Gaucho Trail Motor Challenge 2026

In just over a week’s time 44 rally cars and crew will assemble in Montevideo, Uruguay, for one of the mostly hotly anticipated rallies of the year. The Gaucho Trail Motor Challenge is an 11,000km, 27-day long adventure across the continent of South America, following a route that will traverse 5 countries and feature around 50 competitive sections along the way, providing a captivating mix of competition and adventure.

There is something undeniably romantic about South America, it feels somewhat cutoff from the rest of the world, being bordered by the Pacific and Atlantic, with Antarctica to the south. Even to the north its land border is severed from the western world by the Darian Gap, and within the continents 18 million square km’s there is plenty of space to get lost in. 

The perfect place for an adventure rally then and a place that has a long association with wheeled adventures, from Ernesto Guevara’s journey on his Norton to Juan Manuel Fangio’s exploits in the gruelling Gran Premio Internacional del Norte and, in more recent years the visit of the Dakar and rounds of the World Rally Championship. The geography of the place alone is worth the visit, from the seemingly infinite flatlands of the Gran Chaco to the fearsome Andes, with in the route cutting through vast national parks and travelling from sea level to mountain highs, and taking in everything in between, this will be a rally that is as varied as the cultures of the people that call the continent home.

Kim Bannister is the man who has put the eclectic route together, that begins in Uruguay, before heading to Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile, before making its way back through Argentina and returning to Montevideo again, a month after departing. 

Kim has prepared a route that he believes will provide both challenge and intrigue, whilst remaining sympathetic to the broad range of vintage and classic cars entered on the rally. A lot of the road that lies ahead is gravel and dirt tracks, with the competitive sections in particular taking place on roads more used to the odd farm vehicle rather than hordes of classic rally cars. As well as the scenery changing, the composition of the roads will evolve as the rally continues. From the fertile earth of Brazil to the stony mountains of Chile, there will be plenty of variation in the surfaces to challenge the drivers on the competitive sections. 

There is also the weather element to take into account, with the North of the continent suffering unseasonably wet conditions that may make the dirt tracks more treacherous than expected, though Kim is confident the route can stand up to the extreme weather pretty well and isn’t expecting too many reroutes – though this is part of the game on a rally of this type, and the reason for a 48 hour car travelling ahead of the event.

I ask Kim what the highlights are, and am greeted with a lengthy exhalation of breath, as though the question is impossible to answer. “There are some incredible driving roads” he says, with a coverall response to a question that probably feels like asking a father to pick his favourite child. “There are some super gravel roads on the day to Salta, but then there are just some fantastic driving days in Argentina, oh and on day 19 we’re into some wonderful lakeside roads on the way out of Chile, and there is the day we drive around the Llaima Volcano. Ah, but also…” and on it goes, as memories of countless hours spent on recce’s return and highlights spring forth like the waters of the Iguazu Fall’s themselves. 

Safe to say there are plenty of magic moments to come along the roads of these bewitching lands, and in pursuit of them are some pretty wonderful cars, with competitors from all corners of the globe. Nearly a quarter of the participants are taking part in pre-war machinery, the oldest of which is the 1923 Bentley 3/4.5 of Georgian crew Mamuka and Nika Khazaradze. At the other end of the scale, the youngest cars on the rally are a mere 46 years old, with three machines from 1980, including the Mercedes 450SL of Aussie crew John and Lyndall Bacon. The rest of the field features the usual phalanx of Porsches, Datsun’s and Fords, as well as Father and Son crew Steve and Charlie Gray competing in an AC Cobra and fellow P2P veterans Patrick and Pam Watts in their Sunbeam Tiger, with an equally raucous V8. Indeed V8’s mounted to various chassis are dotted throughout the field, including a Rover P5 and P6, no less than three Mustangs, and, fittingly, a pair of Fangio’s. Rounding out the V8 contingent are a pair of Ford Coupe’s. one driven by Peking to Paris winner Andy Buchan and the other by Argentine Jorge Perez Companc, himself a winner of long-distance events such as the Badawi Trail. 

With a strong entry and a route that ought to provide a challenge, the event is shaping up to be a fantastic rally. If our last journey through these lands is anything to go by, competitors will need to expect the unexpected and be malleable enough to roll with the things that are outside of their control. That though, is all part of adventure rallying, and everyone would be dissatisfied if it was too easy. I will leave the final words to Kim, who says, “I just want to get going now, I dread to think about the hours that have gone in to get us to this stage, let’s just crack on and enjoy ourselves, I can’t wait to see what happens along the way.” Sentiments that will strike a chord with both competitors and crew, I’m sure. Roll on the 2^nd of November, when the Gaucho Trail will begin.