Polaris RZR Pro R Factory to tackle 2024 Dakar Rally with Sebastien Loeb Racing

Polaris Factory Racing could not have asked for a better maiden season in 2023 when they swept the Pro UTV Open class across all four SCORE International World Desert Championship races, including the legendary Baja 1000. In January, their Polaris RZR Pro R Factory will be put to the test in the deserts of Saudi Arabia when Sébastien Loeb Racing‘s Xavier de Soultrait and Florent Vayssade race the 2024 Dakar Rally. Both entries are in the SSV class (formerly T4) for production UTVs.

As the name suggests, the RZR Pro R Factory was developed by Polaris in house strictly for fielding a desert racing works programme, built from the ground up rather than simply being based on its Pro R predecessor. The engine is a two-litre, four-cylinder Polaris ProStar Fury 2.0 model that produces 225 horsepower, sitting inside a tubular chassis lighter but stronger than the Pro R which complies with both SCORE and FIA regulations. It also uses FOX 3.0 Live Valve X2 internal bypass shocks, whose compression and rebound damping can be independently adjusted.

While already touted as one of the top UTVs for desert motorsport, various modifications have been made to meet the demands of rally raid. The Dakar models have heated glass windshields, unlike their American counterparts which don’t use them at all, as well as wipers and a blower kit. Additional storage space has also been added for tools and spare parts.

“Our success with the Polaris Factory Racing team during its first season in the SCORE Baja racing series, capped off with a coveted Baja 1000 victory, was unprecedented and prodigious, but Dakar is an entirely different beast,” said Polaris Factory Racing technical director Alex Scheuerell. “That said, Sébastien Loeb Racing is a finely tuned programme with an enormous level of experience at Dakar and together, we couldn’t be more excited to put the RZR Pro R Factory to an entirely new test.

“Our incredible design and engineering teams have continued to refine and develop the RZR Pro R Factory platform specifically for international rally racing and the unique demands it places on both drivers and vehicles. We are excited to take on this incredible challenge with the combined power of Polaris engineering and our incredible partners at SLR.”

The factory team’s début SCORE campaign began with principal Craig Scanlon winning the Pro UTV Open class at the season-opening San Felipe 250. Brock Heger, a short course star, set the best time among all UTVs regardless of category at the Baja 500 and repeated the feat at the Baja 400. Cayden MacCachren, whose father Rob is one of the greatest off-road racers of all time, was the top UTV at the Baja 1000. Heger’s two wins boosted him to the Pro UTV Open championship.

In the rally world, Sébastien Loeb Racing is entering the second of a five-year factory partnership with Polaris. Soultrait, the 2016 FIM Bajas World Cup champion, previously competed at Dakar on a bike switching to four wheels in 2023 and finishing nineteenth in T4 with SLR. Vayssade, another bike-to-SSV migrant, finished tenth in class at the 2023 Dakar Rally for rival Can-Am. SLR’s namesake owner will race at Dakar in the Ultimate (T1) category.

“It’s a 100% French team, so it’s always easier to communicate,” Vayssade remarked. “Xavier and Martin (Bonnet, Soultrait’s co-driver) both come from the motorcycle world, so we’ve known each other for a while, and naturally, we get along really well. We didn’t know the members of Sébastien Loeb Racing’s team; they have a great racing philosophy due to their experience. It was a great discovery. This year, everything is done to perform with all the resources in place. It won’t just be about finishing the Dakar; we’ll have to perform and evolve. We would like to place a car in the top five, maybe on the podium, to get people talking about Polaris and the Loeb team.”

Besides SLR, TH-Trucks Team and Xtremeplus will also field Polaris ZR Pro Rs in the SSV category at Dakar. The former has three cars entered for Enrico Gaspari, Daniel Gonzalez Reina, and Domingo Román while Xtremeplus is represented by Michele Cinotto, Shinsuke Umeda, and Jorge Waghenführ. Umeda was the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship T4 runner-up. The category has typically been dominated by Can-Ams, a stranglehold that Polaris hopes to break in 2024; compared to the eight Pro Rs, there are twenty-eight T4 Can-Am Mavericks.

The 2024 Dakar Rally begins on 5 January.