Media Information
47th Dakar Rally
January 3rd-17th, 2025
2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), round 1
OVERDRIVE RACING MAKES FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR A MULTI-CAR CHALLENGE FOR HONOURS AT THE 47TH DAKAR RALLY
BISHA (SAUDI ARABIA) – Sunday, December 29: Overdrive Racing is making its final preparations in Saudi Arabia before the start of the 47th Dakar Rally, the opening round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) that will feature 12 gruelling desert stages and 5,145 competitive kilometres in a punishing route of 7,753km from January 3rd-17th.
The event is being held in the vast Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the sixth time and Toyota Gazoo Racing, with the support of Overdrive Racing, will be aiming to defend its prestigious Manufacturers’ crown once again. Overdrive Racing enjoyed a sensational Dakar in 2024, finishing second and fourth overall with a pair of Hiluxes.
The Belgium-based team will field nine cars for Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška, Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini, Australian Toby Price, Estonian Urvo Männama, Brazil’s Marcos Moraes and Spaniard Isidre Esteve Pujol, in addition to offering full-service support to Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Al-Rajhi and his navigator Timo Gottschalk are also registered for the Manufacturers’ Championship alongside Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero and Lucas Moraes.
Both Moraes’s and Quintero’s cars will be serviced and overseen by Overdrive Racing, as they bid to get Toyota’s campaign to retain the Manufacturers’ title off to a successful start. Spaniard Armand Monleón and German Dennis Zenz will again partner the two Toyota Gazoo Racing-liveried cars.
In addition, Overdrive Racing will provide support to the two Chinese Mintimes Yunxiang Rally Team drivers Guoyu Zhang and Rong Zi and their respective navigators, Yicheng Wang and Hongyu Pan. Zhang is also registered for points in the W2RC.
Al-Rajhi is a twice runner-up in the W2RC Drivers’ Championship and, like Yacopini and his Spanish navigator Daniel Oliveras, will be aiming for a podium finish. He was fourth at the Dakar in 2020 with Overdrive Racing and claimed third place in 2022.
The winner of seven Dakar stages in his career said: “We finished runners-up in the 2024 W2RC after Morocco but were always in a great position to fight for the win. We are aiming higher for the new season and the Dakar. We have the speed to do it and have carried out a lot of testing with the car to give us even more confidence.”
Yacopini suffered time losses on the event last year and reached the finish in 18th place amongst the registered W2RC drivers, although he finished third in the 2023 W2RC Drivers’ Championship behind his then team-mate Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Al-Rajhi.
Baciuška has moved up from the Challenger category to compete in the Ultimate class at the Dakar for the first time. The talented Lithuanian has already achieved W2RC success in both the Challenger and SSV sections and taken three class podiums at the Dakar but showed promise when he finished second overall with Overdrive Racing at the Baja Spain Aragón last July and third at the Saudi Baja at the start of last season. He teams up with Spaniard Oriol Mena on this occasion.
Baciuška said: “This is my fourth Dakar and my first in the Ultimate category. I’m very excited. Now I’m facing a new challenge. The top 20 are almost all factory guys. It’s maybe the highest quality field in Dakar history, so it won’t be easy. From what I’ve heard, the first four of five days will be really hard. I want to go step-by-step. The target is the top five. That would be really nice.”
Australia’s Toby Price and Briton Sam Sunderland are former two-time Dakar motorcycle winners and have joined forces to enter an Overdrive Racing Hilux in the event this year for the first time. Price won the Dakar with KTM in 2016 and 2019 and will carry out driving duties, while Sunderland (Dakar winner in 2017 and 2022) will use his navigational prowess to hopefully guide the rookie Australian to a finish on four wheels.
“Teaming up with Overdrive Racing in an Ultimate car is a dream come true,” said Price. “It’s an opportunity for which I’m so grateful and intend to maximise. It’s taken a lot of work since last March to get everything in place. I’m with my good friend Sam Sunderland, so we have four Dakar winners in one car!”
The Estonian duo of 36-year-old Urvo Männama and his cousin Risto Lepik will crew an Overdrive Racing car on this occasion. They will become the first Estonians to compete at the Dakar in the Ultimate class and the driver will be hoping to finish for the first time after retirements in 2023 and 2024.
“This year we are part of the main Overdrive Team,” said Männama. “We would ideally like to finish in the top 20 and avoid mistakes and we know we are capable of this. I’ve learned to have much more respect for the rally itself.”
The Brazilian pairing of Marcos Moraes and Maykel Justo have also joined Overdrive Racing for the Dakar. Moraes last tackled the event in 2000 when it passed from Dakar to Cairo and was classified in 75th position. The 60-year-old grandfather has stepped away from organising Brazil’s flagship Rally dos Sertões to compete at the highest level again. His son Lucas is an integral member of Toyota Gazoo Racing and already has a podium finish to his name.
Moraes said: “I used to ride motocross and enduro with Lucas and now we are driving cars together. I must have taught him something because he is very fast! I don’t think I will be challenging Lucas for the win this year but I have a very good co-driver, so maybe we could finish in the top 30.”
Former Spanish enduro rider Isidre Esteve Pujol will also team up with Overdrive Racing and his navigator José-Maria Villalobos to drive a Hilux again under the Repsol Toyota Rally Team banner.
The 47th Dakar Rally is based out of a new start camp in Bisha in the southwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time and finishes in the remote town of Shubaytah, deep in the Empty Quarter of the Eastern Province close to the frontier with the UAE.
A 29km Prologue, near Bisha, will determine the starting order for the opening 412km Bisha loop stage on Saturday, January 4th.
The opening portion of race features a demanding 48hr-chrono stage of around 965km on January 5th and 6th and this leads towards a Marathon stage without service assistance between Al-Henakiya and Al-Ula. Competitors then pass through the north-central desert region en route to the rest day in Ha’il.
After a day of refettling the cars on January 10th, action resumes with the sixth 606km stage between Ha’il and Ad-Duwadimi and a 481km loop through the deserts around Ad-Duwadimi on January 12th.
The route then heads to the Saudi capital of Riyadh and on to Haradh for a further two specials of 487km and 357km before arriving in Shubaytah on January 15th after a short run of 119km through the demanding dunes of the vast Empty Quarter.
A sting in the tail will be the 11th stage of 280km around Shubaytah on January 16th before the final Power Selective Section forms part of the last stage of 134km that brings the survivors to the finish celebrations in remote Shubaytah.
Ends
For further information:
Jean-Marc Fortin (E-mail: jmf@overdriveracing.be), Overdrive S.A., rue de L’Enterprise 1, 4530 Villers-le-Bouillet, Belgium, Tel: + 32 475 762 391. www.overdriveracing.be, Facebook: Overdrive Racing, Twitter: @OverdriveToyota