Four Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbos, seven Taurus T3 Max machines and a Yamaha YXZ 1000R will battle it out for W2RC Challenger group supremacy in a sub-section of the event that has attracted 43 entries.
Rokas Baciuška won last year’s SSV (T4) category in the W2RC and the Lithuanian will represent the Can-Am Factory Team in the Challenger group on this occasion alongside last year’s T3 Dakar winner Austin Jones.
Argentina’s David Zille and Portugal’s Ricardo Porém are also registered for the W2RC in their Can-Ams.
A seven-strong armada of Taurus T3 Max machines will provide the main competition in W2RC.
American racer Mitch Guthrie represents the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA in an MCE-5 after finishing second in the T3 Championship to Seth Quintero last year and runner-up at the Dakar behind Austin Jones.
The Polish family trio of Marek, Michal and Eryk Goczal wheel out three Taurus T3s under the Energylandia Rally Team banner.
Despite being only 18-year-old last January, Eryk Goczal became the youngest ever stage and event winner by snatching four stage wins and the T4 category win at the Dakar.
Marek and Michal finished third and seventh in T4 last January and have also graduated to the Challenger category on this occasion.
Portugal’s Mário Franco drives the only Yamaha YXZ 1000R on the W2RC list on his second Dakar outing and Team BBR has entered a Taurus for Brazil’s Marcelo Tiglia Gastaldi.
Argentina’s Nicolas Cavigliasso and Saudi Arabian female racer Dania Akeel round off the W2RC list in a pair of Wevers Sport-run Taurus T3s.
Several of the fastest drivers in the Challenger group are not registered for the W2RC this year.
The Can-Am Factory Team’s Francisco Lopez was a winner of the T3 category at the 2022 Dakar and the older UTV (now SSV) group in 2019 and 2021.
The Chilean starts as one of the favourites to fight for overall honours, alongside the Red Bull Off-Road Team USA by BFG’s Cristina Gutiérrez in her new Taurus T3 Max and WRC star Kris Meeke, who is a late replacement for Kees Koolen in a G Rally Team OT3.
Other leading non-registered contenders include the X-Raid Yamaha Team’s Ignacio Casale and Pal Lonyai, local national champion Saleh Al-Saif (OT3) and Austrian Lukas Lauda (the son of former three-time F1 World Champion Niki Lauda) at the wheel of a South Racing Can-Am.