Karl Friedrich Capito, born in Neunkirchen in the Siegerland region, had been taking part in the Paris-Dakar Rally since 1981 – initially on a motorbike, and from 1984 in the truck class.
In 1985, he won the truck classification of the gruelling cross-country rally together with his son Jost in a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 1300 L. He died in London at the beginning of 2002.