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It’s a sign of the times. The Dakar Rally has announced the ATV class is canceled, moving forward. As per a Facebook post on April 4, 2024:
After more than 30 years as part of the family, the #Dakar2025 will not feature a quad race. We would like to thank and congratulate all the competitors who have been part of this adventure. The Dakar will now focus on the wildly popular motorbike category. We will work hard to fine-tune the selection procedure and boost the safety of the riders.
What happened?
Why did the ATV class get the boot, after decades in the Dakar race? The answer is simple: Riders and manufacturers alike were less interested in riding and promoting quads, and apparently rally organizers echoed that sentiment. In 2023, 19 quad riders were signed up to race the two-week rally raid in Saudi Arabia’s deserts. In 2024, only 10 quad entries were permitted, and the rally itself severely restricted entries by saying that only riders who were signed up for the FIM’s 2023 or 2024 W2RC series, or who’d raced at least three W2RC events, or who had raced Dakar in the past five years, were eligible. That left some very prominent quad racers on the outside.
Why the change?
We could speculate as to why we see these changes, but it’s likely a combination of increased interest in the Rally2 motorcycle category, and the OEMs wanting to market SSVs instead of quads. The profit margins of side-by-sides mean the OEMs want to push those models, and the rally organizers themselves only have so much capability to manage the event; if there’s more interest in motorcycles, then they want to steer in that direction. It will streamline things for everyone involved.
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