Red Bull and Can-Am Join Forces in Off-Road Racing, Prepare Dream Team for Dakar

We are writing about a multi-year collaboration that will ensure the evolution of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team. The first competition entered under the new collaboration is the 2023 Dakar Rally, and the Can-Am Red Bull outfit will enter the T3 and T4 vehicle classes.

The roster includes race-winning drivers from across the world, forming a dream team in this discipline. For example, in the T4 class, the team will have Rokas Baciuska from Lithuania. The 23-year-old is the 2022 World Rally Raid T4 Champion and has also won the 2022 Rallye du Maroc.

In the T3 Class, the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing Team will have Seth Quintero, AJ Jones, Cristina Gutierrez, and Francisco "Chaleco" Lopez. The latter is the 2022 World Rally Raid T3 Champion, and the 47-year-old racer has won the Dakar Rally three times while racing in the UTV class.

Cristina Gutierrez is the only woman in history to win a UTV stage at the Dakar Rally, and she is the 2021 World Rally Raid T3 Champion. The Spanish racer finished the 2022 Dakar Rally in third place and has six Dakar entries at just 31 years old, while also being an Extreme E champion in 2022.

AJ Jones is a 26-year-old American athlete who won the 2022 T4 Dakar, and who was the 2021 World Rally Raid T4 Champion. The youngest member of this new team is Seth Quintero, who is also an American, but he already has 11 Dakar stage wins at just 20 years of age, which is a record for the most single stage wins – regardless of age.

All five drivers will compete with the 2023 Can-Am Maverick X3 in the 2023 Dakar Rally. It will be a 15-day event that will be spread over almost 5,000 kilometers (ca. 3,107 miles or about the width of the United States).  

Competitors face elevated temperatures at midday, but cold at night and in the early hours of the day. It is both a racing event and a navigational challenge, as getting lost is a real risk in the event, not to mention suffering a technical problem or a flat.

It should be noted that Red Bull and Can-Am are not just limiting their talent search to racers, but are also looking for the engineers, mechanics, and even marketing specialists that may shape the future of the racing industry. Since Red Bull is so spread out across various areas of sport, it may be a great career opportunity for those interested in traveling for sport, even if you are not the athlete.