Christian Lavieille will be among the first drivers to pilot the FIA-spec Can-Am Maverick R at the Rallye du Maroc in October. BTR Racing Team will prepare the car while Valentin Sarreaud remains as co-driver.
Lavieille typically races in the premier Ultimate class, most recently finishing twelfth overall at the Dakar Rally in an MD Optimus. Morocco will be his first World Rally-Raid Championship start outside of Dakar.
The Maverick R has been taking the off-road world by storm since its reveal in August 2023. After enjoying immediate success in North American desert racing, the side-by-side has been seeing increased use in international cross-country rally. With FIA homologation not yet complete, most of its entries in the discipline have been in national rallies.
In June, the Maverick R made its W2RC début at the Desafío Ruta 40. As it was still not approved for competition in the regular SSV class, Jeremías González Ferioli instead won in the Open Cars category. A Maverick R also contested the Silk Way Rally the following month, while three-time Dakar winner Francisco López Contardo plans to race one at the 2025 Dakar.
South Racing Can-Am unveiled their FIA-spec Maverick R last Tuesday, which they plan to field at the Rallye du Maroc for drivers like Erik Van Loon. Van Loon had raced a prototype Maverick R from South at the Morocco Desert Challenge in April, where he dominated before retiring with a late mechanical snag.
Morocco will also be the site of the Can-Am Trophy Maroc on 17–24 November. Lavieille will be leading the event in partnership with Bombardier Recreational Products’ European division.
BTR recently fielded two Maverick Rs for Grégory Lefort and Vadim Malapelle at the 24 Hours TT of Paris; Lefort set the fastest total time of the sixty-eight entrants. At the 2024 Dakar, the team fielded Can-Ams for Benoit Lepietre and William Grarre, where the former finished twenty-third in SSV while the latter retired, and provided support for the Century CR6 of Frédéric Chesneau, who also did not finish.
The Rallye du Maroc is scheduled for 6–11 October.