Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Henry Favre has raced in the desert on two wheels, but 2025 will bring a new challenge on four when he and Alessandro Iacovelli enter the Dakar Classic in a 1990 Mitsubishi Pajero.

“For months, my partner Alessandro and I have been working on the Pajero with which we will race the Dakar in Saudi Arabia in January. That’s right, it hasn’t been run in Africa for several years, but the name and difficulty are still the same,” wrote Favre on Saturday.

“In December, the car leaves Barcelona on a nice big iron pedal boat that will take all the vehicles to Arabia. We will find that upon disembarking, 800 kilometres of fresh asphalt await us to reach the bivouac.”

The two acquired the Pajero in March from a team in Tuscany, but quickly found it was in dire need of repair such as six injectors, a new power steering system, doors, and an RPM sensor. Iacovelli, a mechanic by trade, led the restoration process with assistance from R Team. An Italian outfit, R Team prepared Mitsubishi Pajeros for Marco Ernesto Leva (finished seventh overall), Giulio Bertolli (twenty-eighth), Stefano Sinibaldi (fortieth), Damiano Lipani (forty-fifth), and Giuliano Bergo (retired) at the 2024 Dakar Classic.

“The car was bought at a good price, but upon stripping it down, we found that many things were wrong. And so, in just a few months, we spent a lot of money and a lot of hours redoing almost everything,” Favre continued. “Now we have a good starting point to play around, experiment, and pray that it breaks during the testing rather than in the race.”

After racing his first two Dakar Rallies on a KTM 450 Rally, Tomás de Gavardo will assume the saddle of a Fantic XEF 450 Rally as a factory rider for Fantic Rally Team. He is the first South American to join the marque’s works division as they hope to expand their market on the continent.

Despite starting the race with a cold, Gavardo finished twenty-fifth in Rally2 at the latest Dakar Rally in January with a best run of twenty-third in Stage #9. Riding for BAS World KTM Racing Team, it was his second Dakar after a thirty-third in class at the 2023 edition.

Before tackling marathon rallies, Gavardo won the FIM Bajas World Cup’s Junior Trophy champion in 2019. He made his World Rally-Raid Championship début at the 2022 Andalucía Rally, placing tenth in Rally2 to clinch his 2023 Dakar ticket.

His late father Carlo de Gavardo was the first Chilean to race the Dakar Rally, finishing third in 2001. The younger Gavardo began his career in enduro at the age of six, eventually going on to be a national champion. He began dabbling in cross-country rallies in 2016, and his racing experience also includes equally legendary events like the 2022 Baja 1000.

Gavardo’s first race with Fantic will be the Rallye du Maroc on 6–11 October.

A typical Championship Off-Road weekend has two races, one on each day. Bark River International Raceway ended up hosting three as its Off-Road Rumble in the UP was coupled with a Friday race day to make up for June’s Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run at Crandon having its Saturday events rained out.

The Friday races were considered part of the Crandon Brush Run and points earned went towards that, while Saturday and Sunday were on the Off-Road Rumble slate. Nevertheless, three drivers completed a “full” weekend sweep by winning on all three days.

In Pro 2, Mickey Thomas dominated on Friday, then beat Ricky Gutierrez on Saturday before notching win #6 of 2024 with another butt whooping on Sunday. The first win elevated him past Ryan Beat for the points lead before he built an advantage with the next two and Beat’s retirement in the Sunday race.

After entering Bark River trailing Beat by one point, Thomas now leads by thirty-seven with one round remaining (incidentally at Crandon).

“What a weekend. I’m almost speechless. This place is awesome,” said Thomas on Sunday. “We just had a absolutely flawless weekend, literally couldn’t have gone better. Everything just went our way, our truck was dialed, the team was just working flawlessly. Just so proud of of everybody. It means a lot. We are in a tight championship battle, we helped our points lead there so we’ll see where we stand, but we’re feeling pretty good and Crandon’s another good track for us.”

It didn’t take long for the Ford Raptor T1+ to be a race winner. Nani Roma set the fastest time to score the overall win at the Hungarian Baja in its competition début, even if it’s not reflected in the FIA results.

