Mikolaj Krysik making SSV driving debut at Baja Poland

Mikołaj Krysik is the latest Quad rider to join the SSV party as he makes his début in the class at this weekend’s Baja Poland. He will race a Can-Am Maverick X3, classified in the Polish Cross-Country Rally Championship.

Krysik is no stranger to side-by-side vehicles, but has otherwise competed primarily on a quad. This included entering the class in races like the Fenix Rally and Tunisia Desert Challenge in Tunisia, and the World Rally-Raid Championship’s 2022 Andalucía Rally and 2024 BP Ultimate Rally-Raid on a Yamaha Raptor 700. He finished fourth in Quads in Andalucía, his maiden start in the championship, followed by a seventh in Portugal.

He scored his maiden W2RC stage win on the fourth leg of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, bouncing back after a broken suspension and rollover in Stage #1. Krysik and his fellow Quad competitors were informed of the Amaury Sport Organisation’s decision to drop their class from the Dakar Rally starting in 2025; although Krysik has never raced the Dakar, the news means he would have to race another vehicle if he wanted to take part.

SSV was the natural next step for him, which he described as “something exciting and above all, future-proof.”

In Friday’s Baja Poland Prologue stage, he finished nineteenth overall and thirteenth among SSVs competing for the national championship. Dominik Jazik is serving as his co-driver.

Many Quad riders have also made the switch to an FIA category with particular focus on SSVs. Manuel Andújar, winner of the final Dakar for Quads and the newly crowned World Rally-Raid Champion in the class, plans to race the 2025 Dakar Rally in an SSV, while Juraj Varga ran the Hungarian Baja in early August in one of his own. Others to migrate to SSVs in recent months include Pablo Copetti and Rodolfo Guillioli, while 2023 Quad champion Laisvydas Kancius is now a co-driver in the Ultimate category.

Besides being part of the Polish Championship (Rajdowe Mistrzostwa Polski Samochodów Terenowych), Baja Poland is the fourth round of the FIA World Baja Cup.