Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

The deserts of Saudi Arabia are not exactly comparable to the forests and military bases of Central and Eastern Europe. Naturally, that means Buggyra ZM Racing will be heading to the Rallye du Maroc in October as a dress rehearsal for the 2025 Dakar Rally.

“The conditions at the Dakar are very specific and cannot be simulated in the Czech Republic,” explained Martin Šoltys. “That’s why we are trying to fine-tune our equipment in Morocco to be 100% ready for January.

“In the cockpit, we are getting along perfectly. Tomáš Šikola, the engineer, knows every detail of the car which is a great asset when it comes to repairs. And Vlastimil Miksch is a great team-mate, so the atmosphere is excellent.”

He is leading one of two trucks entered by the team at Morocco, driving the Tatra Buggyra EVO 3 while Karel Poslední makes his World Rally-Raid Championship début as the driver of their Tatra Phoenix. The former is gearing up for what will be his seventh Dakar, most recently finishing sixth in the 2023 edition.

Šoltys was supposed to race the 2024 Dakar in the EVO 3, a new truck built by Buggyra, but was sidelined by an injury and replaced by Pascal de Baar. In Šoltys’ place, de Baar finished tenth in the Truck class.

The last time Petter Solberg did a rally across the Irish landscape, he finished the race on his 33rd birthday. Now 49, he is set to head back to compete in the Defender Rally Series.

The Defender Rally Series is a spec rally series overseen by Bowler Motors, now in its third season. Its UK Championship, which Solberg is competing in, will visit Ireland for the first time on 4–6 October in support of the Clare Forestry Rally.

“The Defender 90 is very cool and, from what I’ve seen, it looks like a really capable rally car,” said Solberg. The series uses a rally version of the Defender 90 simply called the “Defender Rally Car”. “For sure, it will be a big challenge, it’s not really like anything I’ve driven before, but you know me. When I pull on the helmet and tighten the belts, I’m ready for anything.

“I will test before the event, which will give me an idea of what’s to come. The main thing for this event is to go and have some fun, showing off Castrol EDGE and experiencing the Defender Rally Series. And, of course, because it’s Ireland, it’s going to be a good day.”

Solberg last competed in Ireland in 2007 when the Rally Ireland was added to the World Rally Championship after two years as a national event. He finished fifth.

Martin Macík Jr. will hope Benny can bring him a second Dakar Rally title in a row. On Friday, he announced he has given his new IVECO EVO 4 truck from MM Technology the name “Bohouš” along with an alternative English moniker “Benny the Big Guy”.

Bohouš, derived from Bohumil, is a Czech male name meaning “blessed by God”. Similarly, Benny is shorthand for Benjamin or Benedict, both with religious connotations as “son of the right hand” and “blessed”, respectively.

“We wanted a purely Czech name for it, so it’s Bohouš in Czech which we translate to English as Benny,” Macík explained. “I believe I speak for everyone in the team when I say that we are looking forward to seeing it and its new design in action.”

Macík has a tendency to give nicknames to his trucks, feeling it helps give the team a personal connection to each vehicle. He won the 2024 Dakar Rally in the Truck category with an IVECO that he christened “Cenda”, which has since been sold to Firemen Dakarteam, while he has another in reserve dubbed “Frank”. Their predecessors, when Macík’s team was known as Big Shock! Racing, were called “Arnold” and “Charles”. Even trucks built for customers had names such as Vincenzo and Nicias, respectively driven by Claudio Bellina and Kees Koolen at the 2022 Dakar.

The EVO 4 was unveiled on Tuesday. Besides Macík, Eurol Rally Sport will also race trucks from the series with Martin and Mitchel van den Brink.

It is often said that the only thing stopping certain events from happening is the end of the world. For the Rallye du Maroc, that might actually be the case.

Following severe floods in Morocco that have killed at least even people, the race will proceed to the best of its ability. Rally director David Castéra gave his reassurances in the wake of the natural disaster, stressing that his team will work to analyse the route for damage and make the necessary adjustments during the two weeks before it begins.

