Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Tomasz Białkowski has been enjoying a solid season outside his Polish home soil, but you knew he was going to step it up when the FIA World Baja Cup came knocking for the Baja Poland. Białkowski won the Prologue and all four Selective Sections for a convincing victory in the SSV class and a top-ten finish among all FIA entries regardless of category.

Despite snags like tyre punctures, Białkowski wiped the floor in SSV. He beat SSV points leader Fernando Álvarez by five minutes on the first day of racing before holding off Alexander Toril and Álvarez on the second by just twenty-eight seconds and a minute and a half, respectively.

Toril was eventually dropped to the bottom of the order with a four-hour, thirty-second time penalty. His crew replaced a damaged driveshaft shortly after refuelling at the end of SS2, which is forbidden as the refuel and neutralisation zones fall under parc fermé. Toril and his brother Miguel were also fined €250 because a team member recorded themselves refuelling both cars while wearing just a T-shirt and shorts.

Białkowski was not the only sweeper of the race as João Ferreira did the same in Ultimate. He led a Mini JCW Rally Plus 1–2 finish ahead of Michał Małuszyński, a year after Krzysztof Hołowczyc scored the T1+ vehicle’s maiden triumph at the 2023 Baja Poland. Hołowczyc, racing a BMW X3, was unable to defend his win due to an engine failure. Yazeed Al-Rajhi also exited because of a new yet defective factory differential.

The Challenger of Ghislain de Mévius finished third behind Ferreira and Małuszyński.

Krzysztof Hołowczyc‘s BMW X3 has served as his trusty steed for over a decade, but he thinks it might be time to put it out to pasture. Concurrently, he is not ruling out taking some time away from his successful cross-country rally career to return to his roots in traditional rally, particularly in the WRC Masters.

His hopes of defending his Baja Poland victory were dashed by an engine failure during the first stage on Saturday. Speaking with media following his retirement, he explained that he overdrove his car beyond its limits. The 2009 BMW X3 is already so old that he remarked “in a few years will be a car that you can put yellow numbers on and start in the Dakar Classic.”

While the T1.1 is certainly still quick, having lifted him to the 2023 FIA European Baja Cup championship, he noted it is roughly 1.8 kilometres per second slower than top-of-the-line vehicles like those in the T1+ subcategory. He had won the 2023 Baja Poland in a Mini John Cooper Works Rally Plus, a T1+ car.

“I am driving 100 percent because I feel that I can compete even with a weaker car,” Hołowczyc explained. “Unfortunately, I drove it more than 100 percent and there were unfortunate effects.”

While his comments suggest he is open to switching to more powerful machinery, Hołowczyc is actually looking at potentially stepping away from cross-country rally entirely, at least for a brief sabbatical. During this stretch, the 62-year-old would love to pursue rallying in WRC Masters, which is reserved for drivers over fifty years of age.

Drawsko Pomorskie is a quaint town in northwestern Poland, a stone’s throw away from Szczecin, that frequently roars to life with the sound of tanks and heavy army machinery as the Polish Land Forces and their NATO allies conduct exercises at the Colonel Franciszek Sadowski Land Forces Training Centre. This weekend, however, the grounds will instead hear the sound of rally cars and motorcycles.

The Baja Poland is the fourth round of the 2024 FIA World Baja Cup and one of various cross-country rallies that are held each year on the Drawsko Training Ground. The Baja Drawsko is held there in April as part of the Polish Cross-Country Rally Championship while the Rallye Breslau, the largest amateur rally raid in Europe, takes place in June.

Following the town’s liberation in World War II, the Drawsko camp opened in 1946 for Polish troops and eventually those from the Warsaw Pact. Britain’s 7th Armoured Brigade was the first NATO unit to train there in 1996, three years before Poland joined the military alliance, and their arrival immediately made Drawsko the largest such area used by the British Army.

At nearly 350 square kilometres in size, it is one of the biggest military polygons on the continent. Drawsko features a plethora of environments to properly simulate various battle conditions including deep sand and water crossings, all of which have been used by rally organisers to create a twisting, technical route. Rallye Breslau makes full use of these through the Extreme categories, which are for larger and heavier vehicles than standard cross-country cars.

“Quite tricky to navigate: lots of different tracks and junctions, very soft sand, lots of blind crests,” Yazeed Al-Rajhi‘s co-driver Timo Gottschalk told Cross-Country Rally News. “To go fast here, you have to be completely confident in the roadbook.”

Mikołaj Krysik is the latest Quad rider to join the SSV party as he makes his début in the class at this weekend’s Baja Poland. He will race a Can-Am Maverick X3, classified in the Polish Cross-Country Rally Championship.

