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For the first time, the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is heading to Europe for the 6 Hours of Imola on 21 April. After an absolutely thrilling season opener at the Qatar 1812km, excitement is building for the first European race on the calendar.

The Track

Imola appears on the WEC calendar as a replacement for Monza, as the “Temple of Speed” is undergoing renovations in 2024. This is the first time the championship has headed to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the first 6 Hours of Imola since the 2011 Le Mans Sports Series. The 4.9 kilometre track is the home event for many WEC teams and drivers, all of whom will be wanting to impress.

The legendary track, familiar to racing fans the world over, presents a very different challenge to the Lusail International Circuit which hosted the previous round. The most significant difference is that Imola is much narrower. The tight twisting nature of the track will present complications as the faster Hypercars try to overtake the slower LMGT3 class. Porsche Penske Motorsport driver André Lotterer is already considering how best to compensate for this. “It will definitely be a challenge, it’s not a very big track and it’s narrow too so traffic will be tricky” the German explained, adding “setting up the car correctly will be key.”

LMGT3 driver Charlie Eastwood said, after a recent testing session at Imola, “we found that the delta of lap time between GT3 and Hypercar was significantly smaller than most circuits. The main reason for this is that at Imola in the GT3 cars, you can take a lot of kerbs. There has been a completely new profile of the kerbing around most of the circuit so that the GT3s can get right on top of the kerbs, which the Corvette was handling very well at the test but the Hypercars cannot – they have to drive around them. They are going to struggle to pass the GT cars very easily and likely see a lot of aggression into braking zones.” It should be a thrilling and action packed race.

Hypercar

Lotterer’s team, Porsche Penske Motorsport, were the class of the field in Qatar, with the #6 car comfortably winning the race and the sister #5 car taking pole position and eventually finishing 3rd in the race. As if that weren’t enough, privateer Porsche outfit Hertz Team JOTA secured a brilliant 2nd place, just 1.1 seconds ahead of the #5 factory Porsche. All eyes will be on whether they can maintain that momentum at such a different circuit.

After retiring from the Dakar Rally in January, Hennie de Klerk and his TreasuryONE Motorsport team will be approaching the upcoming South African Rally-Raid Championship like it is a leg on the former.

He and his co-driver Juan Möhr will have a full kit of spare parts and tools onboard their WCT Toyota Hilux, then perform repairs and changes themselves without the help of their team when they are at the service station. The team’s technician Tjaart van der Walt will be present to oversee the stops but not get involved. Under World Rally-Raid Championship rules, crews are not permitted to help their drivers if they are stuck in the Selective Section and face disqualification if it happens, and de Klerk and Möhr will treat the service areas as such.

“As we so painfully learned this year, there’s no tomorrow at the Dakar if you do not finish today,” said de Klerk. “To that end, we will use our local races to develop our strategy to best deal with our future Dakar challenges. That means concentrating on endurance and reliability, rather than just speed.”

2024 marked de Klerk’s third Dakar Rally after being the best-finishing rookie in the 2018 edition in twenty-eighth followed by a thirty-fourth in 2020. He returned to the race after four years in a new Toyota Hilux T1+ designed by WCT Engineering, which is mostly the same as its counterparts built by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing but less complex so that privateers can afford it. Möhr joined the team after last racing the Dakar in 2016 with Mark Corbett.

The duo fell early due to a time penalty in the Prologue for a navigation error, then broke a prop shaft early in Stage #2 which forced them to complete the leg with rear drive only. They scored their best finish of thirty-first in the Ultimate class in Stage #4, but another driveshaft failure and rollover struck during the second half of the Chrono Stage and ended their race.

The late Ted Toleman is perhaps best known for kickstarting the Formula One careers of those like Ayrton Senna, Rory Byrne, and Pat Symonds via Toleman Motorsport. After selling the team to sponsor Benetton in 1986, Toleman decided to remain involved in racing, albeit in a slightly different discipline from what he was used to.

In 1987, a year after his F1 exit, Toleman and company decided to enter the Paris–Dakar Rally. Although the race had only been active for a decade, it quickly grew into the world’s preeminent rally raid and still holds this reputation today. Toleman’s maiden start came a year after fellow F1 outfit Minardi did a Dakar one-off in a truck, where they retired after seven stages.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the last great adventures left. I’ve always been one for pitting yourself against the elements. After doing the Atlantic, the desert was a natural,” said Toleman in a team promotional video for the 1989 race titled Heat and Dust. “I think perseverance and patience (are most important) because you have to be patient with one another. It’s a long time to be together under stress. I think those are the important features.”

