Manuel Andujar set for SSV debut as Yacopini’s co-driver

With his Quad career now in the books, Manuel Andújar is already set to try his hand at a new category when he enters the Rally Raid San Juan on 28–30 June. He will be the co-driver of a Can-Am Maverick piloted by fellow World Rally-Raid Championship competitor Juan Cruz Yacopini. Campeones reported the news on Tuesday.

The start comes four weeks after Andújar clinched the W2RC’s Quad title in his native Argentina when he dominated the Desafío Ruta 40. Although the season still has one more round in Morocco, he will not be there: besides having already secured the championship, the Rallye du Maroc is often used as a dress rehearsal for the Dakar Rally, which is pointless for him as the race has dropped the Quads for 2025.

Andújar won the category’s final Dakar in January. During the race, he and Yacopini, the latter racing a Toyota Hilux Overdrive in the premier Ultimate class, began to make plans about racing together. This proved difficult at the moment as neither had any openings, but they found one in June after the DR 40. The Rally Raid San Juan is the third round of Campeonato Argentino de Rally Raid (CaNav Rally Raid), the premier cross-country rally series in Argentina.

He initially considered taking a sabbatical from rally raid following the DR 40, including skipping the 2025 Dakar Rally, to settle down and get his plans sorted out. With a switch to SSV locked in, however, it opens the door to a full-time commitment in the class should he wishes and is able.

SSVs are typically the first vehicle that former Quad riders take on after leaving the FIM side. Former Dakar Quad winners Josef Macháček, Ignacio Casale, and Sergei Kariakin all race side-by-sides today, while 2023 W2RC Quad runner-up Rodolfo Guillioli was at the 2024 race as the navigator of one. Pablo Copetti will drive an SSV at next year’s Dakar, while Laisvydas Kancius, who beat Guillioli for the 2023 title, will be the navigator for Gintas Petrus in Ultimate.