Castéra also highlighted the 2021 and 2023 editions. The former was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic that had forced the 2020 race to be cancelled; besides masking and other commonly accepted procedures, the bivouac was turned into a bubble for competitors and they were barred from interacting with the public. In 2023, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake resulted in nearly three thousand deaths, prompting organisers to collect and donate clothing and other supplies. Otherwise, the earthquake did not affect the route itself and the rally proceeded as planned.

“We will face challenges as heavy rain has recently fallen in Morocco, but we’re going to do what we always do: find solutions,” said Castéra. “Every time it’s been complicated, we’ve managed to hold the race. Faced with COVID, we confined ourselves to a bivouac, and after the earthquake last year, we moved the race. The floods will inevitably have an impact on the race, but the teams who are already on the ground will spend a fortnight correcting and adjusting things so that the event can run as smoothly as possible.”

Brought upon by unusually heavy rainfall, the flooding is among the worst in Morocco’s history, so substantial that it has also caused deaths in neighbouring Algeria. The Moroccan government announced Friday that it had earmarked 2.5 billion dirhams (€232 million) for medical assistance.

With the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach set to celebrate its fifty-year anniversary in 2025, the Grand Prix Association has partnered with the Historic Motor Sports Association to create the Historic Formula Exhibition. It will consist of a twenty-minute race each on Saturday and Sunday, 12/13 April, for single-seater open-wheel cars.

“The fiftieth anniversary of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is a historic milestone for our event, and we’re thrilled to offer fans a trip through the annals of our racing history with the Historic Formula Exhibition,” commented Grand Prix Association head Jim Michaelian. “The sights—and equally important, the sounds—of these cars, will create an unforgettable experience for all our fans, young and old.”

The Exhibition is an expansion of HMSA’s already existing relationship with the Grand Prix, having supported the NTT IndyCar Series weekend since 2021. The partnership initially began with two races for historic Formula Atlantic cars, then was dropped in 2022 before returning to the slate in 2023 with vintage Formula One vehicles and IndyCars. HMSA is headquartered in Montrose, less than forty miles from Long Beach.

Tim DeSilva swept the 2024 race weekend in a Lola T95/00, which was used during the 1995 PPG Indy Car World Series season; Scott Pruett finished runner-up in that year’s Long Beach GP in a T95/00 fielded by Patrick Racing. Cars in the field ranged from as new as the 2005 Lola B05/00 that was used in Champ Car to as early as 1966 when F1 and IndyCar alumnus Stefan Johansson drove an All American Racers Eagle to a fourth and third.

The aforementioned B05/00, which is currently owned by Jordan Roddy, will be among the cars expected to enter the Historic Formula Exhibition. It was previously used by Sébastien Bourdais, who won the 2005 Grand Prix of Long Beach for Newman/Haas Racing during his second of four consecutive Champ Car titles. Other cars scheduled to take part include the AAR Eagle, owned by Tom Malloy, that won the 1975 Formula 5000 pole during the inaugural year as well as the Lotus 77 driven by Mario Andretti to the 1977 United States Grand Prix West win.

The Rallye du Maroc is rather paradoxical in that it is both a finale and a beginning. On one hand, it is the last race of the World Rally-Raid Championship as racers gun for their last shots at a title. On the other hand, it is also a dress rehearsal for those planning to do the following year’s Dakar Rally, meaning drivers and riders are often using the race to hone their skills in new confines or environments.

Nasser Al-Attiyah is doing both. He enters Morocco with a 25-point lead over Yazeed Al-Rajhi, but after running the first four races in a Prodrive will be looking to complete the three-peat in the début for the Dacia Sandrider. Dacia colleagues Cristina Gutiérrez and Sébastien Loeb make their return to the series after only racing the Dakar Rally in a Challenger car and Prodrive Hunter, respectively; it will be the former’s first Ultimate race.

