Dacia and X-Raid Mini will debut new cars when the 2024 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) reaches its conclusion with the Rallye du Maroc on October 4-11.
Of the staggering 125 entrants across the Ultimate, Challenger, SSV and Stock categories, 33 are registered for points in the W2RC.
Dacia has been developing the Sandrider in conjunction with the Renault Group and Prodrive for several months away from the spotlight of international competition and W2RC Championship leader Nasser Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Edouard Boulanger will spearhead the team’s three-car challenge over a Prologue and five desert special stages in North Africa.
The Spanish duo of Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno and nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin will crew the other two cars but are not registered for the W2RC. Al-Attiyah is attempting to win the W2RC Drivers’ Championship for a third successive season and will be aiming to defend a 25-point lead on the final round.
The Sandrider took inspiration from the Dacia Manifesto concept car, runs on synthetic fuel made by Aramco and is powered by a three-litre, V6 twin-turbo engine.
X-Raid, meanwhile, will debut the new Mini JCW Rally 3.0i in Morocco. This is the first petrol-powered car to be developed by the Trebur-based operation and uses the RS24 engine that has been tested extensively in Germany, France, Poland, Spain and Morocco since June.
As Team Principal of the X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Team Sven Quandt explained: “For many years, we have fielded the Mini with a diesel engine and we have been very successful with BMW diesel engines and won the Dakar Rally six times. Our development teams have spent the last nine months working on the high-performance turbo petrol engine with Alpina.”
French driver Guerlain Chicherit worked with X-Raid on the developing of the original Mini All4 Racing back in the days of the Dakar in South America and he and Alex Winocq will crew the new machine. He said: “My career started with X-Raid in the BMW X3 CC. We tested and developed many vehicles together. I have learnt a lot in recent years and now I am back again.”
Belgian driver Guillaume de Mévius announced a couple of weeks before the event that he had left Overdrive Racing and signed a multi-year deal with the X-Raid team and he lines up in North Africa with defending championship-winning co-driver Mathieu Baumel in a diesel version of the Mini JCW Rally. The Portuguese pairing of João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro crew a second diesel-engined Mini.
Toyota is set to field nine Hiluxes with Overdrive Racing providing full support for the entrants. Yazeed Al-Rajhi is Al-Attiyah’s closest title challenger and the Saudi teams up with German navigator Timo Gottschalk in a bid to upstage the Qatari and win the W2RC for the first time. Al-Rajhi won in Morocco last season.
Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes is chasing a top three finish in the Drivers’ Championship and he lines up in one of two Toyota Gazoo Racing DKR Hiluxes with co-driver Armand Monleón. Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz crew the second TGR Toyota. Toyota Gazoo Racing currently leads Nasser Racing by Prodrive by 30 points in the W2RC Manufacturers’ Championship.
Overdrive Racing is also running Toyotas for Juan Cruz Yacopini, Denis Krotov, Martin Kaczmarski and Hernan Garces, while the Mintimes Yunxang Rally Team fields two Chinese machines for Guoyu Zhang and Yicheng Wang.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz is a four-time winner of the Dakar Rally and holds fourth position in the W2RC Drivers’ Championship. He and co-driver Lucas Cruz will crew the latest version of M-Sport Ford’s new Raptor in a team where Mattias Ekström will drive a second car alongside co-driver Emil Berkvist. These crews won’t score any point in the W2RC, as they drive vehicles complying with the 2025 technical regulations.
Other drivers aiming for Ultimate category success include the Czech veteran Martin Prokop (Ford Raptor RS), Marcos Baumgart (Prodrive Hunter), Mathieu Serradori (Century CR7-T), Eugenio Amos (MD Optimus) and Pau Navarro (Ford Ranger).
Baciuška on the verge of W2RC Challenger glory
Eleven of the 38 entrants in the Challenger category are registered for W2RC points but the Can-Am Factory Team’s Rokas Baciuška is a handful of points away from clinching the W2RC Championship. The Lithuanian arrives in Morocco with a massive 43-point advantage in the standings and teams up with Spanish navigator Oriol Vidal on this occasion.
Nicolas Cavigliasso of Argentina is the only rival with a mathematical chance of preventing Baciuška from securing the title and he teams up with Valentina Pertegarini in the first of a quartet of Taurus T3 Max machines chasing championship points.
Marcelo Gastaldi and Dania Akeel are realistically chasing third place in the championship in their Taurus T3s where they also face the likes of Mitch Guthrie and the highly-competitive Polish trio of Eryk, Marek and Michal Goczal in their Energylandia Rally Team machines.
Series leader Guayasamin tops bumper SSV field
Six of the 36 SSV entrants are registered for the W2RC and all of the title contenders are present in North Africa.
Ecuador’s Sebastian Guayasamin currently holds a six-point cushion over Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Saeidan (Can-Am) in the Drivers’ Championship. The BE Racing Can-Am Maverick driver again teams up with Argentine navigator Fernando Acosta who holds second in the co-drivers’ title race behind Portugal’s Fausto Mota.
