Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

After over two decades, Dirk von Zitzewitz is hanging up his roadbook. In an interview with Jens Kürbis of the Lübecker Nachrichten, von Zitzewitz discussed the toll that injuries he suffered in accidents in recent years have taken on his body, eventually prompting him to end a decorated career as a rally raid co-driver.

Von Zitzewitz won the 2009 Dakar Rally in his third year as the navigator for Giniel de Villiers. He made his Dakar navigating début in 2002 when he and Mark Miller finished nineteenth overall, transitioning to the passenger’s seat after racing the Dakar on a bike since 1997. In 2005, he moved to Volkswagen and called the shots for Robby Gordon, who became the first American to win stages in a car, before reuniting with Miller for 2006 then joining de Villiers the following year.

He and de Villiers continued their partnership when they joined the Toyota camp in 2012. Von Zitzewitz later worked with Toyota’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi, and the two won the 2022 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas together.

Von Zitzewitz’s final Dakar in 2023 saw him and Al-Rajhi win Stage #7 but were relegated to thirty-seventh in T1 due to mechanical issues. Timo Gottschalk took over as Al-Rajhi’s navigator for the rest of the World Rally-Raid Championship, where Al-Rajhi went on to finish second in points.

At the 2019 Hungarian Baja, von Zitzewitz suffered a massive accident in which his Can-Am Maverick flipped and rolled into a bush, breaking several of his ribs and collarbone. He revealed to Kürbis that part of his spine became stiffer due to the injury, and his decision to walk away from navigating is to preserve his health.

After a solid maiden Dakar Rally in 2022, Mário Franco will return to the race in 2024, driving the #317 Yamaha YXZ1000R for his Franco Sport team in the Challenger (formerly T3) class. Daniel Jordão, who has rally experience on two wheels but is relatively new to four-wheeled competition, will be his co-driver.

Franco entered his first Dakar in 2022 with a successful background in SSV racing, winning the 2018 Portuguese Cross-Country Championship in the corresponding category before competing in the Rallye du Maroc twice. He founded Franco Sport in 2016 and has a partnership with Yamaha’s Portuguese and European divisions; the latter operates the Yamaha Cup spec series, which Franco has won thrice.

With his brother Rui by his side, Franco finished thirteenth overall in T3 at the 2022 Dakar. He ran as high as sixth after four stages before a series of stage retirements and other setbacks dropped him outside the top ten. While he did not return to Dakar for 2023, he continued to race in the CPTT and Yamaha Cup throughout 2022 and 2023, including winning a stage at the 2022 Rallye du Maroc and assisting in developing the YXZ1000R Prototype.

“I am very happy to be able to return to the Dakar two years after my début,” said Franco. “I know that we will face an even more demanding race than in 2022 and we will face very strong competition in the Challenger class. The Dakar, as the world’s biggest motor race, always has to offer us some surprises and difficulties that are different from usual. In addition to the extensive mileage, this edition will have a forty-eight-hour stage which we will have to ‘manage’ with our own means and without the possibility of contacting anyone.

“It is always difficult to aim for a classification goal, especially since we know the competition in the Challenger category is very strong. The primary goal is to finish the Dakar, but we will try to go fast and be competitive despite not being the most experienced in the race. I’m heading for my second Dakar, and Daniel will be in a race of this magnitude for the first time.

Glenn Brinkman has been one of the top side-by-side racers in his native Australia, but will now see if he can translate his skills to the biggest rally raid in the world when he makes his Dakar Rally début in 2024. He is set to drive the #326 Zephyr for PH Sport in the Challenger (formerly T3) category with his usual co-driver Dale Moscatt by his side.

Brinkman and Moscatt primarily race in the Polaris Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship. After finishing runner-up in the 2022 SXS Pro class championship, he finished third in the 2023 SXS standings and seventh across all classes with a win at the Pooncarie Desert Dash in April.

“I started competing in motorsports at the age of 21 and I’ve now been involved for the last thirty years,” said Brinkman. “Dakar is the kind of thing you have to do before you die. Dale Moscatt, my co-driver who has done several Dakar Rallies, was one of the instigators, so was Bruce Garland who did the Dakar in Africa and South America and encouraged me to go for it. […]

“For me, rallying was a hobby but for Dale, it’s a full time job. I’m looking for the experience. The goal isn’t the result. The Dakar is far more extreme than the other events I did. It’s another level. I do it to enjoy it. You have to enjoy it. I don’t need a big shiny trophy.”

