Yekaterinburg celebrated City Day last weekend with a festival called RCC Energy, put on by the Russian Copper Company. Amid the live performances and events, by far the biggest attention grabbers were the 37 Dakar Rally vehicles on display.

Nine raced in this year’s edition. Trucks included the IVECO EVO 4s of Kees Koolen and winner Martin Macík Jr., Tomáš Vrátný’s Tatra FF7 and Karel Poslední’s Buggyra Tatra Phoenix, and the Scania LoneStar of Maurik van den Heuvel. Annett Quandt’s X-raid Yamaha and Francisco López Contardo’s Maverick R respectively represented the Challenger and SSV classes, whereas Guillaume de Mévius’ X-raid Mini, Mitch Guthrie’s M-Sport Ford Raptor, and Ronald Van Loon’s Red-Lined REVO were there for Ultimate.

Trucks comprised much of those displayed. Besides the FF7, Fesh Fesh’s old Ford Cargo that Albert Llovera raced in 2023 was on hand. The Praga V4S that Aleš Loprais drove before his defection to IVECO was there, as was the Scania Hyena of Miklos Kovacs. Plenty of the pre-2025 trucks also had Dutch origins such as Mitchel van den Brink and Vick Versteijnen’s 2024 IVECO PowerStars, Igor Bouwens’ Morocco Desert Challenge-winning T-Way, Richard de Groot’s DAF CF75 that raced in 2023, and the Renault C460 hybrid of Gert Huzink from 2024.

Seth Quintero’s G Rally OT3 that won 12 stages in 2022 and Paul Spierings‘ tenth-placed Maverick from 2024 were other side-by-sides at the festival. Nani Roma’s Ford Ranger, M-Sport’s maiden rally raider developed in partnership with Neil Woolridge Motorsport before the Raptor, sat on a sloped platform as did Marcos Baumgart’s yellow Prodrive Hunter and Nasser Al-Attiyah’s legendary Toyota GR DKR Hilux.

While foreign cars and trucks dominated, domestic machinery was obviously present too. KAMAZ-master, a month removed from winning the Silk Way Rally, sent a trio headlined by the KAMAZ-43509 alongside the 435092 and 435091. Yekaterinburg native and 2017 Dakar Quad champion Sergei Kariakin brought his Yamaha Raptor from that rally as well as his Can-Am Maverick X3; Kariakin did demonstration laps on the former.

“This is a real pride, another achievement that happened thanks to our patrons,” Kariakin said after the festival. “We have the largest collection of Dakar vehicles in the world in this region, including modern winners and Dakar participants.

“I’m sure this will become a way for future generations to be interested in motorsports, support Dakar just like I do, and help raise Dakar champions in different categories in different classes. Of course, they’ll also raise the flag of our beautiful country over their heads on the top step of the podium.”

All of the non-Russian vehicles were purchased by an RCC executive through a vendor in Dubai. In July, most of the Dutch trucks and Loprais’ Praga were spotted being shipped from the Netherlands to St. Petersburg. Most were put up for sale after Dakar as their owners planned to upgrade to new rides.

Now in Russia, the vehicles will be go to a museum-slash-private collection.

The Russian Copper Company is one of the country’s largest copper producers, consisting of eight mining and metallurgy subsidiaries. Because of its importance to the Russian economy and war machine during the invasion of Ukraine, the company has been under sanctions from the U.K. since 2023. RCC founder Igor Altushkin, who attended the festival, is sanctioned by multiple Western nations as well; he is also the leader of the “Ural” private military company that has seen action in Ukraine.

Despite the penalties on Russian trade, business dealings still take place, usually through an intermediary. These middlemen are not under sanction from the West, so they could acquire what their Russian client desires before selling them along. Such an arrangement has occurred repeatedly since the start of the invasion in 2022, leading to cases of Western components in Russian military hardware.

While they did not name the customer, M-Sport confirmed to 131 Off-Road that the Ranger and Raptor were sold following their respective Dakars. From there, whatever happened to them was wholly up to their new owner.

“Once a vehicle has been sold, its subsequent ownership, display, or use falls entirely under the discretion and responsibility of the purchaser,” the U.K.-based team explained. “As the seller, we do not have control over, nor do we authorize how a customer may choose to use or present the vehicle after the point of sale.”

A source who’s worked with M-Sport was similarly intrigued by the team selling their Raptors after just a single Dakar. Mattias Ekström was Ford’s best finisher in January’s rally when he finished third, followed by Guthrie in fifth. The chassis on Ekström’s car is now part of Martin Prokop’s new Raptor after he allied with M-Sport. Carlos Sainz, who won a stage but retired, presumably had his scrapped.

Roma’s Dakar Raptor remains with M-Sport as a backup car, while he had a new one built for the Baja Aragón in July. Another Raptor was newly prepared for Jourdan Serderidis.

“I’m surprised Ford didn’t want to keep any of them for themselves,” the source remarked. “I guess it’d have been a different story had they won.”

Featured image credit: Русская медная компания