Mário Franco’s switch to Can-Am and the SSV class seems to have paid off. Although he usually races a Yamaha YXZ1000R in Challenger, he and his Franco Sport team partnered with South Racing Can-Am in March to begin piloting the Maverick.

The South African Safari Rally marked his first time racing the Maverick R and in SSV, let alone in the World Rally-Raid Championship. After a fairly modest Stage 1 as he finished fifth, he took the overall lead with a second the next day and never let go.

Fellow Maverick R driver Richard Aczel won the opening stage but finished fourth the next day to lose the lead to Franco. Franco won Stage 3 to balloon his advance from 2:29 to 10:33, and he beat Aczel again over the final two days (fourth vs. sixth in Stage 4 and fifth vs. sixth in Stage 5) to win by nearly 12 minutes. Both drivers were the only ones in the field with a Maverick R, surrounded by Polaris RZRs and Maverick XRSes.

While the Maverick R was the star of the show, as was also the case at the first two W2RC rounds in 2025, Polaris still enjoyed a solid week. Michele Cinotto was the only other driver to finish within an hour of Franco, leading his Xtremeplus teammate and rally raid newcomer George Halles. The latter finished as high as second in Stage 1 but got stuck in the mud the next day, costing him time.

Points leader Alexandre Pinto won two stages and the Prologue, but was never in the picture for the overall due to mechanical issues that plagued his Stages 1 and 3. He missed the top five as José Nogueira beat him by six minutes, but he still earned a podium among W2RC drivers in third.

74-year-old Graham Knight, the oldest driver in the field and Halles’ grandfather, finished ninth while Enrico Gaspari rounded out the top ten. Gaspari had a tough outing due to vehicle problems, which consequently allowed Pinto to gain eight points on him in the standings, but went out on top with his maiden W2RC stage win on the final day.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	29	407	Mário Franco	João Miranda	Franco Sport	SSV1	14:13:56	Leader
2	33	414	Richard Aczel*	Wouter Rosegaar	South Racing Can-Am	SSV1	14:25:52	+ 11:56
3	34	403	Michele Cinotto	Maurizio Dominella	Xtremeplus	T4	15:05:12	+ 51:16
4	35	411	George Halles*	Max Delfino	Xtremeplus	T4	15:15:56	+ 1:02:00
5	37	413	José Nogueira*	Arcélio Couto	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	16:14:00	+ 2:00:04
6	38	401	Alexandre Pinto	Bernardo Oliveira	Old Friends Rally Team	T4	16:20:11	+ 2:06:15
7	39	415	Domingo Román*	Alberto Herrero	TH-Trucks Rally Team	T4	16:38:22	+ 2:24:26
8	40	404	Claude Fournier	Patrick Jimbert	MMP Compétition	T4	16:48:00	+ 2:34:04
9	41	410	Graham Knight*	David Watson	Xtremeplus	T4	29:02:09	+ 14:48:13
10	42	402	Enrico Gaspari	Fausto Mota	MMP Compétition	T4	31:26:55	+ 17:12:59
11	43	416	José Ignacio Gayoso*	Ramiro Santiago	TH-Trucks Rally Team	T4	33:12:08	+ 18:58

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Time
Prologue	28	Alexandre Pinto	7:20.6
Stage 1	38	Richard Aczel*	3:01:28
Stage 2	31	Alexandre Pinto	3:46:55
Stage 3	29	Mário Franco	3:18:28
Stage 4	31	Alexandre Pinto	2:26:26
Stage 5	27	Enrico Gaspari	1:19:48

W2RC

Drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Alexandre Pinto	168	Leader
2	Enrico Gaspari	149	– 19
3	Michele Cinotto	105	– 63
4	Claude Fournier	81	– 87
5	Sara Price	55	– 113
6	Mário Franco	50	– 118
7	Roger Grouwels	45	– 123
8	Manuel Andújar	42	– 126
9	Mansour Al-Helei	29	– 139
10	Fernando Álvarez	12	– 156
T-11	Diego Martinez	2	– 166
T-11	Carlos Vento	2	– 166

Navigators

Rank	Navigator	Points	Margin
1	Bernardo Oliveira	168	Leader
2	Fausto Mota	99	– 69
3	Maurizio Dominella	78	– 90
4	Sean Berriman	55	– 113
5	Patrick Jimbert	53	– 115
T-6	Antoine Lecourbe	50	– 118
T-6	João Miranda	50	– 118
8	Rudolf Meijer	45	– 123
9	Bernardo Graue	42	– 126
10	Khalid Al-Kendi	29	– 139
11	Grégory Revest-Arnoux	28	– 140
12	Alberto Bertoldi	27	– 141
13	Xavier Panseri	12	– 156
T-14	Jorge Brandão	2	– 166
T-14	Sergio Lafuente	2	– 166

Featured image credit: Edoardo Bauer / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO