The official entry list for the 2024 Dakar Rally tallies a capability field of 199 starters in six predominant categories: Ultimate (70), Stock (3), Challenger (43), SSV (36), and the most important boys, Trucks (47). This group doesn’t count the 146 motorcycles and quads that will even be cutting up the dunes during a prologue and 12 stages running from January 5-19. Ford Performance is entering the race with a re-engineered version of the previous-generation Ranger within the Ultimate class, this yr a learning effort to prepare for a full assault in 2025 with a specially prepped Ranger Raptor. The Challenger and SSV classes are each for so-called Lightweight Vehicles that start with side-by-sides (SXS), but Challenger is for specialist prototype builds which can be a step down from Ultimate and Stock rigs, the SSV class is for production-based vehicles. Polaris goes to be there within the SSV field with two RZR Pro R Factory rigs campaigned by race partner Sebastien Loeb Racing (SLR).
Polaris launched a factory racing team and the RZR Pro R Factory in March of this yr, the latest RZR the primary factory-designed SXS for winning races — a Porsche 911 GT3 RS for the dirt. In its initial season, the two-seater won its Pro UTV Open class on the San Felipe 250, Baja 400, Baja 500, and Baja 1000, thereby sweeping the SCORE Pro UTV Open Class Championship.
Dakar’s not merely a distinct animal, it is a vicious and brutal one. The race is 4,903 miles long including the general public roads and trails used to achieve the timed special stages; the timed stages total 2,937 miles — a couple of dozen miles in need of driving from Boston to Los Angeles. Stages 5 and 6 are 451.7 miles apiece. Stage 7 is longer. Competitors should fix their very own vehicles on some stages, and frequently only get a pair hours to do it. If competitors break down when team assistance is allowed, they should wait within the Saudi Arabian desert for the mechanics to point out — a fate that only awaits riders and drivers with in-stage support, which is not all of them. So Polaris engineers tweaked the RZR Pro R Factory for the regulations and task, adding weight to satisfy the minimum; constructing an enclosed cab with heated windshield, wipers and washer, and an in-cab blower kit; improving visibility and sight lines, and adding storage for tools and spare parts.
Along with SLR’s two rigs, the Xtremplus team has two more signed up, the TH-Trucks team fielding three, making seven RZR Pro R Factory rigs for the race.
The Dakar Rally added a category for SXS in 2017. Leandro Torres won the inaugural yr in a Polaris RZR 1000 XP. Within the six years since, six different drivers have won the category, all of them driving a Can-Am Maverick X3, last yr’s winner a race rookie. There’s not way more Polaris could do to get back on the highest step than create a factory-engineered SXS and partner with Sebastien Loeb’s race team. In lower than two weeks, you’ll be able to bet things are going to get dirty and private.
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