Krysik is no stranger to side-by-side vehicles, but has otherwise competed primarily on a quad. This included entering the class in races like the Fenix Rally and Tunisia Desert Challenge in Tunisia, and the World Rally-Raid Championship’s 2022 Andalucía Rally and 2024 BP Ultimate Rally-Raid on a Yamaha Raptor 700. He finished fourth in Quads in Andalucía, his maiden start in the championship, followed by a seventh in Portugal.

He scored his maiden W2RC stage win on the fourth leg of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, bouncing back after a broken suspension and rollover in Stage #1. Krysik and his fellow Quad competitors were informed of the Amaury Sport Organisation’s decision to drop their class from the Dakar Rally starting in 2025; although Krysik has never raced the Dakar, the news means he would have to race another vehicle if he wanted to take part.

SSV was the natural next step for him, which he described as “something exciting and above all, future-proof.”

In Friday’s Baja Poland Prologue stage, he finished nineteenth overall and thirteenth among SSVs competing for the national championship. Dominik Jazik is serving as his co-driver.

Class 1 cars are unlimited open-wheel buggies with prominent manufacturers like Jimco, Alumicraft, and… Polaris?

Deciding to shake things up a bit, Polaris Factory Racing will enter their Polaris RZR Pro R Factory in Class 1 at the Baja 400 with Max Eddy Jr. as driver. It will be the first time a UTV competes in the category under SCORE International sanction.

Eddy and the RZR are typically in the SCORE Pro UTV Open class, where he is thirteenth in points after finishing fifth at the San Felipe 250 and retiring from the Baja 500. 2024 is his first season as a PFR factory driver after being a co-driver for team principal Craig Scanlon during their début campaign the year prior.

His colleagues Cayden MacCachren and Brock Heger, both of whom have spoken with The Checkered Flag this season, are respectively the current Pro UTV Open points leader and reigning champion and will remain in their usual category. Eddy will also be Heger’s navigator at the Dakar Rally in 2025; he served the same role at King of the Hammers in January, where they won their class in the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship before Eddy finished second to Heger in the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge.

The switch to Class 1 stems from PFR being far too successful in their own class, winning Pro UTV Open at all four SCORE races in 2023 as well as both events so far in 2024. Besides being the fastest UTV outright in San Felipe and at the Baja 500, MacCachren also beat every Class 1 entry except for the winner in each instance. Furthermore, a rally version of the RZR Pro R Factory won the Dakar Rally’s SSV class in January.

On 16 August, The Checkered Flag spoke with Willem Avenant about his Dakar Rally début in 2025, the buildup to being accepted for the race, and his Decoding Dakar series.

The full transcript of the interview is available below. Some text has been altered from the actual dialogue to improve readability.

An article on the interview can be read here.

Transcript

TCF: It’s been about a month since you were accepted for Dakar. Has it sunk in yet that you’re actually going to be there in just a couple of months?

WA: [chuckles] It has, but some days I still have to pinch myself a little bit. A lot of people talk, decide in their middle age, they want to do Dakar. For me, it’s been like a childhood dream, literally since I can remember, since four or five—not four, let’s say six years old. It’s like, I want to do that. In the last, I would say, fifteen years, ever since I’ve been a grown up, it’s always formed part of my life. I was like, “Okay, if I want to do this, I actually have to get going. I actually have to do it. It’s not just going to happen.”

When the Amaury Sport Organisation anounced in the spring that Quads would no longer be at the Dakar Rally in 2025, 2024 class winner Manuel Andújar figured he would be watching from home. As it turns out, he’ll be in Saudi Arabia come January, albeit behind the wheel instead of handlebars.

Andújar plans to race the 2025 Dakar Rally in the SSV category, hopefully driving the Can-Am Maverick R once homologated by the FIA. In the meantime, he is set to make his SSV driving début in September at the Rally Raid San Rafael before entering the Rallye du Maroc in October. He confirmed his plans to Campeones Media on Wednesday.

He made the switch to SSVs in June when he won the Rally Raid San Juan as the co-driver for Juan Cruz Yacopini. It came just weeks after he clinched the World Rally-Raid Championship for Quads, and five months after earning his second Dakar victory in the category.

The ASO dropped Quads in April, after which Andújar contemplated taking a break from rallies before ultimately making the switch to a side-by-side. Many Quad riders have taken a similar avenue including Pablo Copetti, Rodolfo Guillioli, Juraj Varga, and ex-Dakar winners Josef Macháček, Ignacio Casale, and Sergei Kariakin; 2023 W2RC Quad champion Laisvydas Kancius has also moved to the FIA side, albeit in the top Ultimate class.

His Maverick R will feature his 7240 Team‘s branding, but is prepared by Jeremías González Ferioli‘s Ferioli Racing Team. Driving a Maverick R, Ferioli had won the Desafío Ruta 40 (where Andújar clinched the World Championship) in the Open Cars class.