X-raid Team will field their new Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0i, which uses a gasoline engine instead of diesel. Besides their usual driver João Ferreira, the 3.0i will also be piloted by newcomers Guillaume de Mévius and Guerlain Chicherit, who departed Overdrive Racing earlier in the week to that team’s surprise.

Dakar overall winner Carlos Sainz is in his third different car of the season as he takes over the new Ford Raptor from M-Sport. Matthew Wilson, the son of M-Sport head Malcolm Wilson, is also driving a Raptor in his first W2RC start. Although Mitch Guthrie has joined the team, he is tentatively entered in a Taurus like usual. Since the Raptor will not be fully homologated by the FIA until 2025, it is technically classified as an Experimental (EXP) entry.

The Experimental label is also applied to the much anticipated Can-Am Maverick R. While the desert side-by-side has been used in W2RC races before, Morocco will be its maiden rally under FIA sanction in the SSV class. Most Maverick Rs are from South Racing Can-Am, though three-time Dakar champion Francisco López Contardo drops down from Challenger to SSV to race one of his own while BTR has prepared some for those like Ultimate veteran Christian Lavieille. Manuel Andújar, the newly crowned World Champion in Quads, returns to the W2RC in a Maverick R of his own.

Daniel Ricciardo has departed Visa Cash App RB and will be replaced by Liam Lawson for the remainder of the 2025 campaign.

Ricciardo replaced Nyck de Vries at, the then named, Scuderia AlphaTauri team for the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix and has gone on to race for the Red Bull junior team since then, albeit missing a few races when a crash at Zandvoort kept him out of action for a number of race weekends.

Following a disappointing spell at McLaren F1 Team, Ricciardo aimed for this to be his chance back into Oracle Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen, and despite rumours over the summer break that he was in line to replace Sergio Pérez, nothing ever materialised. 

An Instagram post from Ricciardo seems to signal that his career is at an end: “I’ve loved this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and been a journey. 

“To the teams and individuals that have played their part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me haha thank you. It’ll always have its highs and lows but it’s been fun and truth be told I wouldn’t change it. Until the next adventure.”

Formula 1 is taking a long break before returning for an action packed end to the 2024 FIA F1 season.

Max Verstappen is leading the Drivers Championship, but is being chased down by Lando Norris with McLaren F1 Team recently having taken the lead from Oracle Red Bull Racing in the Constructors Championship.

In this piece, we’ll be taking a look at what’s to come in the next few rounds and the road to the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Austin

The Circuit of Americas is the next circuit that will be home to the F1 paddock, but it won’t be any time soon with a four week gap.

There’s been plenty of speculation in the paddock surrounding Daniel Ricciardo leaving the sport and we’ll certainly know the outcome of that by the time F1 arrives for the second USA race of the season, and based off reports it does look likely that Liam Lawson will be driving for Visa Cash App RB next time out, although we’ll only know when we get official confirmation.

When their Can-Am Maverick takes the start at the Rallye du Maroc, Ndoki Racing Team will be the first outfit from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to compete in a World Rally-Raid Championship event. In partnership with BTR Racing Team, the team will compete in the SSV category with Michaël Devos as driver and Xavier Hottelet as navigator.

“The NRT team is back to announce its participation in the Rallye du Maroc, which will take place from October 4 to 11,” reads a team statement. “This marks a first for a team of Congolese origin. We are grateful to everyone who has helped, directly or indirectly, make this dream a reality, and to BTR for preparing an amazing vehicle to introduce us to this discipline. Stay tuned, share, and we invite you to follow us in a few days on this adventure at the second largest rally raid in the world, at the origins of the legendary Dakar Rally.”

Located in the capital city of Kinshasa, the team primarily competes in the national cross-country rally championship organised by the Ecurie Panthère de Kinshasa RDC. Devos and Hottelet, Belgians living in the DRC, raced a Century CRT buggy with victories that included back-to-back 6 Heures de Bombo Lumene in 2018 and 2019. Both have also competed in Ecurie Panthère’s motorcycle races and Groupe Number One’s enduro series on Yamaha 250cc bikes.

