“The goal is to finish, learn, and fight”

Not so long ago the profile of the average rally-raid car competitor was decidedly middle-aged. But that was before the explosion of the T3 and T4 categories turned all that on its head. Now these categories are heaving with young, super-fast talent, like Portuguese youngster Joao Ferreira. Joao made his cross-country debut back in 2019 in the T2 production class before getting behind the wheel of a T1 Toyota Hilux in 2021. From there he migrated to an X-Raid Mini with which he won the 2022 European Baja championship by a slim margin at the very last round. Now he is set to join the army of ‘twentysomethings’ fighting it out in the Dakar T3 class aboard the X-Raid developed, Yamaha powered YXZ1000R Turbo Prototype SxS. As both he and his car are making their Dakar debut, logically they have to be considered as outsiders, but clearly with both having so much potential you just can’t rule them out. Particularly as in the ‘passenger’ seat will be sitting the vastly experienced, ‘X-Raid approved’ Filipe Palmeiro.

“For sure the T3 car is completely different from the Mini but it is nevertheless a fantastic car and a lot of fun to drive. Sven Quandt (boss of X-Raid) advised me to enter it on the Dakar because, apart from being much cheaper than a T1, it is easier to learn how to tackle the Saudi dunes with this kind of vehicle. We entered it on the Rallye du Maroc in the Open class and despite starting right at the back we were posting times that put us eighth or ninth overall. We don’t have that kind of ambition for the Dakar. The goal is to finish, learn, and fight for the best result possible… Depending on how it all goes we’ll see what the programme will be for the rest of the year.”