Guillaume de Mévius and Guerlain Chicherit surprised the rally world when they opted to leave Overdrive Racing for X-raid Team, but with the unveil of the new Mini JCW Rally 3.0i, they think it’ll give them their best chances at winning.
Like many teams, Buggyra ZM Racing will use the Rallye du Maroc as a dress rehearsal for the 2025 Dakar Rally. Martin Šoltys and Karel Poslední will respectievly drive a Tatra Buggyra EVO3 and Tatra Phoenix.
The fledgling Defender Rally Series has picked up its most notable driver to date when Petter Solberg makes his début at the Clare Forestry Rally in October. It will be his first Irish rally since the WRC’s 2007 Rally Ireland.
Continuing his trend of naming his trucks, Martin Macík Jr.’s 2025 Dakar Rally challenger has been dubbed Benny the Big Guy (or Bohouš in Czech). It will make its début at the Rallye du Maroc.
Despite historic and deadly flooding, race director David Castéra is confident that his team will adjust accordingly in the 2 weeks before the Rallye du Maroc, as they did during COVID and last year’s earthquake.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will host two 20-minute races for historic open-wheelers like Sébastien Bourdais’ 2005 winner and Mario Andretti’s 1977 United States Grand Prix West-winning Lotus.
126 FIA entries (43 Ultimate, 39 Challenger, 36 SSV, 1 Stock, 7 Truck), 136 FIM (12 RallyGP, 112 Rally2, 8 Rally3, 4 Quad), and 9 Open cars make up the grid for the final race of the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship.
Ndoki Racing Team, based in the capital city of Kinshasa, will be the first team from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to compete in the World Rally-Raid Championship, doing so in partnership with Belgian team BRT. They will field a Can-Am Maverick for Belgians racers Michaël Devos and Xavier Hottelet.
Among GRallyTeam’s four teams for the Rallye du Maroc are a pair of former FIM Dakar Rally winners as 2× Quad winner Alexandre Giroud will race an OT3 as a driver while 2023 Malle Moto victor Charan Moore is the navigator of another driven by Puck Klaassen.
2023 Truck winner Janus van Kasteren will not return to the Dakar Rally in 2025, but plans to do so in a car at the 2026 edition.
Breaking away from diesel engines, the new Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0i will use a 6-cylinder in-line petrol motor that produces 263 kW of power and 570 Nm of torque.
In a survey conducted following the Baja Greece in May, most competitors want it on both the FIA World and European Baja Cup calendars over one or the other, while also preferring the Selective Sections to either be shorter or are happy with the final length.
Christian Lavieille, a veteran of the premier classes, will hop into a side-by-side in Morocco when he drives the new Can-Am Maverick R prepared by BTR.
Now retired from the Dakar Rally, Erik Van Loon will race the Dakar Classic for the first time in 2025 in an Audi S1. Before that, he will test his new ride in Morocco, then take over South Racing’s new Can-Am Maverick R at the Rallye du Maroc.
After three Dakar Rallies and a Malle Moto win, Charan Moore will be doing something else in 2025.
In a surprise development, Guillaume de Mévius has left Overdrive Racing and signed with X-raid Team to drive a Mini JCW Rally Plus, Overdrive boss Jean-Marc Fortin told Auto Hebdo.
After running the last nine Dakar Rallies in a car, Vaidotas Žala will make the switch to a truck in 2025 when he races an IVECO for Team de Rooy.
