Not only will Australia field its biggest contingent yet in January's Dakar Rally, but at least two competitors have strong chances to make an impact at the front of the field.
Our most successful entrant, Bruce Garland of Sydney, is back again in a stronger Isuzu D-Max and confident of running in the top 10 of the auto section after finishing 11th outright two years ago and first in class.
"We've got a new engine coming from Isuzu, so we'll drop that in the car and go into the Andes to test it," the privateer says. "One of the Isuzu engineers will come with us, because the new engine will need to be re-tuned to work more efficiently at high altitudes."
He will be joined in the auto section by Cairns resort owner Geoffrey Olholm and Victorian Steve Riley who will share the driving duties in their UK Rally Raid car.
Competing in their first Dakar, the pair are no strangers to off-road racing. Olholm is a former motocross and motorcycle enduro champion and Riley is a former enduro motorcycle champion and two-time winner of the Australian Safari.
The best chance of running in the top 10 in the bike category is Jacob Smith, 22, who won the 2009 Australasian Safari. He is the spearhead of the four-bike Mittagong-based Glenn Hoffmann Racing team which also includes seven mechanics, heavily modified Honda CRF450X motorcycles and a support truck.
The other riders who paid $120,000 each to compete are Safari top 10 finishers Warren Strange and Simon Harslett and Mark Davison who finished 29th this year.
"They're not mugs. Realistically two of them can run top 20 if they have a good event," Hoffman says. "If Jacob doesn't have any penalties for getting lost, he'll run top five. He's fast, but we need to calm him down and remind him it's a two-week event.
"We'd like to think that in a couple of years we'll get a front-running Aussie team with three A-level riders. Domestically the team has won everything in Australia - Hattah, Condo, Australian Off-Road Championship, Finke and six Safaris in a row. This is the last thing to do; the ultimate test.
"Aussies have not had such a co-ordinated team in the past. We hope to do this for several years with the ultimate goal of putting Australia on top. Nothing short of winning the event eventually will do."
Hoffman says they will run "a bit conservative" this year to get Jacob across the line. "We hope to generate some interest so we can go back there with an A level team and a big sponsor, turn the globe upside down and put Australia on top."
The final Australian competitor is Dakar veteran Simon Pavey. He has competed six times and completed the rally four times. The ex-pat now lives in Wales where he runs a BMW off-road riding school and trained actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman before their Long Way Round global motorcycle adventure.
He also trained Boorman to compete in the 2006 Dakar Rally for the TV series Race to Dakar.
Another Australian entrant, Andrew Scott, has withdrawn. The ex-pat gold miner has been living in Canada but crashed in the Safari and kept riding not knowing he had broken his arm. He suffered complications and has had to pull out. He is expected to move back to Brisbane soon.
French-born Sydney rider Christophe Barriere-Varju has also pulled out after last year becoming the first Australian to enter and complete the Dakar without assistance, finishing third in his category. "My next challenge will be to change category and compete in a single seater two-wheel-drive buggy.," he says.
The buggy is currently being manufactured and will be ready in March. "I will use 2011 to race various FIA races and get ready to win the two-wheel-drive category in the 2012 Dakar Race."