Francisco Álvarez has pencilled in his Dakar Rally début for 2025, finally making use of the free registration he earned for winning the Road to Dakar at the 2023 Sonora Rally in Mexico.

Alvarez beat sixteen other riders at Sonora last year for the bike Road to Dakar ticket, which waived him of application fees for either the 2024 or 2025 Dakar Rally. He elected to skip the 2024 edition, explaining in January that it “gives me one year to prepare better and acquire the resources.

“Running the Dakar is not easy at all. It is something very difficult in many aspects in terms of preparation, physically too, learning to navigate, and apart from that, getting the resources in a country like Colombia where we have a small motorcycle culture.

“We have all of 2024 to do these and be able to take a competitive project to the Dakar in 2025 and achieve something similar to what we did in Sonora.”

Álvarez primarily competes in enduro, winning the Latin American championship in 2020 followed by the Colombian national title two years later in 2022. His achievements have allowed him to represent Colombia at the FIM International Six Days of Enduro, earning two silver medals and a bronze. He is also a multi-time national champion in motocross.

The 2024 Asia Cross Country Rally did not go to plan for Team Mitsubishi Ralliart and their upgraded Mitsubishi Triton, but the team feels they accumulated enough data to be confident in the truck for later races.

2022 winner Chayapon Yotha initially led the overall after three stages, but disaster struck him on the fifth and penultimate stage when a mechanical failure forced him to retire. Team-mate Kazuto Koide towed him to the end of the leg where he bowed out altogether.

With Yotha out of the picture, rival Toyota assumed the overall lead with Mana Pornsiricherd. Pornsiricherd finished the job by finishing sixth on the final day to score the first AXCR win for Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand.

Katsuhiko Taguchi ended up being the team’s highest finisher in fifth overall after racing fairly conservatively. It was a three-spot improvement from his début in 2023. Sakchai Hantrakul finished a distant twenty-seventh due to a litany of problems that plagued his Triton. Koide was twenty-fifth, driving a 2023 Triton production car in a supporting role.

“I am happy to have improved my position from last year, but I am also disappointed because I had a good feeling that I could aim for a higher position,” commented Taguchi. “We will use this years’ experience as feedback to further improve the driving performance of the Triton next year, so that we can stay competitive at the top.”

It has been almost a year since the Can-Am Maverick R was revealed to rather mixed reception. Since then, however, it has quickly established itself as one of the best UTVs on the market.

This was highlighted during last weekend’s Vegas to Reno when Josh Row‘s Maverick R was the highest finishing UTV overall, while Maverick Rs swept the UTV Turbo Pro podium.

Row finished eighteenth overall and atop the UTV Open category. His Maverick R, prepared by Mitchell Alsup‘s Alsup Racing Development, battled with the Polaris RZR Pro R Factory of Max Eddy Jr. throughout the day. In the closing miles, Eddy suffered a flat tyre and had to pit, allowing Row to retake the lead and pull away.

Although Row had his own flat at one point, it was inconsequential as he set a time of 929:11.959. The fellow Maverick R of Joe Terrana finished forty-eight seconds back while Eddy received a one-minute speeding penalty to relegate him to third among all UTVs.

“The pace that everyone is running is pretty impressive,” said Row. “This race is really tough on the machines, especially in the heat of the day. Other than the flat tyre, we had a smooth day. We were able to persevere and put it on top so I’m really excited with the result.”

Willem Avenant has a dream: race the Dakar Rally. Of course, this is easier said than done.

The road to the world’s most iconic rally raid is difficult and perhaps convoluted due to the hoops and requirements that one must fulfill to be accepted by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Ever meticulous, Avenant resolved to not only qualify but unravel the twists and turns, or “decoding” it, so that anyone who wants to take part can have a coherent roadmap to use for reference.

After becoming one of the riders accepted for the 2025 Dakar Rally, Avenant spoke with The Checkered Flag last Friday about his efforts and his Decoding Dakar series.

Dreaming of Dakar

Avenant grew up following the Paris–Dakar Rally in South Africa. Like many others, this sparked a desire to race it himself. Into his adult years, he dabbled in various rallies in his home country as well as North America such as the Kalahari Rally in South Africa and the Sonora Rally. In 2023, he was named the competition director for the Baja Rally, which like Sonora is a cross-country rally in Mexico that many Dakar-bound Americans have used for training.

Besides racing, he specialises in navigation. He honed his skills during the COVID-19 pandemic by working on developing roadbooks before becoming an instructor for navigation schools and camps.

NASCAR Classic, Historic Sportscar Racing‘s stock car vintage racing series, is set to make its début this weekend at Virginia International Raceway in support of the IMSA Michelin GT Challenge. As the title sponsor, Petty’s Garage is more than prepared to provide their expertise and support.

