Along with his Quad profession now within the books, Manuel Andújar is already set to strive his hand at a brand new class when he enters the Rally Raid San Juan on 28–30 June. He would be the co-driver of a Can-Am Maverick piloted by fellow World Rally-Raid Championship competitor Juan Cruz Yacopini. Campeones reported the news on Tuesday.
The beginning comes 4 weeks after Andújar clinched the W2RC’s Quad title in his native Argentina when he dominated the Desafío Ruta 40. Though the season nonetheless has yet another spherical in Morocco, he’ll not be there: moreover having already secured the championship, the Rallye du Maroc is commonly used as a costume rehearsal for the Dakar Rally, which is pointless for him because the race has dropped the Quads for 2025.
Andújar received the category’s final Dakar in January. Throughout the race, he and Yacopini, the latter racing a Toyota Hilux Overdrive within the premier Final class, started to make plans about racing collectively. This proved tough in the intervening time as neither had any openings, however they discovered one in June after the DR 40. The Rally Raid San Juan is the third spherical of Campeonato Argentino de Rally Raid (CaNav Rally Raid), the premier cross-country rally collection in Argentina.
He initially thought-about taking a sabbatical from rally raid following the DR 40, together with skipping the 2025 Dakar Rally, to quiet down and get his plans sorted out. With a change to SSV locked in, nevertheless, it opens the door to a full-time dedication within the class ought to he needs and is ready.
SSVs are usually the primary automobile that former Quad riders tackle after leaving the FIM aspect. Former Dakar Quad winners Josef Macháček, Ignacio Casale, and Sergei Kariakin all race side-by-sides right now, whereas 2023 W2RC Quad runner-up Rodolfo Guillioli was on the 2024 race because the navigator of 1. Pablo Copetti will drive an SSV at subsequent yr’s Dakar, whereas Laisvydas Kancius, who beat Guillioli for the 2023 title, would be the navigator for Gintas Petrus in Final.