Developed by Ford Performance and M-Sport, the Raptor was revealed in mid-July before being brought to Hungary for its first race ahead of the 2025 Dakar Rally. Since it has not been homologated by the FIA for Ultimate regulation, which won’t be completed until the start of next season, the car was limited to the Experimental category (equivalent to Open at other races). Consequently, while Roma set the fastest time and is officially considered the 2024 Hungarian Baja winner by organisers, João Ferreira is the victor among those competing in the FIA European Baja Cup.

Roma’s time of 4:02:58.1 beat Ferreira by a minute and thirty-six seconds, notching him his third crown in the event after previously winning in 2013 and 2018. He had set the third quickest time in the Prologue behind Ferreira and Francisco Barreta, then was thirty seconds off Ferreira in the first Selective Section before topping the final two legs by thirty-five seconds and 1:31.

“It’s a great event for us. First time racing the Ford Raptor, it’s great to be here,” said Roma. “We were well to the team and had a lot of things to do before Dakar. When we’re racing, we see many things. We tested a lot but are always racing, and racing this means that we are happy. We learned a lot from these last two days. There’s more things to do and we hope we are we are ready for the next Dakar.

“It was challenging. All race, it was really challenging. A lot of bumps, a lot of things, this means that we really enjoyed. We must really, really concentrate every kilometre. A lot of right, left, narrow tracks, fast tracks, bumpy areas. It’s great. It’s a great place, and we really enjoy it.”

If you’re a motorcycle rider heading to the 2025 Dakar Rally with a SNELL M2015-certified helmet, cherish how its contours fit your head because you won’t be able to relive that feeling in 2026.

As the FIM enters its next phase of homologating a uniform helmet line called FRHPhe-02, 2025 will be the final year that other models can be used in off-road series like the World Rally-Raid Championship, FIM Bajas World Cup, and Sand Races World Cup. Certain off-road disciplines like Trial, pedelec electric bikes, side-by-side vehicles (which generally fall under FIA jurisdiction though the FIM also oversees some at Bajas), and those attempting land speed records are exempt.

FRHPhe-02 is the second stage of the FIM’s standardised helmet-making process; FRHPhe is an acronym standing for “FIM Racing Homologation Programme for Helmets”. The first, named FRHPhe-01, began in June 2019 for MotoGP before expanding to all circuit racing series at the start of 2020. The second phase launched in November 2022 to focus on off-road disciplines like rally and motocross.

The first FRHPhe-02 helmets became available for customers in 2024 and will be “strongly recommended” in 2025 before becoming mandatory for 2026 onwards. 6D Helmets and LS2 Helmets are the approved manufacturers for off-road to date, with the former presenting the ATR-3 model while the latter has the X-Force Pro; Arai Helmet‘s RX-7V FIM Racing #2 is the phase two helmet for circuit disciplines. The X-Force was the first off-road helmet to be homologated, achieving the designation in November 2023, before the ATR-3 did so in mid-July.

“As our helmet has become more and more known worldwide for its safety technology and exceptional performance record, it was important that we are prepared for 2026 with the third generation of our ATR off-road competition helmet,” said 6D Helmets CEO Bob Weber. “We applaud the FIM for its efforts in requiring safer helmets for its participants and look forward to working more closely with the international market in the future.”

Bill Savage has worked with basically every major off-road motorsport under the sun from short course to desert racing, so it makes sense for NORRA to entrust him as the new technical director. He will lead the sanctioning body’s inspection team of Ray Files, Greg Garber, Mark Growe, and James Tiglio.

Savage has served as the tech director for series like SCORE International, the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, and the Mint 400. His position certainly garners him a reputation for his uncompromising adherence to the rulebook, which is to be expected out of the person who oversees vehicle inspection. With NORRA, he wants to be clear that although driver safety remains top priority, he does not wish to mess with older vehicles by slapping on the latest technology.

“Safety is number one for me,” he explained. “Safety and providing a level playing field for everyone. I want to make sure the classic vehicles stay vintage and will try to keep the high costs of racing confined to the more technologically advanced unlimited classes as much as possible.