While most of his competition has been in Australia, he is no stranger to international rallies, let alone the World Rally-Raid Championship which begins its seasons with the Dakar. In 2022, he and Moscatt raced the Rallye du Maroc where they placed forty-fifth overall and fourteenth in T3.

It has been over a decade since Yoshio Ikemachi retired from racing professionally, nearly fifteen years since his most recent Dakar Rally, and even longer since his last Dakar on a bike. The last two will change in 2024 when he makes his return on a KTM 450 Rally Replica for BAS World KTM Racing Team, competing in the Rally2 category.

Ikemachi first appeared at the Dakar Rally in 1996, though to drive the car for the race’s press corps. He made his actual racing début a year later, where he finished sixteenth overall on a Honda bike. After two years of competing in enduro and other rallies, he returned to Dakar in 2000 and improved to tenth, the highest finish for a Japanese rider at the time and the best among privateers. However, that was his final start on two wheels as he joined Nissan’s factory programme to race a car in 2003.

He finished twenty-second overall in his first Dakar with Nissan in 2004, which he replicated two years later en route to a runner-up finish in the T2 category. Ikemachi eventually raced for Mitsubishi and Subaru; his last Dakar in 2010, with Subaru Argentina, ended in retirement after his driveshaft broke on the third stage. While he scaled back his racing over the next decade and took an office job in car sales, he continued to take part in races like the Asia Cross-Country Rally, winning the bike category thrice in 2012, 2015, and 2018.

Other outings during his career, which began when he was seventeen, included a fourth in the 1994 Australian Safari, seventh in class at the 1995 Baja 1000 and fifth at its Baja 2000 variation, and winning races like the 2006 Beijing to Ulaanbaatar Rally.

Although now in his fifties, he found the urge to return to international rallies and partnered with TM Racing, an Italian team that competes in the FIM Enduro World Championship team. In February, Ikemachi entered the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with BAS World, finishing twelfth in Rally2 and second among Veteran’s Trophy riders with a best stage performance of tenth in Stage #1.

The hydrogen Extreme H car completed its first shakedown last weekend ahead of the inaugural season in 2025.

“Completing this initial first shakedown of the Extreme H prototype ahead of schedule is a sign of strong progress being made as we prepare for the launch of Extreme H in 2025,” said series CEO Alejandro Agag. “We are thrilled to reveal the first look at our hydrogen-powered concept, which we feel is going to be groundbreaking in motorsport.

“This a hugely important first step as we transition towards an exciting hydrogen future and launch the first-ever off-road hydrogen racing world championship.”

The car is relatively similar to the Spark ODYSSEY 21 that its sister series Extreme E currently uses, with the obvious difference of relying on a hydrogen fuel cell instead of an electric battery. It is in essence a “successor” of the ODYSSEY 21 with a new chassis, while Extreme E’s wording in its statements concerning XH has implied that it will be a “testbed” for its hydrogen counterpart.

To coordinate development, Extreme H, the FIA, and Formula One created the Hydrogen Working Group in early December.

Extreme E just loves racing in Saudi Arabia and Sardinia. For the fourth straight year, the series will begin its season at the former while the latter will hold a doubleheader (or would it be a quadrupleheader?) for a third season.

“We are delighted to unveil our calendar for Extreme E Season 4,” said series head Alejandro Agag. “If the 2024 campaign is anything like our first three, then our fans are going to be in for something special.”

Saudi Arabia has been the season opener every year since the inaugural season, though the specific location has rotated with Al-‘Ula in 2021 followed by series partner Neom in 2022 and 2023. For 2024, the Desert X Prix will take place near Jeddah, a port city along the Red Sea that currently hosts Formula One.

The second round will be in Europe, though a site was not immediately named. The European slot was filled by Greenland and Britain in 2021 and Scotland in 2023.

The island of Sardinia will once again have back-to-back Island X Prix weekends as it has since 2022. While both the 2022 and 2023 doubleheaders were created due to circumstance, it is retained by design for 2024 owing to its popularity with series officials.

Eleven vehicles will début the Dakar Rally‘s Mission 1000 category in 2024, a new programme intended to showcase and test rally raid machines powered by electric, hydrogen, or hybrid technology. Although it is not supposed to be a competition, there will still be a motorsport aspect as their times in each stage rewards them with points.