The programme was revealed at 1 Savile Row in London, the former headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society and current home of menswear tailor Gieves & Hawkes, consisting of Toleman as driver and Barry Lee as navigator of a Range Rover. Lee was a multi-time hot rod national and world champion who also enjoyed success in the British Saloon Car Championship and rallycross. However, their début was cut short when two team members were arrested at the Algerian border for alleged currency irregularities.

For their second attempt in 1988, the duo decided to modify an Austin Metro 6R4, a brand that previously competed in Group B rally much like many Dakar vehicles of the time. Dubbed the TG88 Raider, sported a longer wheelbase and a 3.9-litre V8 engine from a Land Rover that produced 230 horsepower, as opposed to the V6 of the original model. The car proved to be quick, which landed it on the front cover of Autosport‘s 7 January issue. Although the Metro was fast, Toleman’s support truck was not and got stuck in the sand, causing it to take too long to reach the finish and forcing him to retire yet again.

Tacita‘s newest line of electric bikes for 2024, particularly the Enduro, Motard, and Motorally models from the T-Race line, were developed using what they picked up from their Dakar Rally effort in January.

The Italian bike manufacturer entered the Dakar Rally in the Mission 1000 class as Tacita Formula Corsa, fielding two Tacita Discanto bikes for Oscar Polli and Silvayn Espinasse. Polli, the 2008 FIM FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Champion (precursor to today’s World Rally-Raid Championship) and 2012 Africa Eco Race winner, failed to start the first stage and fell into an early hole in the rankings, but managed to complete the race as the last finisher in the category. Espinasse was eighth of nine finishing Mission 1000 entries.

New for the 2024 race, Mission 1000 is designed for vehicles on alternative power sources like electric, hybrid, and hydrogen. Tacita, Arctic Leopard, and Green Power Race raced on electric bikes while the other teams were in cars or trucks.

The T-Race bikes are all designed using lessons that Tacita learned from the effort. Each bike, as well as those in the T-Cruise series (Urban and Turismo), has a five-speed gearbox, liquid cooling and a battery management system to prevent overheating, and a 120-volt system for the controller. The Motorally, which is closest to the Dakar bike, also comes with a battery setup that allows for it to be swapped out within three minutes.

All three T-Race models weigh roughly 196 kilograms and have 0.7 millimetres of fairing made from carbon and Kevlar. The Enduro and Motard bikes have nine kWh of bettery while Motorally boasts thirteen.

The newest addition to Red-Lined Motorsport‘s REVO line will make its début when the 2024 South African Rally-Raid Championship begins at this weekend’s Nkomazi 400 as Chris Visser and Dave Klaassen pilot the REVO+ GT-R.

As the name suggests, it is a T1+ car that uses an engine pulled from the Nissan R35 GT-R. Nicknamed “Godzilla”, the GT-R is Nissan’s flagship sports car and has seen extensive action in GT and endurance racing.

The GT-R’s 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V6 VR38DETT engine produces 421 kW of power (565 horsepower) with 632 Nm of torque. Ironically, the standard engine is too powerful for FIA cross-country rally rules, which have a 264-kW limit, meaning it had to be de-tuned to remain legal. Testing took place in December. Such an engine is also being used in the Dacia Sandrider, Renault’s factory rally raid programme that will compete in the 2025 Dakar Rally and World Rally-Raid Championship.

The newest REVO comes on the heels of Red-Lined’s REVO T1+, the company’s first foray into the T1+ subcategory. Created in 2023, it is currently used in the SARRC as well as the W2RC, the latter on a full-time basis by Aliyyah Koloc and Buggyra ZM Racing. Both the REVO T1+ and GT-R comply with T1+ regulations like using 37-inch tyres and having 350 mm of suspension travel.

Red-Lined often bases their rally raiders on Nissans. Their VK50 and VK56 cars are based on the Nissan Navara; both are T1.1 models, which have smaller wheels at 32 inches and 280 mm in suspension travel.

Bournezeau Rallye Aventure, also known as Team B.R.A. for short, will be pulling double duty in January 2025 as they plan to enter both the Dakar Rally and the Dakar Classic. Yannick Grèzes will race the former in a Drakart Scorpion while his son Tenessy Grèzes and Julien Bessé enter the latter with a Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80 and Mitsubishi Pajero V6, respectively.

Drakart is an American manufacturer that builds side-by-side vehicles for American desert racing like SCORE International and Best In The Desert, though their vehicles are also FIA compliant and thus eligible for Dakar. In 2017, the company built a rally raid car loosely based on the Ford Edge.

