The rivalry between Can-Am and Polaris has heated up in recent years with the rises of Polaris Factory Racing and the Maverick R, especially in the deserts of their native North America. The Saudi theater of their conflict has swung in Polaris’ favor since snapping Can-Am’s SSV win streak in 2024, so BRP was eager to return the favor once the Maverick R was finally approved for competition at the 2025 Dakar Rally.

While Polaris walked away with a second straight win courtesy of Brock Heger, the Maverick R proved the war was far from over by winning ten of 12 stages. If not for early mechanical gremlins, the result certainly could have been much closer.

The Maverick R is widely touted as the most powerful UTV on the market, a moniker it seemed to live up to on the American desert racing side. It also saw success in sporadic rally competition in 2024 prior to FIA homologation, even being faster than FIA-approved cars at the Rallye du Maroc last October. Being such a radically different UTV design- (note the funky tall-knuckle front suspension) and power-wise, it was classified as its own SSV1 subcategory rather than the standard T4 but otherwise competed directly with the RZRs.

Meanwhile, Polaris arrived in Saudi Arabia looking for a second straight victory in the SSV category after Xavier de Soultrait won the 2024 edition to end Can-Am’s six-year reign. Besides retaining Soultrait and Florent Vayssade under the Sébastien Loeb Racing banner, PFR—who designed the Polaris RZR Pro R Factory—brought its SCORE Pro UTV Open and Baja 1000 UTV champion Brock Heger and his teammate-slash-navigator Max Eddy Jr. into the fold.

Heger, an off-road racing prodigy who enjoyed success in short course before transitioning to longer-distance disciplines, got off to a fast start despite his rally raid inexperience as he won the Prologue and the Chrono Stage. Soultrait notched a stage win between Heger’s two in Stage #1, including finishing behind his teammate in the Chrono Stage to secure a Polaris 1–2.

Conversely, the two-day Chrono Stage was a disaster for Can-Am that gave the Polarises more breathing room atop the leaderboard. Three-time Dakar winner and de facto team leader Francisco López Contardo, who placed second behind Soultrait in Stage #1, lost nearly two hours in the dunes and finished 13th. Sara Price had to be towed back to the bivouac with a fuel problem. Alexandre Pinto, who was in the older Maverick X3 XRS, was the highest finishing Can-Am of the stage in third.

Manuel Andújar, the final person to win the Dakar in the Quad class before it was axed for 2025, had problems strike his Maverick R from the very beginning when he lost his brakes in the Prologue. A crash cost him three hours in Stage #1 before another mechanical killed his race altogether three legs later.

Soultrait and Heger being over an hour ahead seemed to ignite a spark in the Mavericks afterward. López went on to win five stages and did not finish outside the top ten until the very last day, while Price and Jeremías González Ferioli respectively added three and two of their own. González, who won the 2024 Desafío Ruta 40’s Open Cars class in the Maverick R’s W2RC debut, was eliminated from contention by a mechanical in Stage #4.

While Can-Am’s hopes of taking back the overall hinged on a Polaris DNF that never came, the roster still kept its head up after an otherwise strong outing for the Maverick R. Price is the only Maverick R factory driver registered for the W2RC, hoping to complete the full season after being sidelined by a lack of funding in 2024. López settled for a still-solid second in the final results, even if he finished over two hours back.

“Our team put in an incredible effort at Dakar this year,” commented BRP race manager Jean-François Leclerc. “This race always presents unique and unpredictable challenges and this year was no exception. I’m proud of how our drivers, team and partners at South Racing adapted and persevered throughout the rally. With ten stage wins and multiple stage podium sweeps, we’ve proven the capabilities of the Maverick R. There are a lot of positives to take away from this year and we look forward to coming back even stronger next year.”

In the Polaris camp, Soultrait lost the lead to Heger after a poor Stage #4 that cost him nearly an hour and a half. He rode behind his teammate in the overall before falling further back when he got lost in Stage #9. A mechanical issue on the penultimate day knocked him out of the picture for good.

While Soultrait’s hopes of a repeat were dashed, Heger stayed out of trouble to walk away with the victory in his Dakar debut.

“Dakar is the pinnacle of our sport and winning this championship is truly a dream come true,” said Heger. “Max’s experience and pinpoint navigation allowed me to focus solely on our pace and optimizing the condition of our vehicle, and the RZR Pro R Factory was virtually flawless for the entire 12 stages.

“Earning this historic victory with my close friend is something truly special, but to win Dakar after winning the Baja 1000, that’s something I could have never imagined.”

Due to the Maverick R’s early issues, the X3 ended up comprising most of the top finishers with five of the remaining eight slots being filled by the latter. Hunter Miller rounded out the top ten in his Maverick R. Fifth-placed Enrico Gaspari was the only other Polaris besides Heger in the top ten.