Mission 1000 will mostly follow the main Rally, entering ten of twelve stages and running a separate 100-kilometre course from everyone else each day.

A base time is set for each stage, which they must try to beat. If their time is ten percent over the benchmark, they will be classified as “Eco Mode” and receive zero points. Being within five percent is “Normal Mode” and grants five points, while being faster by ten percent is “Sport Mode” and provides ten. Points are deducted if they fail to complete the leg.

Ten bonus points can be earned via a “Launch Control” challenge, which is basically a 100-meter drag race, with the fastest car and bike being rewarded. An additional five points is provided for the winner of a fan vote dubbed “Fan Boost” (no similarity to the now-dropped Formula E concept by the same name beyond the voting mechanism); two votes will take place.

With these in mind, the most successful vehicle-Sport Mode all ten days, winning Launch Control and both fan votes-would earn a maximum of 120 points.

Moroccan rider Amine Echiguer is set to compete in one of the most gruelling rally raid events in the world for the first time, the Africa Eco Race. The race re-traces the original Paris–Dakar Rally route, starting in Monaco and finishing in Dakar from 30 December 2023 to 14 January 2024.

Echiguer started competition by winning jet-ski races in Morocco at a very young age. After getting his master’s degree at an engineering university, he decided to pursue his dream in racing. He spent several years training in the Moroccan desert, which turned into results when he won the Rallye du Maroc’s Enduro Cup twice. Echiguer also has four national championships in motocross, cross-country rally, and beach races.

In 2022, he won the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship in the Rally3 category with a victory at the Rallye du Maroc in which he claimed all but one stage. He finished third at the season-ending Andalucía Rally to clinch the title.

While he did not return to the W2RC in 2023, he raced various rallies in Morocco during the year like the Carta Rallye, Morocco Desert Challenge, Baja Morocco, and Addax Rally. He fractured his clavicle at the MDC which prevented him from racing for much of the summer

While Echiguer has dreams of racing the main Dakar Rally, he will enter the Africa Eco Rrace in the meantime; the 2024 editions of both races overlap in January. The fifteenth edition of the AER starts in Monaco, where the vehicles will then embark for Nador to later complete the twelve-stage, 6,000-kilometre route (plus a rest day in Dakhla) through Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal, where it will end on the shores of the mythical Pink Lake.

If one collects all seven Dragon Balls, they can summon the dragon Shenron who will grant them a wish. Gerard Farrés Güell will definitely use his to ask for a Dakar Rally win in 2024.

Farrés is set for his seventeenth Dakar Rally in 2024, driving the #402 Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo in the SSV (formerly T4) category for South Racing with Diego Ortega Gil as co-driver. Besides his sponsors, his car will also feature the Dragon Balls and Dragon Ball protagonist Goku.

The Dragon Ball influence also extends to his helmet, which has a decal of Master Roshi on the back with the text “Uncle Farreti” (Farrés’ nickname) in the series’ title font. The titular artifacts are present on the side and top.

“They are there because I am a fan of Dragon Ball, and we embrace the values that Son Goku has such as empathy, hard work, and sacrifice,” Farrés explained at an event in a Barcelona dealership revealing his Dakar programme.

Dragon Ball is one of the most iconic anime and manga franchises of all time, often serving as a gateway into Japanese culture and either medium outside of the country.

Eighty teams will duke it out across six classes for the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship, forty-three of which comprise the FIA categories while the other thirty-seven are in the FIM.

Twenty cars will vie for the Ultimate (formerly T1) title headlined by twice reigning champion Nasser Al-Attiyah, now at Prodrive. Al-Attiyah’s departure means Toyota’s W2RC leader is Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who finished runner-up to Al-Attiyah in 2023, and fellow Hilux driver Juan Cruz Yacopini who placed third. Toyota Gazoo Racing, the defending manufacturer’s champion, will now be represented by Seth Quintero and Lucas Moraes.

Team Audi Sport has also committed to the manufacturer’s title fight with a triumvirate of Mattias Ekström, Stéphane Peterhansel, and Carlos Sainz. With their final season under their current contract set to begin, they hope to go out on top should they ultimately not renew at season’s end. X-raid Team will pitch two Minis piloted by reigning FIA European Baja Cup champion Krzysztof Hołowczyc and Ultimate newcomer Pau Navarro.

