Seth Quintero records South Racing’s first U.S. win at Vegas to Reno

South Racing Can-Am is one of the top international rally raid UTV teams, but was never able to stand on the top step of the podium in the United States. That finally changed when Seth Quintero won the UTV Turbo Pro class at the Vegas to Reno with the best time among all UTVs.

Quintero set a time of 9:33:26, beating the UTV Trophy Unlimited Polaris of Mitch Guthrie. Although both are with different manufacturers for their American racing programmes, they are team-mates for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team that compete in the World Rally-Raid Championship’s T3 category; Guthrie won the most recent leg in Sonora. Racing with his father Aaron as co-driver, Quintero started at the back in thirty-eighth but his Can-Am Maverick “worked like a charm all day long.”

His time was good for eleventh overall of all entries and just seven minutes behind the Class 6100 car of Justin Blower. Race winner and Trick Truck driver Ryan Arciero scored his third straight V2R triumph with forty-one minutes on Quintero.

Austin Jones, the W2RC T3 points leader and fellow Red Bull driver who won the Dakar Rally ahead of Quintero, finished sixth in UTV Turbo Pro after suffering a rear hub and axle failure in the final 125 miles. Jones has a one-point edge over Quintero that he hopes to expand this weekend at the W2RC’s Desafío Ruta 40.

The V2R was plagued by scoring issues due to penalties and time credits that were not given out until Thursday, nearly a week after the race took place. Such penalties included Danny Cooper losing the overall bike win to Hayden Hintz while Corey Goin won the 1000 Limited Car class instead of Peter Hajas, though driver protests have prompted further review.

Class winners