Jeffrey Otten and his Gaia Motorsports is not going to be again in Saudi Arabi for a fourth Dakar Rally in 2025.
“Sadly, our Gaia Motorsports crew is not going to be racing in Dakar 2025,” wrote Otten on Sunday. “We’ll quickly announce our plans for 2025.”
Otten was a former bike racer who switched to driving after breaking his vertebrae in a rally crash in 2018. After dabbling in varied novice rallies just like the Fenix Rally and Rallye Breslau, he made his Dakar début in 2022, the place he completed twenty-seventh in what’s now the SSV class. The next 12 months, he suffered a damaged wrist on the penultimate stage however managed to enhance his general end to twenty-second.
He moved as much as the Challenger class for the 2024 version, racing a Can-Am Maverick ready by Jorge Blanco‘s JB Racing. Olaf Harmsen, who additionally used to race rally bikes together with two Dakars, took over as co-driver. Otten completed twenty-third at school with a finest outing of sixteenth in Stage #6. Gaia additionally fielded a Can-Am for Edwin Opstelten, a Dakar newcomer competing beneath the Thunder Camels banner, who retired after midway because of a spinal harm sustained in a crash.
After Dakar, Gaia Motorsports principally centered on occasions of their native Netherlands such because the Peelrandrit in Gemert-Bakel in March with Otten and Marco Bouman. Bouman, a detailed buddy of Otten, served as his navigator earlier than transitioning to a crew function for the 2024 Dakar after Harmsen’s arrival.
The 2025 Dakar Rally will happen on 3–17 January.