Al-Attiyah’s new team-mate and 2022 runner-up Sébastien Loeb, along with his Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, are notably missing from the picture. Loeb has not announced his other plans for 2024 while Prodrive plans to transition to Dacia with Loeb and Al-Attiyah in 2025. Even if they do not sign up for the championship, they will at least take part in the Dakar Rally while Al-Attiyah still has other registered Prodrive allies in Cristian and Marcos Baumgart of X Rally Team.

As he moves to Ultimate, Quintero leaves behind a twelve-person toss-up for the Challenger (formerly T3) title. His fellow Americans Mitch Guthrie and Austin Jones hope to finally claim the championship after losing to Quintero at the final round in 2023. However, they face stiff competition from SSV (T4) graduates Rokas Baciuška and the Goczał family; Baciuška is the twice defending T4 champion, while Eryk Goczał won the Dakar Rally in his début in 2023 and his father Marek Goczał won in the family’s maiden T3 race in Morocco.

Of the storylines that emerged in the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, McLaren F1 Team’s development journey and subsequent resurgence as a podium-contending team is one of this year’s most compelling. 

McLaren had a rocky start to their 2023 season, with early performances indicating that they were in the back half of the field pace-wise. The team went without points for five of the first eight race weekends of the season, with the high-attrition Australian Grand Prix being their best performance before the start of the European leg. 

The Austrian Grand Prix was a major turning point for the team, and the first instance in which we saw their potential to make a comeback from a technical standpoint. McLaren brought a significant upgrade to the floor and side pods of Lando Norris’ MCL60. Norris went on to finish in fourth place, marking the team’s best result of the season up until that point. 

More upgrades came down the pipeline for both cars, and with it came back-to-back podiums for Norris and fourth and fifth place finishes for Oscar Piastri at Silverstone Circuit and the Hungaroring. 

McLaren’s successful technical developments not only brought the team back into points contention, but also pushed their rookie driver Piastri into the spotlight. 

Kamil Wiśniewski will not be able to run the 2024 Dakar Rally due to a knee injury he sustained at the 2023 race, but he hopes to be back in time to run the rest of the World Rally-Raid Championship.

“Normally, at this time, I would be putting the finishing touches before the Dakar Rally. Unfortunately, due to a knee injury I suffered in the previous edition, I reluctantly had to withdraw from the rally in January. The rehabilitation team agreed that the injury would not allow me to complete the Dakar,” explained Wiśniewski. “It’s a difficult decision, but I am focusing on therapy to compete in the remaining World Cup rallies in 2024, which will take place in the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Morocco.”

2023 marked Wiśniewski’s sixth Dakar. Competing in the Quad category, he was running seventh in class when he rolled in Stage #6 and broke two fingers. He also aggravated an ankle injury he suffered while training for the race, which forced him to get surgery in February. His best daily finish was sixth in Stage #3.

Due to the injuries, he did not run any other W2RC races in 2023. He finished third in the inaugural championship the previous year with a pair of podiums among points-eligible riders.

With Dakar out of the picture, his next race will be the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge from 25 February to 2 March. Other rounds on the calendar include the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Transibérico on 2–7 April, the Desafío Ruta 40 on 2–8 June, and the Rallye du Maroc on 5–11 October.

Mike Wiedemann was supposed to run his third Dakar Rally in 2024, but a training accident that resulted in a ruptured Achilles tendon and fractured ankle have forced him to drop those plans. He successfully underwent surgery and hopes to recover for the 2025 edition.

“2023, especially the last few days, were certainly not easy for me,” wrote Wiedemann on Friday. “After my setback at this year’s Dakar, the clear goal was to podium in the marathon classification at the upcoming Dakar in January. My entire life revolved around that one race, every free minute I used to prepare myself as best as possible, and I must say I was probably in the best shape of my life.

“But in a fraction of a second, everything was over… A fall during my Dakar preparation has forced me to my knees. I still had a bit of hope that I could start in two weeks with a few screws in my foot, but due to a more significant foot injury (Achilles tendon rupture, medial malleolus fracture, inner ankle fracture), I will not be able to start at the upcoming Dakar 2024. After a successful surgery, I have to be patient in the coming months. Grateful that I will hopefully be back in the next few months, I look positively into the future and am excited about everything that comes. It is important never to give up, so the Dakar remains my focus and my big goal for 2025!”