Grèzes’ Drakart Scorpion is a 2WD model eligible to compete in the Challenger category. 2025 will be his first Dakar since finishing ninety-third overall and thirty-third in the H1 class at the 2022 Dakar Classic in a Suzuki Vitara. He previously raced the main Dakar Rally in 2005 and 2007 on a bike and car, respectively. Anthony Drapeau returns as his navigator after working with him in 2022.

Tenessy, who has shared cars with his dad in French rally competition since he was sixteen, finished eighty-first in the 2022 Classic (thirty-third in H2). He drove a Land Cruiser BJ73, which the family found was within their price range so they opted to race. Lucas Longepe, who has been friends with the younger Grèzes since their early teens, will be his co-driver again.

Bessé’ is the founder of Config-racing.com, an online racing equipment store that sponsored the Grèzes in 2022. Francky Corbeau will serve as co-driver.

Robert Stout will make his début in a Pro 4 truck during the 2024 Championship Off-Road season, running a part-time schedule for Adrian Cenni Racing in the #28.

“I’ve wanted to race these trucks for over ten years. It’s the best of the best at the highest levels of the sport,” said Stout in a press release. “I have massive respect for all the players in this class but I can’t wait to battle with them.”

Although mainly a sports car driver, Stout won the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series‘ Production 1000 UTV championship in 2019 a season after claiming Rookie of the Year honours. After LOORRS’ shutdown, he switched from UTV to off-road trucks—albeit on pavement—when he entered the Stadium Super Trucks in 2021.

He scored his first of three career SST wins during his rookie season at Nashville en route to a third-place points finish. Another third came in 2022 with a win at Bristol. The two-round 2023 season saw him finish sixth but scored another victory in Race #1 at Nashville.

While SST was his main focus over the past three years, he also returned to short course by competing in the UTV-based Texas Outlaw Series.

The Dakar Rally will no longer have the Quad class in 2025 as the Amaury Sport Organisation places more focus on bikes, ending a sixteen-year run as an official category and nearly three-decade stretch with such a vehicle taking part. Needless to say, its riders are not too thrilled about having their livelihoods ripped away from them.

ASO head David Castéra confirmed the category’s removal days before the start of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in Portugal, a round of the World Rally-Raid Championship like the Dakar, though rumours persisted long prior on the heels of just ten quads at Dakar in January. Many like Pablo Copetti, who finished third at the 2023 edition, deemed the scarcity as manufactured by the ASO through tightened eligibility criteria that require Quad entrants to either have three W2RC starts or raced a Dakar in the past five years, neither of which are mandated for the bikes. Others pointed out that over thirty riders registered for the 2024 race, only for the group to be whittled down to ten by the new rules, and such a policy would have remained if the class remained for 2025.

After winning the first stage in Portugal, reigning Dakar Quad winner Manuel Andújar called the victory a “somewhat bittersweet feeling” due to the Dakar announcement. He blasted Castéra’s reasoning as selfish and lobbied for the FIM to take action with the hope that they could change his mind.

“It was a crucial stepping stone category during the (Dakar’s) time in South America, reaching over fifty participants when the few motorcycles couldn’t fill the starting grid,” wrote Andújar. “I believe that if it had to end, it should have been done differently or at least with respect. Gradually, they killed the category by imposing silly requirements to be part of it to the point of only allowing ten quads when there were more than thirty signed up in 2024. Riders were required to participate in several World Championship rounds to earn points and compete in Dakar 2025. They raised the budget, set off on the adventure, owed money to people, sponsors, and were CHEATED by removing the category overnight when the project was already underway.

“I started racing this event at the age of 20, a race that taught me many values as a person and rider including discipline, honour, resilience, true friendship, teamwork, and much more. This race meant so much to me that I even tattooed it on my skin. I never imagined that MONEY and the WHIMS of one person could outweigh these learned values.”

Best In The Desert‘s premier event, the Vegas to Reno, is a 500-mile dash across Nevada’s fire and graded roads. In April 2025, the sanctioning body will double that distance with the inaugural Nevada 1000 Invitational.

Such an event will be among the longest desert races in the United States and North America as a whole, the latter joining company like SCORE International’s Baja 1000, NORRA’s Mexican 1000, and the Sonora Rally in Mexico. The Legacy Racing Association’s Baja Nevada stretches 650 miles from Mesquite to Ely across two days in June.

Although a specific date was not immediately revealed beyond the month, BITD will have to take into account SCORE’s San Felipe 250 being held in late March while the Mexican 1000 is also an April event.