“We will always adopt the latest safety advances for everyone, but as long as the older cars and trucks stick to the same parts and configurations they had when built, their rules will remain consistent.”

NORRA races are a mishmash of historic and modern off-road motorsport, featuring vehicles and competitors from the top series today as well as days bygone. For example, the Mexican 1000 in May was won by a 2021 Mason Motorsports Trophy Truck while other class winners included pickup trucks from the 1960s and even a Gulf War-era Chenowth Advanced Light Strike Vehicle. Cars are categorised by era: Pioneer is for those built between 1967 and 1975, Legend for 1976 to 1982, Challenger runs from 1983 to 1992, Vintage is 1993 until 2003, and the modern Evolution vehicles are from the last twenty years.

After racing a Peugeot 504 Coupé at the 2024 Dakar Classic, Patrice Auzet and his team will bring a Renault 30 to the 2025 edition.

The cars are restorations of the R30s that Team Gitanes fielded for Georges Houel and Jean-Pierre Gabreau at the 1981 Paris–Dakar Rally. Both drivers ended up retiring due to a rash of mechanical failures: Houel lost the water in his radiator twice and the circuitry shorting out, while Gabreau’s car suffered an engine failure just after the Prologue stage and had to buy a used replacement from a local garage before exiting while in Algeria. Houel also raced the inaugural Dakar Rally in 1979 and the 1980 editions in the R30, which was later acquired by M’Taich El Fodil for the 1987 race.

Once restored, Auzet hopes to paint the car with a livery modelled after that of the two vehicles. El Fodil had used a zebra-themed design.

At his Dakar Classic debut in 2024, Auzet was the co-driver for François-Xavier Bourgois in their 504 Pininfarina Coupé; Auzet had worked on the car as a mechanic in 2023, where he had to rebuild the engine after the Prologue and nursed it to the finish. The 2024 Classic went far better for both as they finished twenty-second overall and won the H3.A group.

The 2024 Dakar Classic, run in support of the Dakar Rally, spans 3–17 January.

Dušan Drdaj‘s second Dakar Rally in 2025 will take place under the banner of Cajdašrot Dakar Team.

“I have big news for you in the continuation of my Dakar career! In 2025, I will race for @cajdasrot_dakar_team,” wrote Drdaj on Thursday. “We have been working intensively on this project for several months.

“Keep your fingers crossed and support us on our way!”

Drdaj qualified for his Dakar début in 2024 after finishing twentieth in Rally2 at the Rallye du Maroc, despite breaking his sternum on the final day and receiving a penalty that sank him from eleventh.

Riding a KTM 450 Rally Replica for Orion – Moto Racing Group, he finished seventy-seventh in Rally2 at Dakar. However, the final result does not tell the full story of his performance as he notched five top-ten stage finishes, the highest a sixth in Stage #11. He had been fourteenth in the Rally2 overall after five stages before being eliminated by a ruptured fuel tank during the two-day Chrono Stage the next leg.

Anibal López, a UTV racer and SCORE International race winner, died Wednesday after a motorcycle accident. He was 42 years old.

He had fallen from his motorcycle earlier in the day before being taken to Hospital General de Mexicali, where he died from his injuries. Joaquín Rodríguez Montoya, director of the CODE Off-Road series, subsequently confirmed his passing.

“He was a young entrepreneur,” said Rodríguez. “He always supported us as a sponsor. A very good pilot and loved very much by his friends.”

López won the 2022 Baja 500 and 2023 San Felipe 250 in the Pro Stock UTV category, finishing third in last season’s SCORE class championship. Halfway through the 2024 season, he was once again third in the standings with a fourth at San Felipe and fifth at the Baja 500.

He was a factory racer for Polaris Mexico, who provided him with a Polaris Turbo S for SCORE races.

Álvaro Cóppola has been accepted for his second Dakar Rally in 2025 but first since 2018.

Although he had prior Dakar experience, it being seven years since his last start as well as the race no longer taking place in South America meant he had to go through the same qualifying process as everyone else. He secured his ticket with an eleventh in Rally2 at the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina, a round on the World Rally-Raid Championship; his highest run of the race was also eleventh on the fifth and final leg. MED Racing Team prepared his KTM 450 Rally Factory.