Wiedemann was due to compete for the second time in the Original by Motul category; also known as Malle Moto, it is reserved for solo riders without team assistance. He entered the class for 2023 after finishing twenty-sixth in the standard Rally2 category in 2022. Despite a strong start as he won the third stage, his race came undone in bizarre fashion the next day when his fuel cell ruptured, starting a bizarre misadventure that would force him to retire.

The issue caused him to run out of gas until a fellow rider Mathieu Troquier stopped to help. After the fuel provided by Troquier was also exhausted, he encountered RallyGP rider Ross Branch who asked spectators to find more for both of them. Additional mechanical failures forced Wiedemann to disassemble his bike before paying fans to help buy more fuel. While they agreed and supplied what was needed, the bike died for good when water got into the fuel tank.

The fourth annual Dakar Classic, a side event to the main Dakar Rally that focuses on navigation and competing with rally vehicles built prior to 1999, will see a grid of eighty strong. Sixty-five of the entrants are in cars while the other fifteen race trucks.

Juan Morera and his wife Lidia Ruba hope to become the Classic’s first repeat winners as the reigning champions pilot a Porsche 959, switching from a Toyota Land Cruiser. The latter still has plenty of representation such as Carlos Santaolalla and Paolo Bedeschi, who joined Morera on the 2023 podium.

Barbora Holická and Lucie Engová, the latter the sister of ex-Formula One driver Tomáš Enge, will race a 1979 Citroën 2CV affectionately nicknamed “Duckar” for the rubber duck livery and Holická’s duck raising philanthropy. Nine-time Croatian Rally Champion Juraj Šebalj will take part in a Nissan Terrano.

Jorge Pérez Companc arrives at the Dakar with a decorated family pedigree. His father Gregorio was an Argentine entrepreneur and one of the country’s wealthiest businessmen, while his brothers Luis and Pablo have respectively raced in the WRC and sports cars; his son Ezequiel, a GT racer by trade, also has some off-road experience in Extreme E.

Due to the caveat that vehicles must be produced prior to the turn of the millennium, many hold various unusual stories that one will not get from a new car. While most used to contest the original Paris–Dakar Rally or other related rallies, others come from just as unique backgrounds. Ignacio Corcuera, for example, will pilot a Mercedes Unimog 424 that used to be a city-owned snowplow and firefighter training truck before Corcuera turned it into a supply transport truck to Ukraine and eventual rally competitor. Fellow truck racer Alexandre Lemeray‘s MAN L90 will be powered by hydrogen.

The 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship was certainly eventful. Multiple event winners, great on track action, new and classic circuits, an untouchable world champion, and, of course, that fire, all contributed to a season that will live long in the memory. This is your review of all the action from an eventful season broken down team by team.

Special ONE Racing

Special ONE Racing were always going to provide drama in the 2023 season. In our preview of the season, they were the team attracting most attention, partly because of their stunning Lancia Delta Evo-e RX machinery, but also due to their stellar driver line-up. Guerlain Chicherit was partnered with nine-time world rally champion and all-round racing legend Sébastian Loeb, both of whom were eager to be competitive from the start. Chicherit summed up the team’s attitude: “The scene is set to see Special ONE Racing become a top-notch team. From this season, we’ll have the opportunity to make history.”

Their 2023 campaign started very successfully. Loeb successfully made it to the final of the first two rounds in Montalegre, Portugal, and Hell, Norway, with Chicherit carrying on that form in Höljes, Sweden. Loeb in particular demonstrated superb racecraft, battling against Niclas Grönholm in the first major moment of the year. It felt like a maiden podium for the team was within reach. However, it was at round 4 at the birthplace of rallycross, Lydden Hill, UK, where everything went wrong.

The Fire

Just before 8:45am on Friday 21 July, as the teams were getting set up and ready for a thrilling weekend of rallycross action, a fire broke out in Loeb’s car as it was charging. The fire brigade responded swiftly, but the fire had already spread rapidly to Chicherit’s car and the workshop truck. Miraculously, thanks to the fast evacuation by the Special ONE Racing team, there were no injuries.

RX1e racing, the top class of world rallycross, was cancelled for the rest of the weekend, and remained so for the rest of the 2023 while the cause of the fire was investigated. The teams switched to the RX2e class machinery, the very rapid ZEROID X1 cars, for the remaining rounds. No points were awarded for the rounds in Belgium or Germany, with championship action getting underway again for the final rounds in South Africa and Hong Kong.