BTR is a Belgian operation that has fielded SSVs in the W2RC and Dakar Rally. At the latest Dakar in January, they had two Can-Ams for Benoit Lepietre and William Grarre, the former finishing twenty-third in SSV while the latter retired; the team also supported the Century CR6 of Frédéric Chesneau, who bowed out as well. For the Rallye du Maroc, BTR has prepared the new Can-Am Maverick R for Christian Lavieille.

The Rallye du Maroc will take place on 6–11 October.

GRallyTeam will have a pair of former Dakar Rally FIM champions on the roster for the Rallye du Maroc as Alexandre Giroud and Charan Moore make their FIA débuts.

Giroud will be the driver of a GRally OT3 with fellow Quad alumnus Jérémy Jacomelli as his co-driver. Moore will be the navigator of another OT3 piloted by Puck Klaassen. The team will also field two more entries for Rui Carneiro and Ola Fløene as well as Lionel and Lucie Baud.

Moore teased his vehicle switch on Tuesday when he wrote he “won’t be going back to Dakar on a bike.” He won the 2023 Dakar Rally in the Original by Motul (Malle Moto) subcategory before moving into the broader Rally2 class for 2024, where he finished ninth overall. Despite his successes on two wheels, he has been frank about the expenses of continuing a bike career, especially as a longtime privateer.

His driver Klaassen was a motocross rider before a leg injury prompted her to change to driving. She ran the Dakar Classic in January before going on to race in the World Rally-Raid Championship in a Taurus T3 Max.

On the quad side, Giroud is a two-time Dakar winner with back-to-back victories in 2022 and 2023. He also claimed the category’s inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship following his first Dakar victory, and won the 2023 Rallye du Maroc in the class. The Frenchman nearly achieved a three-peat in January but came up eight minutes short.

Janus van Kasteren will be sitting out the Dakar Rally in 2025, but reports from Dutch media indicate he plans to return in a car for the 2026 race.

The 2026 team, whose name and vehicles were not immediately revealed, will consist of three cars for himself and fellow Dutchmen Michiel Becx and Roger Grouwels.

Van Kasteren had exclusively raced at Dakar in the Truck class since 2018, winning the 2023 edition and eventually the category’s final World Rally-Raid Championship. His sixth career Dakar in January started off strong when he won the Prologue followed by three of the first four stages, but his hopes of a repeat were dashed by a mechanical failure during the Chrono Stage. He ultimately salvaged a fourth-place run.

Team de Rooy, whom he had worked with since 2020, revealed their 2025 Dakar lineup on Tuesday without van Kasteren. Anja Van Loon is the team’s only returning driver from 2024, while they have added this year’s runner-up Aleš Loprais and car racer Vaidotas Žala to the fold.

Becx also raced a truck for de Rooy in 2024, finishing behind van Kasteren in fifth; he is no stranger to driving a car at Dakar, having made his début in a MitJet Offroad buggy in 2019. Grouwels, a former one-make pavement racer and two-time Supercar Challenge Super GT champion, piloted a Can-Am Maverick in the latest Dakar’s Challenger class for Dakar Team Spierings RaceArt but retired after halfway.

X-raid Team will bring a petrol-based Mini John Cooper Works Rally to the Rallye du Maroc in October, a break their usual diesel-engined Minis. The Mini JCW Rally 3.0i was revealed on Wednesday.

The 3.0i uses an engine dubbed the RS24, which generates 263 kW of power at 570 Nm of torque; by comparison, the BMW diesel engine produced 263 kW and 570 Nm. Both motors have 2,993 cubic centimetres of displacement, while the diesel counterpart has a higher top speed of 180 km/h to the RS24’s 170 km/h, though the latter is due to FIA regulations.

Otherwise, the car is generally the same as its predecessors.

“For many years, we have successfully fielded the X-raid Mini JCW Rally with a diesel engine, which has been powered by the environmentally friendly HVO fuel for the past two years,” said team principal Sven Quandt. “Since the team was founded in 2002, we have been very successful with BMW diesel engines and have won the Dakar Rally six times and many championships with this concept. With the high-performance turbo petrol engine that our development team has spent the last nine months working on with Alpina, we are taking a big step and breaking completely new ground.

