Seth Quintero Moves to T1+ Class for 2024 Dakar Rally

We’ve gotten used to seeing American Seth Quintero rip up the scenery in a side-by-side at the Dakar Rally over the last couple of years. In 2022, he won a record 12 stages in a row after becoming the youngest Dakar driver ever to win a stage in 2021. A bit of bad luck in the middle of the 2022 rally saw him lose too much time to have a shot at the overall, but he had firmly cemented his name among the rally’s best. In 2023, he put his T3-class South Racing Can-Am in second, behind teammate and countryman Austin Jones.

We were stoked to see what Quintero could do in his Can-Am this year, but news just came down that Quintero is stepping up to the coveted T1+ class in a Toyota Hilux for the 2024 race. Quintero, who turned 21 this year, snagged the W2RC T3 class championship this year, and Toyota Gazoo Racing wasted no time pulling him into the big class.

Related: Red Bull Junior Team Takes 2023 Dakar Class Win

T1+ is the marquee class at the rally, with purpose-built Dakar cars that pump out enormous horsepower and wear 37-inch tires. If the T3 class is a feeder series, T1+ is Formula 1. Quintero got his first weekend in the truck earlier this month in Dubai at the final round of the World Cup for Cross Country Bajas. According to Toyota they ran into a mechanical issue, but had been on pace for a top-five finish.

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