“There isn’t a better fit for our services than vintage stock car owners, teams, and racers,” commented Petty’s Garage COO Greg Steadman. “Our championship history, built by the Petty family and generations of stock cars best, all came through the doors of Petty’s Garage. We pride ourselves on that same craftmanship and can help anyone with projects large or small to get to the track.

“We really are the best solution after your race too. From body repair, tuning, to stripping the car down and making it fresh for your next event, this is what we offer. We prioritise safety of the vehicle and also give you the best performance parts from our shop.

“It’s an exciting time for classic stock car racing with so many cars in competition. We have an open door for anyone.”

Petty’s Garage is an aftermarket automotive parts distributor whose lineage can be traced to NASCAR Cup Series team Petty Enterprises’ formation in 1949. It acquired its current identity in 2008 when Petty Enterprises became Richard Petty Motorsports, and continues to operate out of the old Petty Enterprises shop in Level Cross, North Carolina, while the race programme—now Legacy Motor Club—is based in Statesville.

Mitsubishi is the latest manufacturer to enter the T1+ arena with their latest challenger, the Triton Ultimate Racing. Guiga Spinelli will début the vehicle at next week’s Rally dos Sertões.

The Triton was designed in a partnership between Spinelli Racing and Mitsubishi Motors Brasil. Approximately thirty team members contributed to the effort, which began following the 2023 race.

“Seeing this Brazilian car being born and now moving on to testing and development in the biggest rally in the Americas is a great source of pride,” said Spinelli. “We used the most advanced technology materials and components from the top manufacturers in the sport in this car, but we had a very short time to execute the project, which further represents the strength, competence, and dedication of our team.

“At Sertões 2024, we will have an excellent testing laboratory, an opportunity to better understand where we are with the car’s development and to evolve every day. We are confident in the capacity and high level of competitiveness that this prototype can gradually reach.”

Spinelli finished thirteenth in the 2023 Rally dos Sertões, where he drove a Mitsubishi L200 Triton Sport. It was Mitsubishi Motors Brasil’s first start since the 2015 Dakar Rally with Carlos Sousa, while the parent company was previously a twelve-time Dakar winner before cutting back in 2009.

With his passing Sunday at the age of 88, Alain Delon leaves behind a legacy of one of the most iconic actors in European film. His impact also extends to motorsport as well, even if rather subtle.

A longtime racing fan, Delon was the first actor to be the official starter for the 24 Hours of Le Mans when he waved the French tricolour to start the 1996 race. Although Steve McQueen had served a similar capacity in 1971, that was as the honourary president who accompanied the actual starter, Ambassador Arthur K. Watson.

That was not his first foray at Circuit de la Sarthe either. In 1980, he and his then-girlfriend Mireille Darc attended the race as the sponsor of Scuderia Lancia Corsa‘s Lancia Montecarlo Turbo driven by fellow Frenchman Bernard Darniche, Hans Heyer, and Teo Fabi. However, the team was knocked out by an engine failure.

The sponsorship was through Parfums Alain Delon, a perfume brand that Delon owned. He had started to expand into various business interests during the 1970s thanks to his growing fame in cinema including watches, clothing, and sunglasses.

A year after Le Mans, Delon’s own portrait appeared on the AMC Eagle of Jean-Pierre Kurrer as Parfums Alain Delon once again served as a car sponsor. French artist and sculptor Alain Aslan painted Delon’s image on the hood of the car. Much like the Lancia at Le Mans, however, Kurrer did not finish the race. 1981 was Kurrer’s third Dakar after running the first two editions in a Cournil, whose creator’s son and boss Alain Cournil passed away a week before Delon.

After a decade with MAZ-SPORTauto in which he contested the Dakar Rally five times, Aliaksei Vishneuski has departed the team and his rally raid career as a whole seems to be on the backburner now. On Friday, the team announced he has parted ways and teased that he plans to focus on drifting instead.

“Aliaksei Vishneuski is leaving the MAZ-SPORTavto team today,” begins the team statement on Friday.

“Aliaksei has been a part of the team since 2015. In 2016, he made his debut as a pilot of the MAZ sports truck at the Zoloto Kagana race. Over nine years of work, he has taken part in more than 30 rally raids as part of the MAZ-SPORTauto team.

“Now, Aliaksei is a five-time participant of the international rally raid Dakar Rally, an eight-time participant of the international Silk Way Rally, a prize winner of the international rally raid Morocco Desert Challenge, and a multiple title winner of the Championship of the Republic of Belarus in rally raids.

“Aliaksei’s crew has competed on equal terms with the best crews in the world in the truck category for many years, representing the Minsk Automobile Plant and the Republic of Belarus in the international sports arena.