Loprais and InstaForex: traditions, progress, leadership

Aleš Loprais was born on January 10, 1980, in the Czech city of Olomouc, not just into a common family, but into a rally dynasty where the Dakar was part of everyday life. From an early age, he spent more time in the workshop than at home, helping prepare trucks for races and learning the mechanics of the legendary Tatra.

As Karel Loprais — his uncle and six‑time Dakar champion — told InstaForex TV in an exclusive interview, Aleš first sat in a racing Tatra at age seven. It was the moment when he chose his life’s path. His parents insisted he study law, but the future racer was never meant to be a lawyer: the desert proved stronger than the textbooks.

Besides racing, Aleš pursued extreme sports: he explored mountain trails by bike, skydived, and flew hang gliders. One flight ended with two fractured vertebrae — fortunately without severe consequences — but he had to give up hang gliding.

This episode says much about Loprais’s character: he is willing to take risks but learns lessons and builds long‑term strategy — a quality that aligns him with InstaForex’s philosophy.

In 2006, Karel Loprais suffered an injury that ended his career. Aleš decided to carry on his uncle’s legacy: in 2007, he took the wheel of a race truck for the first time as a driver and immediately finished third at the Dakar Rally.

Over the next two years, Aleš brought his team bronze at the Central European Rally and the Silk Way Rally. Since the early years of his career, the young driver proved that the Loprais name was not just a legacy but a strong competitor on the track.

After the team was revamped and began cooperating with InstaForex in 2011, the project reached a new level. The InstaForex Loprais Team achieved its first major victory at the Silk Way Rally 2011 — the world’s second‑most important rally marathon — beating factory teams Kamaz, Iveco, and MAN.

It was a signal: with the broker’s financial and technological support, the team could not only participate but win at the world level.

In 2012, Aleš was leading his team at the Dakar, but having completed two stages from the finish, he was involved in a serious accident and spent a long time recovering. That summer, at the Silk Way Rally 2012, he fought for the win but suffered technical problems on the penultimate stage and retired.

At Dakar 2013, Aleš was considered one of the favorites. He won a stage and was regularly among the top three, showing the best speed in the field. However, the Tatra’s engine stalled on one stage, costing the team two hours and the lead. They could not make up the time, but motorsport experts and journalists acknowledged Aleš as the best driver of Dakar 2013.

In 2014, he won two stages and finished sixth. The following year, after switching to MAN, he achieved fourth place — his best overall result to date.

The subsequent years were a period of experiments: Iveco in 2016, a return to Tatra a year later, and the new Praga V4S DKR project from 2020. There were retirements, technical issues, and stage victories, but the team and InstaForex kept investing in development.

In 2024, Aleš returned and had one of his best Dakars ever: two stage wins and second place overall — the best career result to that point.

The following year brought a merger with the Dutch De Rooy team in the InstaForex Loprais Team De Rooy FPT project. The result: five stage wins and bronze overall.

Dakar 2026 was the culmination. The Red Dragon truck, in red and gold livery, ran a dramatic race: five stage victories, a collision in the dunes, a rollover on stage twelve, but relentless fighting to the end. The result was second place overall, a second “silver”, and confirmation of the team’s world‑class status.

Today, Aleš Loprais is more than a racer. He is an entrepreneur producing components for Tatra trucks and the manager of his own team. His driving style is described as aggressive but rational: he can attack and win special stages with a focus on reliability and long‑term strategy.

Over his career, he has collected dozens of Dakar stage wins and repeatedly finished in the top five. His best overall results are third place in 2007 and 2025, and second place twice in 2024 and 2026.

Aleš never gives up and constantly keeps fighting against rivals, against the machine, against fate. As he says himself, racing is not a job or a hobby for him — it is his family’s story and his way of life.

That is what makes the partnership between InstaForex and Aleš Loprais more than a sponsorship deal — it is an alliance of two philosophies: risk management, discipline, the willingness to learn from mistakes and to move forward.