In 2000, to celebrate the new millennium, BITD organised the Nevada 2000, which ran for seven days in a rally raid-style format. The race began with a qualifying prologue in Las Vegas before heading from Mesquite to Ely on the second day of racing, followed by stops in Elko, Reno, Tonopah, and back to Vegas. Larry Roeseler and Ivan Stewart of PPI Motorsports were the only multi-time stage winners but their truck finished third overall behind winner Troy Herbst and his Terrible Herbst Motorsports team, while Johnny Campbell and Tim Staab won on the bike side. Other desert racing stars who took part included the McMillin, Dean, and Myers families, Rod Hall and his son Chad Hall, and SCORE owner Roger Norman.

BITD continued long-distance racing in 2002, albeit sliced in half with the Nevada 1000 that spanned three days from Las Vegas to Ely, to Tonopah, and back to Vegas; Damen Jefferies won in a truck whereas Brian Brown and David Pearson did so on a bike. It was brought back in 2005, won by Brian Collins and Larry Ragland ahead of a then-teenaged Andy McMillin among four-wheelers and Campbell and Steve Hengeveld for two.

On 3 April, The Checkered Flag sat down with Cayden MacCachren to discuss being the top UTV at the San Felipe 250 in March, the development of his Polaris Factory Racing team, and how UTV racing has grown in recent times.

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: You ended the SCORE season last year by winning the Baja 1000 and then you begin this season by winning San Felipe. How good does it feel to have this sort of little win streak going so far?

CM: Oh yeah, it’s great. The end of the year last year, winning the 1000, obviously the biggest race in the SCORE series by far, but honestly, before the 1000 I was kind of having not so great luck. I don’t believe in luck too much but not great results; not anybody’s fault, but it just wasn’t going right for me. Going to the 1000, was able to pull one off at the biggest, baddest, longest race of the year by far was cool, but after that, I wanted to make sure that nobody thought it was a fluke. Every race I’ve gone through with the whole Polaris Factory Racing team has been all in for me and I’m trying my hardest and everybody with the team—I’m actually at the shop right now and the boys are hard at work right now on a Tuesday. Every race, I try to go and win, but after the 1000, I really wanted to make sure that my name stayed at the top. Going into San Felipe, it was the same thought and new team-mate Max Eddy was going to elevate all of our games some more.

Pablo Copetti will continue to race on four wheels after the Dakar Rally killed the Quad category for 2025, albeit on the FIA side instead as he plans to enter the race in the SSV class. He will drive a Polaris RZR Pro R for TH-Trucks Team with Santiago Hansen as his co-driver.

Copetti has run the Dakar Rally on a Quad since 2010, winning seven stages across his career with three third-place finishes in 2017, 2021, and 2023. However, a lack of budget and dissatisfaction with the Amaury Sport Organisation’s new policies for Quad riders prompted him to skip the 2024 edition; he was originally considering to switch to SSV for the race but was unable to because of low funding.

Despite Quads being popular during the Dakar’s run in South America during the 2010s, decreasing manufacturer support prompted the ASO to pull the plug on the class for 2025. The final edition saw just ten riders, which Copetti and many of his peers also attribute to the ASO tightening Quad eligibility criteria by mandating those in the class to have either raced a Dakar in the past five years or enter three World Rally-Raid Championship rounds; neither requirement exists for bikes.

With their class gone, most Quad riders have also switched to racing cars with particular focus on side-by-sides. Rodolfo Guillioli, who finished runner-up in the 2023 W2RC for Quads, has become an SSV co-driver while former Dakar winners Josef Macháček and Ignacio Casale currently compete in the SSV and Challenger categories, respectively. Hansen was also a Dakar Quad racer in the 2010s before becoming a navigator.

Copetti’s Polaris RZR is built by CAP 4 Racing, who has maintained a partnership with TH-Trucks since 2023. Domingo Román raced the CAP 4/TH-Trucks Polaris in the 2024 edition but retired after seven stages. A Polaris driven by Xavier de Soultrait won the race, marking the manufacturer’s first Dakar overall victory since 2017.

Want to be a factory rally raider for Fantic Motor? If you do well in October’s Rallye du Maroc and 2025 Dakar Rally, that opportunity will be presented for you in 2026.

Fantic announced Wednesday the creation of Fantic Rally Raid and Fantic Rally Xperience, which will offer factory-level assistance for participants in the aforementioned races and amateur rallies, respectively. The former will provide five mechanics and a full set of technical support, including a truck of spare parts and special bivouac benefits like physiotherapists, at the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s season opener and finale. The top Fantic Rally Raid member in both rallies will be offered a spot on the factory team for the 2026 Dakar.

