Pablo Copetti switches to SSV for 2025 Dakar Rally

Pablo Copetti will proceed to race on 4 wheels after the Dakar Rally killed the Quad class for 2025, albeit on the FIA facet as a substitute as he plans to enter the race within the SSV class. He’ll drive a Polaris RZR Professional R for TH-Vans Workforce with Santiago Hansen as his co-driver.

Copetti has run the Dakar Rally on a Quad since 2010, successful seven phases throughout his profession with three third-place finishes in 2017, 2021, and 2023. Nonetheless, a scarcity of funds and dissatisfaction with the Amaury Sport Organisation’s new insurance policies for Quad riders prompted him to skip the 2024 version; he was initially contemplating to modify to SSV for the race however was unable to due to low funding.

Regardless of Quads being well-liked in the course of the Dakar’s run in South America in the course of the 2010s, lowering producer help prompted the ASO to drag the plug on the category for 2025. The ultimate version noticed simply ten riders, which Copetti and plenty of of his friends additionally attribute to the ASO tightening Quad eligibility standards by mandating these within the class to have both raced a Dakar previously 5 years or enter three World Rally-Raid Championship rounds; neither requirement exists for bikes.

With their class gone, most Quad riders have additionally switched to racing automobiles with specific deal with side-by-sides. Rodolfo Guillioli, who completed runner-up within the 2023 W2RC for Quads, has grow to be an SSV co-driver whereas former Dakar winners Josef Macháček and Ignacio Casale at present compete within the SSV and Challenger classes, respectively. Hansen was additionally a Dakar Quad racer within the 2010s earlier than changing into a navigator.

Copetti’s Polaris RZR is constructed by CAP 4 Racing, who has maintained a partnership with TH-Vans since 2023. Domingo Román raced the CAP 4/TH-Vans Polaris within the 2024 version however retired after seven phases. A Polaris pushed by Xavier de Soultrait received the race, marking the producer’s first Dakar general victory since 2017.