Overall results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	18	425	Brock Heger*	Max Eddy Jr.	Sébastien Loeb Racing	T4	59:13:11	Leader
2	26	404	Francisco López Contardo*	Juan Pablo Latrach	Can-Am Factory Team	SSV1	61:19:15	+ 2:06:04
3	31	412	Alexandre Pinto	Bernardo Oliveira	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	62:50:22	+ 3:37:11
4	34	403	Jérôme de Sadeleer*	Diego Ortega	MMP Compétition	T4	64:30:05	+ 5:16:54
5	49	406	Enrico Gaspari	Fausto Mota	TH-Trucks Team	T4	69:09:02	+ 9:55:51
6	53	402	Gerard Farrés*	Toni Vingut	Pedregà Team	T4	70:36:04	+ 11:22:53
7	56	418	Arnaldo Monteiro*	Nuno Morais	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	71:41:41	+ 12:28:30
8	60	430	Roger Grouwels	Rudolf Meijer	RaceArt	T4	72:43:31	+ 13:30:20
9	65	415	Fidel Castillo Ruiz*	Anuar Osman	Bujarkay-Makarthy Racing	T4	74:17:43	+ 15:04:32
10	66	420	Hunter Miller*	Andrew Short	Can-Am Factory Team	SSV1	74:27:50	+ 15:14:39
11	69	427	Benoit Lepietre*	Rodrigue Relmy-Madinska	BTR Racing Team	SSV1	76:06:09	+ 16:52:58
12	72	401	Sebastián Guayasamín*	Fernando Acosta	BE Racing	T4	77:18:19	+ 18:05:08
13	74	433	Olivier Pernaut*	Benjamin Riviere	Ohres Racing	SSV1	78:59:03	+ 19:45:52
14	75	410	Claude Fournier	Grégory Revest-Arnoux	MMP Compétition	T4	80:35:48	+ 21:22:37
15	78	442	Gregory Lefort*	George Da Cruz	Pole Position 77	SSV1	81:39:37	+ 22:26:26
16	80	422	Eric Croquelois*	Bruno Raymond	Drag’on Rally Team	T4	82:02:03	+ 2:48:52
17	82	431	Pietro Cinotto*	Martino Albertini	Xtremeplus	T4	82:42:35	+ 23:29:24
18	85	428	Sander Derikx*	Marnix Leeuw	Timola Rallysport	T4	86:55:42	+ 27:42:31
19	92	434	Domingo Román*	Óscar Bravo	CAP 4 Racing	T4	92:20:13	+ 33:07:02
20	95	437	Souad Mouktadiri*	Vincent Ferri	Mouktadiri Racing Team	T4	97:28:44	+ 38:15:33
21	96	400	Xavier de Soultrait*	Martin Bonnet	Sébastien Loeb Racing	T4	98:47:07	+ 39:33:56
22	98	429	Ibrahim Almuhna*	Faisal Alsuwayh	Almuhna Racers	T4	106:03:29	+ 46:50:18
23	105	414	Michele Cinotto	Alberto Bertoldi	Xtremeplus	T4	122:53:20	+ 63:40:09
24	107	444	Hasan Alsadadi*	Marcin Pasek	R-X Sport	T4	123:06:03	+ 63:52:52
25	113	423	Philippe Boutron*	Mayeul Barbet	BTR Racing Team	SSV1	134:11:34	+ 74:58:23
26	115	411	Florent Vayssade*	Nicolas Rey	Sébastien Loeb Racing	T4	135:03:39	+ 75:50:28
27	118	405	Sara Price	Sean Berriman	Can-Am Factory Team	SSV1	138:56:45	+ 79:43:34
28	120	413	Manuel Andújar	Bernardo Graue	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	140:28:26	+ 81:15:15
29	123	438	Stefano Marrini*	Matteo Landori	R Team	T4	145:37:02	+ 8623:51
30	125	407	Jeremías González Ferioli*	Pedro Gonzalo Rinaldi	Can-Am Factory Team	SSV1	148:58:56	+ 89:45:45
31	128	419	Shinsuke Umeda*	Paul Durame	Xtremeplus	T4	161:27:13	+ 102:14:09
DNF	DNF	408	Diego Martinez	Sergio Lafuente	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	409	Fernando Álvarez	Xavier Panseri	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	416	Grzegorz Brochocki*	Grzegorz Komar	Overlimit	T4	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	424	João Dias*	Gonçalo Reis	Santag Racing	T4	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	426	Carlos Vento	Jorge Brandão	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	432	José Vidaña*	Mario Garrido	Pedregà Team	T4	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	435	José Ignacio Gayoso*	Santiago Ramiro	TH-Trucks Team	T4	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	439	Rafael Muñoz*	Daniel Cámara	Pedregà Team	T4	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Winner	Time
Prologue	Brock Heger*	17:40.8
Stage #1	Xavier de Soultrait*	4:52:43
Stage #2	Brock Heger*	11:57:43
Stage #3	Francisco López Contardo*	3:46:37
Stage #4	Sara Price	5:13:38
Stage #5	Francisco López Contardo*	5:02:26
Stage #6	Francisco López Contardo*	5:17:35
Stage #7	Jeremías González Ferioli*	4:34:50
Stage #8	Jeremías González Ferioli*	5:34:39
Stage #9	Francisco López Contardo*	3:38:10
Stage #10	Francisco López Contardo*	2:10:45
Stage #11	Sara Price	4:35:06
Stage #12	Sara Price	58:53

W2RC

Drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Alexandre Pinto	95	Leader
2	Enrico Gaspari	70	– 25
3	Sara Price	55	– 40
4	Roger Grouwels	45	– 50
5	Manuel Andújar	42	– 53
6	Claude Fournier	28	– 67
7	Michele Cinotto	27	– 68
8	Fernando Álvarez	12	– 83
T-9	Carlos Vento	2	– 93
T-9	Diego Martinez	2	– 93

Navigators

Rank	Navigator	Points	Margin
1	Bernardo Oliveira	95	Leader
2	Fausto Mota	70	– 25
3	Sean Berriman	55	– 40
4	Rudolf Meijer	45	– 50
5	Bernardo Graue	42	– 53
6	Grégory Revest-Arnoux	28	– 67
7	Alberto Bertoldi	27	– 68
8	Xavier Panseri	12	– 83
T-9	Jorge Brandão	2	– 93
T-9	Sergio Lafuente	2	– 93

Featured image credit: Jennifer Lindini / ASO