The Fantic Rally Xperience provides the same services as well as bike rental, but for non-competition rallies in Italy starting with the Sterrare è Umano on 26–28 April. Fantic will also support riders at the Mille Sassi (24–26 May), Hat Pavia – Sanremo (12–14 July), Hat Sanremo – Sestriere (6–8 September), and the Transitalia Marathon (23–27 September). Such a programme is not uncommon for amateur rallies as Yamaha has operated the Ténéré Spirit Experience since 2023 at races across Europe and Africa.

Although those who already own a Fantic XEF 450 Rally are encouraged to sign up, the manufacturer will also provide six bikes for the Fantic Rally Xperience.

Fantic has fielded a rally raid division since 2022. Jane Daniels, Jeremy Miroir, and Tommaso Montanari represented the Fantic Rally Team at the 2024 Dakar Rally in January, with Miroir scoring the best finish of the trio of nineteenth in the Rally2 category. All three are primarily enduro competitors, reflecting the marque’s history as one of the top bikes in the discipline.

Cayden MacCachren might be the son of off-road legend Rob MacCachren, but he’s keen to blaze his own trail in the desert racing world as a member of Polaris Factory Racing.

Although still a young career, he is on the right track after not only winning the Pro UTV Open class, but being the fastest UTV outright at the legendary Baja 1000 last November. He then continued his run by repeating the feat in March’s SCORE International season-opening San Felipe 250, leading a Polaris top-five sweep.

MacCachren sat down with The Checkered Flag last Wednesday to discuss the win, life with Polaris Factory Racing, and his thoughts about the ongoing UTV renaissance.

Winning San Felipe

MacCachren entered the 2024 SCORE World Desert Championship with plenty momentum after winning the UTV overall at the 2023 Baja 1000 and finishing third in Pro UTV Open points. However, he was not complacent about his success and was highly keen to begin the new season on a strong note.

Much of this mentality stemmed from a rough start to that campaign, failing to podium across the first three races and bottoming out with a dismal fourteenth at the Baja 500. He was on the verge of winning San Felipe until the studs broke on his car just miles from the finish, though PFR team principal Craig Scanlon picked up the baton from there to win, then finished seventh at the Baja 400. Even 2024 kicked off on a rather sour note when he placed outside the UTV Open top ten at King of the Hammers in January while team-mates Brock Heger and Max Eddy Jr. finished 1–2.

Junior single-seater team Global Racing Service will expand operations to include a cross-country rally division in 2024, competing in the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship‘s (CERTT) T3 and T4 categories starting at this weekend’s Rally TT Jaén Mar de Olivos. Pau Navarro and team boss Josep Trinidad are named on the entry list as their drivers.

Also known as GRS Team for short, the outfit primarily competes in the F4 Spanish Championship and Eurocup-3. They finished eleventh in the 2023 F4 Spanish standings with a rotation of drivers, while Alexander Jacoby and Douwe Dedecker comprise their 2024 lineup in the series. A multi-car effort during the inaugural Eurocup-3 season ended with three runner-up finishes courtesy of Cenyu Han and Alpine Academy member Nikola Tsolov.

In February and March, GRS fielded cars for Dedecker, Bianca Bustamante, and Lia Block—herself an off-road racer—in the Spanish-based Formula Winter Series, with Dedecker scoring a podium at Ricardo Tormo. The team has also raced in the Formula 4 UAE Championship and Formula Renault Eurocup. They débuted in Spanish F4 in 2018.

Trinidad and Navarro will race Can-Am Maverick X3 cars with Manuel Navarro Dominguez and Fausto Mota as navigators, respectively.

Navarro typically races in the World Rally-Raid Championship, driving a Can-Am in the SSV (then T4) class during the 2022 and 2023 seasons with a win at the 2022 Andalucía Rally. He moved up to the Ultimate category for the 2024 Dakar Rally, where he retired after a crash. Although the latest W2RC round, last week’s BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, took place in Spain and Portugal, Navarro opted to skip it and enter the Rallye Sierra Morena. Conversely, Mota and Manuel Navarro both competed in the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, the former finishing second in SSV as the navigator for Ricardo Ramilo while the latter and Ultimate driver Jose Luis Garcia retired.

For the first time since the inaugural season in 2022, the World Rally-Raid Championship raced in Europe as the inaugural BP Ultimate Rally-Raid took the series from Portugal to Spain and back.

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