Karel Loprais (4 March 1949 – 30 December 2021) was a Czech rally raid driver and six-time winner of the Dakar Rally in the truck category.

He started working in Tatra, Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia, as a factory worker in 1967, later becoming a test driver.

He competed with a Tatra 815 truck in the Dakar Rally for the first time in 1986,[1] being disqualified from the 2nd place for arriving late to the last stage start.

After his second victory in 1994, when he placed at the 6th place in the common auto-camion category some media started to call him Monsieur Dakar.

[3] Loprais died from COVID-19 at a hospital in Nový Jičín on 30 December 2021, aged 72.