Cóppola further bolstered his credentials by finishing third in the M1 class at the South American Rally Race in February. He overcame early bike issues to break into the top three during the back half of the rally with a best daily outing of third in Stage #3.

The 2018 Dakar Rally did not cross his native Uruguay, instead going through Peru, Bolivia, and neighbouring Argentina, but the experience was still one for a lifetime. He had only returned to South America a decade prior after living in the United States, deciding to get into rally after dabbing in enduro and motocross. Much like 2025, he clinched his eligibility via the Desafío Ruta 40 (particularly the DR 40 South; the event was split into two events at the time) and rallies in Argentina. Cóppola finished eighty-second.

Before doing rally raids, he was the 2009 Uruguayan enduro national champion and has also competed at the Red Bull Romaniacs.

Unlimited Off-Road Racing will expand to four rounds in 2025 with the introduction of the Reno 600.

Located in northwestern Nevada, Reno is the site of the finish for Best In The Desert’s Vegas to Reno set to take place later in August. The now defunct Wild West Motorsports Park short course track, which hosted the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, was also located just outside the city.

At 600 miles, it is by far the longest race of the four and among a handful of new long-distance desert races in Nevada for 2025 alongside BITD’s Nevada 1000 Invitational and the Battle Born 1000 put on by the Legacy Racing Association and Valley Off Road Racing Association. The series intends for it to be a single loop event, though details such as a specific date were not immediately disclosed beyond it taking place in late spring after the Parker 400 and Mint 400.

“We are incredibly excited about the 2025 season,” commented series CEO and co-owner Matt Martelli of the Martelli Brothers. “With the addition of the Reno 600 and the return of our staple events, we are committed to delivering an unforgettable experience for both our competitors and fans. Each race offers a unique challenge, and we can’t wait to see the off-road racing community come together to celebrate the sport we love.”

The season begins with the Parker 400 in Arizona, which returned in 2024 under Martelli sanction after taking over from BITD. Parker replaced King of the Hammers on the calendar for 2024. Cole Potts and Larry Heidler respectively won the Unlimited and Limited Races in January.

The last time Martin Koloc raced competitively, his daughter Aliyyah Koloc wasn’t even born yet.

With Aliyyah currently recovering from surgery that she underwent in late July, her dad will take over her Red-Lined REVO T1+ for this weekend’s Hungarian Baja. Buggyra ZM Racing crewman Vlastimil Miksch will serve as navigator.

While his daughter has a burgeoning career in cross-country rally as the 2022 FIA Middle East Baja Cup champion and currently racing in the World Rally-Raid Championship and Dakar Rally, Martin has never competed in the discipline himself. Much of his driving was done on pavement, which included winning the European Truck Racing Championship in 1995 and 1996, before retiring at the end of 1999.

Martin planned a return to the driver’s seat at the 2021 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series round in Grobnik, where he would have driven alongside Aliyyah and her twin sister Yasmeen Koloc, but was sidelined by shoulder and cervical spinal pain. David Vršecký, a longtime family friend and Buggyra team member, replaced him for the weekend.

“This year, I am actively involved in testing the car and contributing to its development,” Koloc explained. “As Aliyyah underwent a scheduled surgery, I have decided to replace her now in Hungary, so that the car development continues. Though I haven’t been racing competitively for over twenty-five years, I feel that I am an asset to the development programme. We made improvements, especially on the chassis.

Hino Team Sugawara might not be the fastest truck at the Dakar Rally, but they sure know how to be reliable. The Japanese manufacturer has had at least one of their trucks reach the finish every year since their début in 1991, a streak that extended to thirty-three in a row (recall the 2008 race was cancelled) when Teruhito Sugawara finished a career-best sixth in class at the latest edition in January.

