We’re not even halfway through January, but Ford Racing already has a candidate for motorsports photo of the year here. One of the Ford Dakar team’s photogs captured the Raptor T1+ at exactly the right camera shutter and wheel speed to give us a spectacular piece of eye candy that doubles as a cool illustration of fluid dynamics.
It’s not AI, and it’s not a render—the photo’s credited to Marcin Kin for Ford Racing and Red Bull. Let’s talk about how this almost cartoonishly perfect-looking spiral of sand was captured flying out of the Raptor race car’s aluminum Method 207 Forged Bead Grip wheels.
What we’re seeing here is the wheel acting as a centrifugal impeller, or turbine, which is exactly what it’s designed to do. These wheels are shaped to eject brake rotor heat, which you can’t usually “see” in real life. But at the Dakar, heavy Saudi Arabian sand is constantly getting pulled into wheel barrels. Centrifugal force pins the sand against the inner wheel barrel walls, and as you can see, it’s ejected through the gaps between the spokes.
Ambient temps in the Saudi desert in January aren’t as high as you might expect. It was probably, like, 60°F–75°F when this picture was taken. But the air near the Raptor T1+’s brakes would be a whole lot hotter; those vented discs could hit over 1,000°F while racing. The aluminum wheel itself, which is indeed deliberately designed as a brake heat sink, could be over 200°F.
Those temperatures could affect the image in two ways. For one thing, even a tiny amount of moisture present in the sand could create a microscopic steam layer, effectively lubricating the sand flow, contributing to how clean and crisp it looks. The turbulent and hot air loaded with sand, hitting cooler ambient air, could also be creating a schlieren optics situation—that slightly warped visual you can get when there’s a temp disparity.
I’m estimating a wheel speed of “900 rpm” based on the tire size and guessed vehicle speed. It’d be speed over diameter times pi, so, wheel RPM = v * 1056 (mph to inches-per-minute) / D * pi. In one shot it’s cresting a dune, but in another it appears to be driving flat-out on flat terrain, so let’s say that second image was taken at 100 mph for simpliocity. Then it’s (100 * 1056) / (37 * 3.14159) = 908 RPM. And while the axle speed is 100 mph, the top of the tire would be at 200, but the edge of the wheel would be about 45 mph. I’m not sure what you can do with this information besides be really nerdy, but hey, that’s kind of why we’re here.
The combination of the weight of the sand, the sunlight, and a high shutter speed came together here to create a very cool visual of brake venting. We’re basically seeing the solid-particle version of vortex shedding as the sand is radially accelerated.
Normally, when you see a “race truck throwing sand” picture, it’s just a chaotic mass of matter getting kicked around by tire treads—this is a uniquely crisp capture of that environment.
Ford’s Raptor race vehicles, made in conjunction with UK rally outfit M-Sport, are taking on the Dakar Rally in a much bigger way this year than last. Competing at the top of the heap, the T1+ class, eight of these Raptors were sent into battle for 2026, while only four took on the Dakar last year.
As Ford Racing proclaimed a few days ago, at the start of the 2026 Dakar Rally:
“Our earlier years at Dakar were about building knowledge: understanding the race, the rhythms, the terrain, and the operational demands. That phase was necessary. The phase we enter now is different. With scale, experience, and eight Raptors in the field, our mindset has shifted from accumulation to execution. The objective is no longer to validate the program. The objective is to contend for overall victory.”
The super high-rez version of the sand-slingin’ image would make a great desktop background … you can download that here for your personal big-screen enjoyment:
And as of this writing (eight stages complete, five to go), Ford’s absolutely in contention for the podium. Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (a frequent Dakar leader) is in first in his Dacia, but Ford’s Swede Mattias Ekström is right behind him. Ford Raptor vehicles are in four of the top 10 positions at the start of Stage 9.
Method shared that the wheels on the Raptor T1+ are its 207 Forged Bead Grip racing wheels, size 17×8.5, and the tires are 37×12.50 BF Goodrich KDR3s.
I dropped Ford a line to see if they could name the photographer for us and the Blue Oval’s people confirmed that the main “spiral” shot was by Marcin Kin for for Ford Racing and Red Bull.
Got a tip? Send us a note at tips@thedrive.com.
Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.