João Ferreira has formally thrown his hat into the ring for the T3 World Rally-Raid Championship. He was already eligible for the championship but confirmed his involvement for the rest of the schedule on Wednesday, continuing to race for X-raid Team with Filipe Palmeiro as co-driver.
The reigning FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas champion, Ferreira’s 2023 began on a high note when he won Stage #8 at the Dakar Rally; he was the first racer to win an FIA class for Yamaha at Dakar. Ferreira also recorded podiums in Stages #4 and #11. Howver, his Dakar début was also plagued by various stage exits, which dropped him to thirty-seventh in the T3 overall by the end of the Rally. Nevertheless, he sits sixth in the T3 standings.
Ferreira wrote on social media, “After a positive participation in @dakarrally, where among those registered in @officialw2rc we achieved a 6th place, we decided to go on to the next adventure! We will participate, full time, in the World Rally-Raid Championship, driving the X-RAID YXZ1000R TURBO PROTOTYPE SXS always with the support of the X-Raid Yamaha Supported Team.”
Stage #11 was a watershed moment for X-raid Team as they swept the T3 podium with Ricardo Porém ahead of Ferreira and Ignacio Casale. Ferreira eventually skipped the next day’s race due to repairs that required the help of his team, which was not available for Stages #11 and #12 as marathon legs, but his team-mates made up for him as Casale finished tenth in class overall and Porém twelfth.
Despite their strong runs, Casale and Porém did not declare for the W2RC. X-raid’s other Yamahas, including fellow finishers Ahmed Alkuwari Fahad (seventeenth overall) and Camelia Liparoti (thirty-fifth), are also Dakar-only entries.
The next race will be the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, which begins 28 February.
