2024 Dakar Rally: 47 approved for Dakar Experience

Seth Quintero‘s hopes of winning the 2024 Dakar Rally went up in smoke when an oil pipe broke during Stage #4. Fortunately, his Dakar is technically not over as he and forty-six others have been approved for the Dakar Experience, which will allow them to contest the rest of the race even if they are classified at the bottom of the order with significant time penalties.

When a competitor is forced to retire from a stage, they can either drop out entirely and head home or receive a second chance to continue under the Dakar Experience. This relegates them to what is effectively a last-place finish in the final results, but lets them still take part so long as their vehicle is able to keep going. They only have one restart, meaning another stage retirement during the Rally’s second half takes them out altogether; however, they can rejoin if the exit was due to injury and they are cleared to race.

Dakar Experience racers are required to have an orange filter on their number plate to separate them from those in contention. They can still compete for stage wins, though victories will not impact their standing in the overall; Quintero perhaps best exemplified this in 2022 when he was relegated to the Experience after just the second stage but went on to win every stage the rest of the way. Once they complete the final stage, they will not be allowed to stand on the podium like other finishers but may instead pass below a titled arch.

Quintero is one of eleven cars in the top Ultimate category who are in the Dakar Experience, with other notable faces including Krzysztof Hołowczyc and Brian Baragwanath. Hołowczyc was involved in a bizarre accident with Kris Meeke during the Chrono Stage on Thursday that knocked the latter out of the race with terminal damage, rendering him unable to enter the Dakar Experience, while Baragwanath was sidelined for the third and fourth legs as he waited for new front suspension parts to arrive from South Africa.

Silvio Totani made headlines when he used his Nissan Patrol to pull the overturned truck of Richard de Groot in Stage #5, but he suffered a radiator issue shortly after completing the stage that forced him to skip the Chrono Stage.

Seven are Challenger entries such as Glenn Brinkman and Ignacio Casale, the latter forced to retire from the third day while. Six are production-based cars in the SSV category like Juan Font and Maha Al-Hamali. Al-Hamali rolled shortly before completing the Chrono Stage.

The Trucks feature the most entries in the Experience with sixteen. Four are T5.1 entries that intended to compete for the win, whereas the others are mostly assistance and support vehicles in the T5.2 subcategory.

Five bikes and a quad are taking part. The lone Quad entry Samuel Desbuisson is also the only FIM rider in the Experience who is earning World Rally-Raid Championship points. Bike racer Jacob Argubright was forced to bow out with a mechanical issue, while Sunier sacrificed his oil line to Kove team-mate Mason Klein during Stage #3.

Klein retired on Friday, but would not have been allowed to enter the Dakar Experience as RallyGP riders are forbidden from restarting the race after exiting a stage.

Dakar Experience competitors

Ultimate (T1)

Number	Driver	Team
216	Seth Quintero	Toyota Gazoo Racing
217	Krzysztof Hołowczyc	X-raid Mini JCW Team
219	Brian Baragwanath	Century Racing
232	Pascal Thomasse	MD Rallye Sport
242	Marcos Baumgart	X Rally Team
244	Jean-Pierre Strugo	MD Rallye Sport
246	Frédéric Chesneau	Skybox Rally-Raid
247	Michel Kremer	Coronel Dakar Team
253	Philippe Boutron	Sodicars Racing
269	Antoine Delaporte	Off Road Concept
271	Silvio Totani	Motortechnica Racing Team

Stock (T2)

Number	Driver	Team
503	Ibrahim Almuhna	Ibrahim Almuhna

Challenger (T3)

Number	Driver	Team
309	Ignacio Casale	X-raid Yamaha Supported Team
326	Glenn Brinkman	PH Sport
334	Pál Lónyai	X-raid Yamaha Supported Team
343	Gunter Hinkelmann	BBR Motorsport
346	Manuel Plaza Pérez	Sodicars Racing
349	Antonio Garcia Coma	ASM Motorsport
351	Edwin Opstelten	Gaia Motorsports

SSV (T4)

Number	Driver	Team
412	Juan Miguel Medero	Sodicars Racing
430	Grzegorz Brochocki	Overlimit
431	Jose Vidaña	Pedrega Team
432	Maha Al-Hamali	RX Team
438	Juan Font	Scuderia Ramilo Rodamoto
441	Rafa Muñoz Cámara	Pedrega Team

Truck (T5)

Number	Driver	Team
613	Vaidotas Paškevičius	Fesh Fesh Team
614	Egbert Wingens	Team Boucou Assistance
619	Albert Llovera	Fesh Fesh Team
624	Steven Rotsaert	RTS Racing (Overdrive Racing)
627	Jérémie Demarty	Team Boucou Assistance
636	Cesare Rickler	TH-Trucks Team
638	Didier Monseu	Bahrain Raid Xtreme
639	Manuel Borrero	Tibau Team (YunXiang Racing)
640	Norbert Szalai	Team SSP
641	Zsolt Darazsi	Team SSP
642	Alberto Romero	TH-Trucks Team (Sodicars Racing)
643	Dusan Randysek	Team SSP
644	Francesc Ester Fernandez	TH-Trucks Team
645	Marco Piana	Xtremeplus
646	Sébastien Fargeas	Team Boucou Assistance
651	Ahmed Benbekhti	STA Competition (Rebellion Racing)

Bike

Number	Rider	Team
21	Jacob Argubright	DUUST Rally Team
45	Sunier	Kove Moto
56	Zakeer Yakefu	Wu Pu Da Hai Dao Rally Team
63	Jaromír Romančík	Orion – Moto Racing Group
109	Mohamed Aoulad Ali	Club Aventura Touareg

Quad

Number	Rider	Team
178	Samuel Desbuisson	Drag’on Rally Team