose-built prototype trucks, navigating through the desert without GPS and only turn-by-turn instructions. The route goes from the town of Bisha in the southwest, up to Hail in the north, then down through the Empty Quarter to Shubaytah in the southeast.

Jordan Strachan and mechanic Kenny Schipper after Strachan took seventh place overall at the Sonora Rally in 2022.Supplied

When we spoke in early December, Strachan was counting down the days. He travelled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia right before Christmas and celebrated his 32nd birthday on Thursday in the bivouac, a travelling camp where the racers sleep during the event.

“I’ve always wanted to do it,” Strachan says of the Dakar. He comes from a well-known family of dirt-bike racers; his father raced motorcycles, and his uncle Bob Reed represented Canada at the prestigious International Six Days of Enduro.

Strachan first rode a motorcycle when he was three or four years old, and had his first race at five or six. And so, when a friend called one day and said he was applying to the Dakar, Strachan decided then and there he’d enter too, despite the fact he was still recovering from a bad crash at the 2022 Sonora Rally in Mexico.

“Maybe that crash knocked some sense into me,” jokes Strachan. He doesn’t remember what happened exactly, but he came off his bike at about 140 kilometres an hour, broke two vertebrae in his back and cracked another, then went on to finish the rally.

Jordan Strachan after one of his first motorcycle races when he was around 5 or 6 years old with his father in the background.Supplied

“Sonora went about as bad as it possibly could, but after that I’m like, ‘Wow, I think the Dakar seems pretty sweet.’ It was always in the back of my head … but I never really thought I’d ever have the opportunity to go.”

Adventure of a lifetime

Since the Paris-Dakar Rally – which was historically run from Paris to Dakar, Senegal – began in the late 1970s, fewer than 20 Canadians have entered the race, according to Canadian motorcycle racer Lawrence Hacking. In 2001, Hacking became the first Canadian to finish the rally; to date, fewer than 10 Canadians have crossed the finish line, according to his estimates.

“The Dakar has changed but it’s still the granddaddy,” said Hacking. Early Dakars were not very well organized. There was no emergency plan or GPS rescue beacons as there are today; competitors had to bring all their own food, Hacking explains. Crashes have killed competitors, support crew, bystanders and spectators alike. Racers who got lost in the desert could be stranded for days without water.

The Pincher Creek, Alta. dirt biker raced in the Sonora Rally in 2022.Supplied

“The mystique of the Dakar was built on all that adventure and danger. … It’s one of the last frontiers,” Hacking said.

In a race where, last year, more than 100 of the 340 vehicles that started the race didn’t make it to the finish, simply making it to the end is a victory for most first-time racers.

Having spoken to Strachan previously, Hacking likes his chances. “[Strachan] is obviously in great shape, and he can ride really well, and he’s a good rally rider,” Hacking said, adding that Strachan has a good shot at finishing the rally on his first time out.

The high cost of the Dakar

“There are lots of people that could do the event but can’t raise the money, and lots of people with lots of money that can’t do the event,” Hacking said.

Between the €20,000 ($30,000) entry fee, race-prepped motorcycle, travel costs, gear, spare parts, support crew and training, Strachan says competing in the Dakar will cost about $160,000. (Some teams and competitors spend many times that amount.) Strachan estimates he’s put about $60,000 to $80,000 of his own money toward the race, from selling most of his possessions, to working in the mine and saving on rent by couch surfing with friends and family when he’s back in Alberta between work rotations.

“I worked on night shifts doing literally nothing on days off,” Strachan says. “Aside from the room that I rent for when I’m at work, I’m homeless.”

The rest of the costs are being picked up by a handful of small, mostly local sponsors: Baja Rally, Alberta Powersports, Kove Moto Canada, Duff Moto MFG, Klim, 3 Flat Industries, Pro Corral Cleaners, Motoz Tyres, High Desert Adventure, Arctic Moto, MotoMinded, RPM Mechanical in Blairmore, Alta., Sunrise Transport in Cranbrook, B.C., Cross Thread Industries, m9 Industries, True North Enduro, ChampADV and Uncle Billy’s Smoked Meats, and Rivieres construction in Pincher Creek, Alta.

He’ll be riding a Kove 450 Rally EX motorcycle. It’s a Chinese brand, new to the Canadian market, but its bikes have proven to be up to the job; in 2022, Kove fielded a three-rider factory team in the Dakar, and all three made it to the finish. At about $30,000, Strachan said the Kove is roughly half the price of similar race-ready bikes from Austrian manufacturer KTM.

Day 2 at the Baja Rally in 2024.Supplied

A day at the Dakar

“My job is to wake up, get on the bike, finish the stage and come back,” Strachan says. After each day’s ride, he’ll have to fix his bike, change the tires, oil and air filter. (Bigger mechanical jobs or repairs will be handled by Kove’s mechanics.)

While some factory riders sleep in relatively luxurious accommodations, Strachan will be camping in a one-person tent through the cold nights in the desert.

“I wanted to do Dakar the right way, which is struggle. I want this to be tough,” he says. “I don’t really have the speed to run with the top guys, mainly because I have a day job that I would like to get back to, and I’ve already had that broken back in the desert. I’d prefer not to do it again. But I think I could make up quite a bit of time if [the rally route] gets really tough.” The tighter and more technical the terrain, the better it is for Strachan, who is used to gnarly trails as a former Enduro rider.

“I want everyone else around me to be very uncomfortable, because I can deal with uncomfortable, I think, better than a lot of people. Being a coal miner and a farmer, it’s not something new to me,” he says.

At 32 years old, though, he knows this could be his first and last shot at the Dakar. “Living on a couch is probably not the greatest thing at 32,” he says. “For me, it’s kind of a last hurrah. … I’m not going to get any younger. I’m feeling every single injury since I started riding dirt bikes.”

“I know what my abilities are. I kind of know where this is going to end up, but at the back of every dirt-biker’s head is like, ‘Man, if I can do good and all the stars align, then maybe I’ll get a million-dollar contract from Kove,’ or something,” Strachan says.

He’s sacrificed a lot to make it to Saudi Arabia, to the 2025 Dakar. “I know it’s gonna get me outta the coal mine for about a month, so that’s pretty sweet,” Strachan says with laugh.