Sugawara’s Hino 600 is a truck with a four-stroke, straight-six diesel engine that produces 789.05 horsepower. It was originally supposed to feature a 400-kilogram hybrid system but the team was unable to install it as the FIA requires such vehicles to be in the Mission 1000 class. Without hybrid power, the team had to switch to a higher gear ratio that provided more acceleration, albeit at the cost of fuel efficiency.

After a relatively calm start to the 2024 rally, the six-speed transmission started to slip during the third stage but the team managed to keep it together by racing conservatively the next day until it was shortened for trucks for safety reasons. The Hino survived the first day of the 48-hour Chrono Stage before losing five hours to damaged fuel line on the second, which forced Sugawara, co-driver Hirokazu Somemiya, and mechanic Yuji Mochizuki to funnel gas into the tank while the truck was tilted. They eventually finished the rally without further issue, with Sugawara’s best finish being a sixth in Stage #6.

“Hino Motors was able to complete thirty-three consecutive races and place sixth overall in the 2024 race thanks to the support of many people, especially the sponsors,” said Sugawara. “On behalf of the team, I would like to express my gratitude once again. Although the environment around us is tough, we will continue to work together as a team to prepare a faster, more reliable truck and a stronger team.”

The truck returned to Japan in June. The team’s main focus as they prepare for the 2025 race is on updating the piping surrounding the engine as well as improving the transmission’s clutch plate strength. They also hope to make more durable parts, along with revising the production and maintenance cycles to better expedite the replacement process.

Balázs and Gabriella Molnár are the latest team to be bringing the new Can-Am Maverick R to a cross-country rally when they enter it in the Hungarian Baja. The car will compete in the T4/SSV National category as part of the Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship.

While the national championship follows slightly different regulations from that of the FIA European Baja Cup, which will also race at the Hungarian Baja, the Molnárs and M1 Motorsport naturally still wanted to ensure it complies with the sanctioning body’s rulebook.

“We completely stripped the car,” explained Balázs Molnár. At the time that he spoke with Erős Réka about the vehicle, the only thing missing were the FOX shock absorbers. “It’s got an FIA-approved frame, a 130-litre safety fuel tank, and all the necessary safety equipment, including seats, harnesses, a central fire extinguishing system race wheels and the list goes on.”

The Molnárs previously raced the Can-Am Maverick X3, which enjoyed successes like winning the Raid of the Champions outright to wrap up the 2023 Hungarian season. Unfortunately for them, the X3’s stint ended on a sour note with back-to-back retirements at the Baja Satu Mare and the Italian Baja, the latter part of the Hungarian championship despite taking place in another country.

“We loved racing the X3—despite its flaws—and we knew it well, achieving many good results. But once the new Maverick came, it was obvious we would build a race car from it,” Balázs stated.

Cadillac Racing have announced they will be partnering with Hertz Team JOTA for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The privateer team, currently running two Porsche 963s, will combine with the American giants to create Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA and will field two cars in what is expected to be an extremely competitive 2025 grid.

Hertz Team JOTA have gone from strength to strength since joining the Hypercar class in 2023. Originally entering as a one-car outfit, they put on a great display throughout the season, including a memorable stint in the lead of the 2023 Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the anniversary of entering the championship for the first time, the British-based team secured a magnificent victory at the 2024 6 Hours of Spa.

Having been a superb privateer team, JOTA Sport are now relishing the prospect of being a manufacturer team. Cadillac Racing have demonstrated great pace with their Cadillac V-Series.R machine with its thunderous 5.5 litre V8 engine, but have been thwarted by technical infringements and unfortunate on-track incidents which has led to a disappointing position so far in the points table.

So far no driver announcements have been made. However, both the American giant and the plucky British privateer have a great pool of talent from which to draw.

“JOTA has always strived to become a manufacturer team, so now joining forces with Cadillac is the realization of this goal” enthused Sam Hignett, Hertz Team JOTA’s Director and Founder. “Having competed against the Cadillac V-Series.R for the last two seasons, we have experienced how competitive it is and we are genuinely honored to be entrusted with fielding its cars from 2025 onward. We are in the privileged position to have enjoyed record-breaking success in the FIA World Endurance Championship, especially at Le Mans, and we are very much looking forward to continuing this success with Cadillac and Hertz.”