Paul Mitson

About Paul

Paul Mitson has followed the Dakar Rally for the past 10 years, and always thought of it as the 'Mad Max' of motor racing. He happened to mention about the race to neighbour and entrepreneur Christina Domecq and in true form she pushed him to get on and do it. He bravely enquired with Bowler Off Roading about the new Nemesis, and the ball was rolling.

In November this year he entered the Shamrock Rally in Western Sahara and as a result of the complexity for the co-driver he decided to change co-drivers to Ben Gott, who has been involved in the Dakar for a number of years. Having him on board now gives Paul a fighting chance of reaching Dakar, a major achievement for a Rookie.

Paul’s background is single seater race cars, so he very used to pushing very hard from the outset.

“I am telling myself all the time now that this is a marathon, not a sprint”. says Paul.

About Ben

Ben Gott watched the Dakar rally with his father for as long as he can remember, so when a friend asked if he would be interested in being a mechanic, he jumped at the chance and his dad figured he could live the rally through him. It took over both their lives. In the space of 5 weeks their company built a Landrover for the assistance route and found 2 other people to join the team. From then on, he has never looked back.

Over the next 3 years, he and Quinn Evans, who was one of the 2 invited on our first year, started up a company called Go Raid. They bought assistance trucks and worked for Bowler as ‘Bowler Spirit’. He went from mechanic and truck driver to overall manager of the race team, building up a total of 5 trucks, 7 cars, 9 bikes and a crew of 16 people in 2006; plus looking after Charlie Boorman's ‘Race to Dakar’ team as they recorded the race for the TV series.

“All this knowledge has made me one of the UK's most experienced people about the ins and outs of the Dakar Rally, and this is what Paul needed to finish off a perfect partnership of groups of people.” says Ben.