In the closest FIA points battle where Yasir Seaidan and Sebastián Guayasamín were separated by just six points, Seaidan’s desert expertise kicked in at the perfect time to secure the SSV championship.
Antanas Kanopkinas battled with Kamil Wiśniewski throughout the Rallye du Maroc, and the former seized on a last-day mechanical failure to score CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team’s first World Rally-Raid Championship race win.
2024 Rallye du Maroc: Souleymane Addahri wins Rally3 on home soil, John Medina ices title
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After finishing third in 2023, Morocco’s Souleymane Addahri topped the Rallye du Maroc in Rally3 while John Medina secured the World Rally-Raid Championship by simply starting the race.
After just two rounds, the 2024/25 Nitrocross calendar—with dates in Phoenix, Miami, and Las Vegas—has been put on hold.
With team-mate Akira Miura competing in the Open class, Ronald Basso was all by himself in the Stock category. It is the first time in World Rally-Raid Championship history that a sanctioned class (excluding Open) had just one vehicle.
The Challenger class at all five stages of the Rallye du Maroc, including the Prologue, was won by a Taurus T3 Max. By the end, Eryk Goczał was leading a 1–2–3–4–5 for Tauruses.
Although the only rider to run every round of the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship and he did not win any of them, Ross Branch’s consistency helped him hold off a Honda onslaught and win the title in the premier bike category.
In the very first race for the Dacia Sandrider, Nasser Al-Attiyah was dominant as he secured his third World Rally-Raid Championship in as many years.
In a race themed around celebrating the Lancia 037, the Porsche 911 of Julien Saunier and Frédéric Vauclare came out on top.
Rokas Baciuška, the newly crowned World Rally-Raid Challenger Champion, heard some rumours suggesting the 2025 Dakar won’t take place due to the wars in the Middle East. It’s the first time fellow Lithuanians Benediktas Vanagas, Antanas Juknevičius and Vaidotas Žala heard the chatter; sentiment holds that while not impossible, it’s just hearsay for now.
Three years after his début, Ukrainian and world land speed record holder Serhii Malyk is looking to race the Dakar Classic again in 2025 with his Renault Kerax D-50. His team will be dubbed Spirit of Ukraine after the electric bike he built for the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2019.
Janey Lee and Kylie Walton, who have been among the iconic Monster Energy Girls since 2015, will make their desert racing débuts at this weekend’s NORRA 500, racing a Can-Am Maverick.
The 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship officially came to a close Friday with the fifth and final leg of the Rallye du Maroc.
Jean-Loup Lepan had a hard fall during Stage 2 of the Rallye du Maroc, resulting in multiple fractures and haemopneumothorax that required intensive care. He was brought home to France on Friday.
Rebellion Spierings, a new partnership between Dakar Team Spierings and Rebellion Racing, will race the Taurus T3 Max in the Challenger class at Dakar 2025 with team owners Alexandre Pesci and Paul Spierings.
Good friends Ottavio Missoni and Cesare Zacchetti will join forces again at the 2025 Dakar Rally, racing Kove 450 Rally EX bikes in the Original by Motul class.
Like many of his classmates, Juraj Varga has made the switch from Quads to SSVs after their category’s Dakar Rally demise. Varga hopes to be the first Slovak to race the Dakar in two different classes, but to get there, his focus first will be on European rallies.
