Record breakers

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 classes 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. For the 2023 Dakar Joao switch to the T3 class, entered aboard the X-Raid developed, Yamaha powered YXZ1000R Turbo Prototype SXS. With a brand new car they knew they were outsiders and mechanical issues effectively put paid to any chances of a category podiom. They did however break a record that delighted Yamaha – by winning a stage they allowed the Japanese manufacturer to be the first ever to win stages in both the car and bike categories! With the Portuguese crew switching from the T3 class to a South Racing Can-Am T4 for the Rallye du Maroc, in preparation for the 2024 Dakar, they also have the distinction of finishing 6th 2023 W2RC T3 and 7th 2023 W2RC T4!

J.F.: “Obviously the 2023 Dakar it didn’t go as we hoped, due to some mechanical problems, but we showed we could be competitive with the stage win and some additional stage podiums. And Yamaha were super happy… For the Rallye du Maroc we moved over to our 2024 Dakar car and team and won our class which is a good omen for January. However, as we all know, the Dakar is a very unpredictable race. There’s some tough competition and nobody will know how its going to go until the last day of the second week. I’ll let you know if we’re one of the favourites at the end of the first week…”