Christine GZ making Dakar Rally debut in 2024

Christine GZ is heading to the Dakar Rally in 2024, where she will pilot the #429 Can-Am Maverick in the SSV class (formerly known as T4). Ricardo Torlaschi will serve as her navigator in his twelfth start.

“So thankful, so excited, can’t even explain the cramps in the stomach lately,” wrote GZ on Thursday. “So much work, so much effort, finally here. Soon we will let you know more.”

GZ is a Can-Am Off-Road Ambassador who has competed in cross-country rallies since 2018. She finished twelfth overall at the 2019 Sonora Rally and fifth among Road to Dakar entrants, where winners would have earned free registration for the Dakar Rally; Sonora is a former round of the World Rally-Raid Championship. Sonora was not her only experience in Mexico as she also ran that year’s Baja 1000, placing seventh in the Pro UTV FI class with Torlaschi as co-driver.

She has also regularly raced in the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship, finishing second in the 2021 T1N points battle.

Outside of cross-country, she competes in traditional rally.

GZ has also raced in Extreme E since the inaugural season in 2021; she began the 2023 season with Carl Cox Motorsport, with whom she scored her best career finish of third at the first Hydro X Prix in May before departing the team in July to focus on rally raid. She will join fellow Can-Am driver Sara Price in being female Extreme E alumni making their Dakar débuts in the SSV category. Eight other XE drivers have competed at Dakar: Nasser Al-Attiyah, Mattias Ekström, Cristina Gutiérrez, Jutta Kleinschmidt, Sébastien Loeb, Carlos Sainz, Laia Sanz, and Molly Taylor; Al-Attiyah, Ekström, Gutiérrez, Loeb, Sainz, and Sanz are also taking part in the 2024 race.

Torlaschi was the co-driver for the SSV of Sebastián Guayasamín at the 2023 Dakar Rally before joining Xtremeplus for the final two rounds of the W2RC.

The 2024 Dakar Rally begins on 5 January.