Four drivers could possibly snatch the title on the final round: Spaniard Ricardo Ramilo is third in the standings and only 14 points adrift of Saeidan, while Rebecca Busi is fourth and a maximum points’ score could see the Italian topping the standings after the last event.
Other W2RC-registered contenders include the fifth-placed Italian Enrico Gaspari (Polaris) and French veteran Claude Fournier (Can-Am).
Many drivers will use the event as a pre-Dakar shakedown and there is strength in depth throughout the SSV section. The Can-Am Factory Team has entered a pair of new Maverick Rs for multiple Dakar winner Francisco Lopez and new American team-mate Hunter Miller.
This year's Rallye du Maroc starts in Marrakech and heads via Zagora to a finish in Mengoub Bouarfa in eastern Morocco. A total of 2,468 kilometres are on the agenda, 1,512 km of which are against the clock.
2024 Rally du Maroc – W2RC competitors:
Ultimate
200. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA) - Dacia Sandrider
201. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) - Toyota Hilux Overdrive
202. Lucas Moraes (BRA)/Armand Monleón (ESP) - Toyota GR DKR Hilux
205. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA)/Alex Winocq (FRA) - Mini JCW Rally 3.0i
206. Guillaume de Mévius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA) - Mini JCW Rally 3.0D
207. Seth Quintero (USA)/Dennis Zenz (DEU) - Toyota GR DKR Hilux
208. Denis Krotov (KGZ)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (ANA) - Toyota Hilux Overdrive
209. Martin Prokop (CZE)/Viktor Chytka (CZE) - Ford Raptor RS
210. João Ferreira (PRT)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) - Mini JCW Rally 3.0D
211. Marcos Baumgart (BRA)/Kleber Cincea (BRA) - Prodrive Hunter
214. Mathieu Serradori (FRA)/Loic Minaudier (FRA) - Century CR7-T
215. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) - Toyota Hilux Overdrive
218. Pau Navarro (ESP)/Alejandro Lopez (ESP) - Ford Ranger T1+
223. Aliyyah Koloc (SYC)/Sébastien Delaunay (FRA) - Red-Lined Revo+
229. Eugenio Amos (ITA)/Paolo Ceci (ITA) - Toyota Hilux Overdrive
234. Jean-Luc Ceccaldi (FRA)/Delphine Delfino (FRA) - MD Optimus
Challenger
300. Rokas Baciuška (LTU)/Oriol Vidal (ESP) - Can-Am Maverick X3
301. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG)/Valentina Pertegarini (ARG) - Taurus T3 Max
302. Marcelo Gastaldi (BRA)/Carlos Sachs (BRA) - Taurus T3 Max
303. Dania Akeel (SAU)/Stéphane Duplé (FRA) - Taurus T3 Max
304. Mitch Guthrie (USA)/Kellon Walch (USA) - Taurus T3 Max
305. Ricardo Porém (PRT)/Nuno Sousa (PRT) - MMP T3 Rally-Raid
306. Mario Franco (PRT)/Rui Franco (PRT) - Yamaha YXZ 1000R Turbo
307. Eryk Goczal (POL)/Alex Haro (ESP) - Taurus T3 Max
308. Marek Goczal (POL)/Maciej Marton (POL) - Taurus T3 Max
311. Lionel Baud (FRA)/Lucie Baud (FRA) - GRally Team OT3
322. Michal Goczal (POL)/Diego Ortega (ESP) - Taurus T3 Max
SSV
400. Sebastian Guayasamin (ECU)/Fernando Acosta (ARG) - Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
401. Yasir Seaidan (SAU)/Michaël Metge (FRA) - Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
402. Ricardo Ramilo (ESP)/Sergi Brugue (ESP) - Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
403. Rebecca Busi (ITA)/Sergio Lafuente (URY) - Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
404. Enrico Gaspari (ITA)/Ricardo Torlaschi (ARG) - Polaris RZR Pro R Sport
405. Claude Fournier (FRA)/Serge Gounon (FRA) - Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
2024 W2RC Drivers’ Championship – after round 4:
Overall (top 10)
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT), 156pts
2. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU), 131pts
3. Lucas Moraes (BRA), 103pts
4. Carlos Sainz (ESP), 100pts
5. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA), 69pts
6. Guillaume de Mévius (BEL), 65pts
7. Rokas Baciuška (LTU), 60pts
8. Seth Quintero (USA), 55pts
9. Denis Krotov (KGZ), 44pts
10. Martin Prokop (CZE), 36pts
Challenger (top 5)
1. Rokas Baciuška (LTU), 209pts
2. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG), 166pts
3. Marcelo Gastaldi (BRA), 130pts
4. Austin Jones (USA), 126pts
5. Dania Akeel (SAU), 103pts
SSV (top 5)
1. Sebastian Guayasamin (ECU), 161pts
2. Yasir Saeidan (SAU), 155pts
3. Ricardo Ramilo (ESP), 141pts
4. Rebecca Busi (ITA), 120pts
5. Enrico Gaspari (ITA), 75pts