“With immediate effect, our customers can choose between the two engine variants. Our proven and highly reliable diesel engine will continue to be offered alongside the petrol engine. The Morocco Rally will be the first test under competitive conditions for the MINI JCW Rally 3.0i. After that, we will know where we stand.”

Greece is probably not going to be on the World Rally-Raid Championship anytime soon, but that’s not going to stop Baja Greece organisers from exploring double duty on both the FIA World Baja Cup and the European Baja Cup calendars.

Following the inaugural Baja Greece in May, the second round of the World Cup, organisers conducted a survey among competitors to poll their opinions on the race, such as their satisfaction with the event’s quality and input for future editions. The results were released five months later on Tuesday.

71.4 percent of poll takers found the race was “above standard” compared to other rounds on the World and European Baja Cups, while the remaining 28.6% were split between thinking it “complies with standard” or is “below standard”. The former percentage also thought the Selective Sections were exemplary.

When prompted on what series they would prefer it to be on, 42.9% expressed hope that it would support both championships followed by a 28.6%-apiece tie for either. Consequently, nobody felt it should be on the W2RC or as a non-FIA event.

The World and European Cups do not have any combination races in 2024, though half of the former’s dates are also the entire schedule for the FIA Middle East Baja Cup (Saudi Baja, Qatar International Baja, Dubai International Baja, and Jordan Baja). This arrangement was previously done for the European Cup in 2021 when all five of its rounds doubled as the back half of the World Cup.

Christian Lavieille will be among the first drivers to pilot the FIA-spec Can-Am Maverick R at the Rallye du Maroc in October. BTR Racing Team will prepare the car while Valentin Sarreaud remains as co-driver.

Lavieille typically races in the premier Ultimate class, most recently finishing twelfth overall at the Dakar Rally in an MD Optimus. Morocco will be his first World Rally-Raid Championship start outside of Dakar.

The Maverick R has been taking the off-road world by storm since its reveal in August 2023. After enjoying immediate success in North American desert racing, the side-by-side has been seeing increased use in international cross-country rally. With FIA homologation not yet complete, most of its entries in the discipline have been in national rallies.

In June, the Maverick R made its W2RC début at the Desafío Ruta 40. As it was still not approved for competition in the regular SSV class, Jeremías González Ferioli instead won in the Open Cars category. A Maverick R also contested the Silk Way Rally the following month, while three-time Dakar winner Francisco López Contardo plans to race one at the 2025 Dakar.

South Racing Can-Am unveiled their FIA-spec Maverick R last Tuesday, which they plan to field at the Rallye du Maroc for drivers like Erik Van Loon. Van Loon had raced a prototype Maverick R from South at the Morocco Desert Challenge in April, where he dominated before retiring with a late mechanical snag.

Erik Van Loon will get behind the wheel of two new vehicles in Morocco when he tests his Audi S1 before tackling the Rallye du Maroc in the Can-Am Maverick R.

He plans to enter the Audi in the 2025 Dakar Classic, a side event to the Dakar Rally for historic vehicles. Van Loon did the main rally from 2009 to 2023, but stopped afterwards due to the physical toll that such a gruelling race had on him.

Nevertheless, he has remained involved in the sport by doing races like the Morocco Desert Challenge and Baja Aragón. South Racing Can-Am prepared a Maverick R for him at the former, where he dominated before retiring with a late mechanical issue.

South eventually refined the Maverick R before unveiling the FIA-spec version last week. The Maverick R been extremely successful since its reveal in August 2023, primarily in American desert racing but with achievements in cross-country rally that include winning the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s Desafío Ruta 40 Open Cars class in June.

Hein Verschuuren will again serve as his navigator for the Rallye du Maroc on 6–11 October. Van Loon retired from the 2023 edition, where he competed in the Challenger class; the Maverick R is intended for the production-based SSV division.