On 15 October, during a break at the Rallye du Maroc, two-time reigning Dakar Rally winner Austin Jones fielded some questions from The Checkered Flag via Cross-Country Rally News about his chase for the World Rally-Raid Championship along with his opinions on the rally raid scene and 2024 season.
The full transcript of the interview is available below. Some text has been altered from the actual dialogue to improve readability.
An article on the interview can be read here.
Transcript
TCF: Going into Morocco, there are about nine points separating you, Seth Quintero, and Mitch Guthrie, with you and Mitch being separated by just three points. How difficult has the championship been for you, especially racing against your fellow American Red Bull drivers this year?
AJ: This year, it’s been really hard. I’m going up against Seth and Mitch and we’re all really fast and those guys have had really good years as well, so it’s been really hard. We’ve been lucky enough to podium every single race this year, so that’s something that I don’t think anyone has done besides for us. Really happy with that. Yeah, it’s been a hard year. Every stage matters, every day matters, every kilometre matters. It’s been hard.
TCF: You came from a background in mostly American desert racing such as SCORE and Best In The Desert. How have racing these disciplines helped develop you into the driver are today, especially in rally raid?
AJ: I would say that American desert racing has helped me in the cross-country setting in a couple of ways. It’s just good practice no matter what to always have kilometres and kilometres, as much driving as possible is only going to be better for you.
I think that I’m very good in the stones and in the rocks with tyre management because of racing in places like Baja and some places in the United States. We have refrigerator-sized rocks over there, so I’m very used to that. Not a lot of dunes over there, so definitely that’s kind of harder coming from America and Mexico. I would think that just overall driving ability, kilometres under the belt, it helps.
TCF: How important has Gustavo Gugelmin been as your co-driver?
AJ: Gustavo’s been super important. In rally raid, your navigator is as important as the driver is, so I think we make a really good team. He’s been riding with me for I think four years, almost five years now, so we’ve got a really good system down. We got a good flow. Going on with him calling notes and me reacting to his stuff. He’s a great mechanic. That’s been huge because when something happens or we need to get out of the car and break out the tools, I can always count on Gustavo to be able to diagnose and fix the situation. So Gustavo’s huge. He’s been a huge help and you know we make a really good team. We’ve got a pretty sweet Dakar record. We’ve done three Dakars together, two wins and one second place, so I think that it’s working out well together for sure.
TCF: You’re making a name for yourself competing mostly in side-by-sides like in T4 and T3. What are your plans for the future? Like do you plan on racing in T1 in the future?
AJ: For the future, T1 racing, that would be awesome. For right now, I’m very happy where I’m at with Can-Am. They take very good care of me, the team is taking very good care of me, so for the time being I’m good, but I’m always open for new opportunities and new offers from anybody if you’re watching this. [laughs]
But yeah, I’m always ready for anything. We’ll see what the future holds. I can’t call it right now.
TCF: What are your thoughts on next year’s Dakar Rally route?
AJ: The Dakar 2024 route seems tough, like always. I’m sure it’s going to be harder than the first couple that we’ve done over there. Every year that I’ve gone, it always gets harder and harder. This year I saw they had the 48-hour Chrono Stage in the dunes, so that looks pretty crazy. I’m not 100% sure how that’s going to work, but I’m excited to go try it out and we’ll see how it goes.
Excited to get over there to Saudi Arabia. I love that desert over there and I love racing over there. It’s beautiful. We’ll go over there and we’ll go for three in a row. It’ll be tough, but I’m excited to go try.
TCF: To build on the last question, what are your thoughts on the World Championship schedule next year? Most of it is the same from this year, but there’s going to be a new rally on the Iberian Peninsula but you lose Sonora. What are your overall thoughts on that?
AJ: The 2024 championship calendar, I’m super excited for. It’s pretty much the same besides for the trans-European rally, the one that starts in Portugal and ends in Spain. I’m really excited for this. I think this will be really fun. Portugal is about my favorite place, my favorite country to travel to, so really excited to have a race back there. Abu Dhabi is always fun, here in Morocco is always challenging. I forget how hard it is every year that I come here, but yeah, all the races look really good. Argentina was fun too, so I’m excited for the year and we’re just going to take it one race at a time, just like this here.
