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 |