2024 Rallye du Maroc: Ford Raptor, Maverick R solid as Experimental cars

For those not competing for the World Rally-Raid Championship, the Rallye du Maroc is often a final practice before the following year’s Dakar Rally. While this usually includes drivers with new teams or in different classes, Morocco is also a testing ground for manufacturers who have new vehicles for Dakar.

M-Sport and Ford Performance arrived in Morocco with their much anticipated Ford Raptor T1+, while South Racing Can-Am brought the highly anticipated Can-Am Maverick R. Neither have been homologated by the FIA, a process that won’t be completed until 2025, meaning they were deemed “Experimental” cars and are ineligible for the race win.

Even if they could not win win any trophies, both parties left the race satisfied with how their machines fared in racing conditions.

The Ford Raptor T1+, revealed in July as the successor to the Ford Ranger T1+, had won in its competition début at the Hungarian Baja in August. Reigning Dakar winner Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström, both coming over from Audi, continued to show off its pace as the former was third quickest in the Prologue among all FIA cars before both placed top five in Stage #1.

However, “an issue with the data” in the engine prompted Sainz to sit out the second leg; Ekström, meanwhile, was eleventh. Sainz rejoind the race for Stage #3 and continued to impress with a third before setting the fastest time outright in Stage #4. The fifth and final day saw Sainz place fifth while Ekström retired after hitting a hole, though neither driver officially set a time in Stage #5.

Ekström’s total time of 12:45:54 through the first four legs would have ranked him twelfth overall.

“It’s clear to me that things are going in the right direction,” said Sainz. “The stage win this week was very emotional for the whole team.”

Meanwhile, the Maverick R quickly established why it is touted as the most powerful UTV on the market since its reveal in August 2023. Maverick Rs were quicker than the SSV stage winner in all five stages, with Francisco López Contardo being faster than Yasir Seaidan by over twelve minutes in Stage #2. Hunter Miller and López were also the only SSVs to record a Stage #3 time under four hours.

López is a three-time Dakar Rally champion with two in the Challenger class, but was willing to drop down to SSV to drive the Maverick R. Manuel Andújar, the reigning Dakar Quad winner and newly crowned World Rally-Raid Champion in the class, notched a stage win of his own on the last day. Both drivers’ final times were faster than everyone in the SSV category by over an hour.

While the Maverick R was impressive, it was not an entirely clean run for the line. Erik Van Loon was among the retirements due to an engine failure on the last stage, which came two days after a fuel pump issue struck. Van Loon had débuted South’s model at the Morocco Desert Challenge, where he was dominant until exiting with a mechanical failure.

Still, he noted that “we enjoyed the Can-Am. It is a good car that can do nice things at Dakar.”

Experimental overall results

Car (after 4 stages)

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	220	Mattias Ekström*	Emil Bergkvist	Ford M-Sport	12:45:54	Leader
2	203	Carlos Sainz*	Lucas Cruz	Ford M-Sport	31:07:30	+ 18:21:36

* – Not competing for World Rally-Raid Championship points

UTV

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	406	Francisco López Contardo*	Sebastian Cesana	Can-Am Factory Team	16:05:07	Leader
2	416	Manuel Andújar*	Bernardo Graue	South Racing Can-Am	16:49:46	+ 44:39
3	410	Christian Lavieille*	Valentin Sarreaud	BTR Racing Team	19:47:15	+ 3:42:08
4	415	Hunter Miller*	Andrew Short	Can-Am Factory Team	20:10:12	+ 4:05:05
5	428	Benoit Lepietre*	Rodrigue Relmy-Madinska	BTR Racing Team	39:50:42	+ 23:45:35
DNF	409	Erik Van Loon*	Henrie Verschuuren	South Racing Can-Am	DNF	N/A
DNF	429	Roger Grouwels*	Jan Pieter van der Stelt	QFF Adventures	DNF	N/A

Experimental stage winners

Stage	Car	Time	UTV	Time
Prologue	Carlos Sainz*	17:28.0	Francisco López Contardo*	18:40.8
Stage #1	Carlos Sainz*	2:12:42	Francisco López Contardo*	2:27:32
Stage #2	Mattias Ekström*	3:18:36	Francisco López Contardo*	3:21:12
Stage #3	Carlos Sainz*	3:20:43	Hunter Miller*	3:53:11
Stage #4	Carlos Sainz*	3:04:05	Francisco López Contardo*	3:30:06
Stage #5	No Starters	N/A	Manuel Andújar*	2:48:09