Seth Quintero: “I didn’t stop smiling the whole time”

Dakar 2024 | Prologue | ALULA > ALULA
January 5 ^th 2024 - 13:57 [GMT + 3]

For his first day with the elite cars on the Dakar, the young American, who swept up most of the stage wins in the Challenger class, has enjoyed a great start with 2nd place on the prologue behind Mattias Ekström.

“It was a really good stage. With times not counting for the overall rankings, just for the start position, I thought everybody was going to play some games. I didn’t want to play any games, I just wanted to go out and drive and that’s what we did. Right now, we’re sitting in second, so I’m happy with that. It’s the first real outing in the new car, the first real time racing it, so it feels super good to be against the greatest in the world, the greatest who’ve ever done it and to be competitive with them. It’s a long couple of weeks to go, so I’m not going to get too excited, but it’s nice. I’ve been looking up to these guys for so long. Usually in the T3 class you barely get to see them start and now I’m starting with them. It just put a smile on my face. I didn’t stop smiling the whole time and I’m so grateful for the team for what they’re doing for me. Hopefully we can have a good next two weeks and we’ll see where we end up starting”.