Like his fellow riders, Juraj Varga was livid when the ASO announced quads would no longer appear at the Dakar Rally starting 2025. Since then, he and most of his colleagues have made the switch a slightly different form of four-wheelers. In Varga’s case, he now races an SSV.

Ten months after making the switch, he can finally call himself an SSV rally winner.

Varga, who finished third in the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship for Quad and on the podium for the final Dakar with them, won the Fenix Rally in SSV. Held in Tunisia, it was his first time doing a desert rally as a driver after primarily driving in European bajas. He had won the T4 subclass at the Hungarian Baja and Baja Poland, but Fenix was the first time where he beat side-by-sides that would’ve fallen under the FIA’s SSV1 regulations too.

The rally began with Varga finishing second in SSV behind Hugues Lacam. However, Lacam fell out the picture the next day and would finish at the bottom due to mechanical issues. Varga won Stages 3 and 4 to pull ahead, consistently finishing in the top ten the rest of the way.

Although Nicolas Martinez won SSV for the final three legs, a mechanical problem forced him to miss the fourth stage. Tomáš Kubiena, the next closest driver to Varga, was nearly an hour and a half behind.

“We started the Fenix Rally for the first time. It’s a very beautiful rally,” said Varga after the finish. “We had everything: dirt, rocks, and sand. We are very happy.”

Like Varga, Gerrit Zuurmond arrived in Tunisia with Dakar experience under his belt. Unlike Varga, who still plans to return to Dakar, Zuurmond and Rainbow Truck Team were using Fenix to prepare for the almost-concurrent Africa Eco Race. Their MAN TGA, a different and automatic model from the manual-transmission TGS used at the AER, underwent some upgrades like new brakes and now sharing the same bumper as the TGS beforehand.

Zuurmond battled with Tom Heuer and Paolo Calabria early on. Despite losing a bumper in Stage 2, a disastrous Stage 3 for the class helped Zuurmond make up any lost time as he and Calabria were the only trucks to reach the finish. The second half of the race was relatively clean save for stopping to help an SSV and a flat tire.

The Enduro overall was a duel between Dương Nguyễn-Khoa and Edvard Sokolovskij. Nguyễn-Khoa was able to build a comfortable margin due to Sokolovskij receiving 41 minutes and 45 seconds in penalties for speeding and other infractions. Even though he couldn’t catch the Frenchman, Sokolovskij still erased much of the gap to manage a runner-up finish. He also placed second at RBI Sport’s Rallye Breslau in June.

Abdul el Karim Ben Hassan won all but the first stage in Car Limited, while Agostino Rizzardi dominated Car Open. Antanas Kanopkinas beat teammate and newly crowned W2RC Quad champion Gaëtan Martinez for their class win, though Martinez had fallen out of the picture due to a Stage 2 engine failure.

The race was plagued by organizational turmoil, partly from having to improvise early on as severe flooding forced RBI Sport to make changes to the route and bivouac. The electronic roadbooks also frequently jammed in both the wetter conditions and in the extreme heat when in the dunes. Still, everyone noted the latter had improved by the end.

The Fenix Rally was the fourth and final race of the 2025 RBI Sport season. Being the company’s only desert rally, it was used by teams either to prep for Dakar or the AER.

“At the start of the event, the organizer said that whoever completed this rally raid would be ready to tackle events like the Africa Eco Race and even the Dakar Rally. I have to agree with him on that,” Koen Wauters said. He finished fourth in Car Open, missing out on a podium to Breslau Extreme Open victor Hardo Mere because he got stuck in the fesh-fesh at the end of Stage 5.

“We really didn’t know what to expect beforehand. Now I can say that if it fits my schedule, I’ll be back. It was a tough event where we learned a lot about the car. We know its weaknesses, and we’ll address those in the coming weeks. Navigation-wise, it was also quite challenging but Tom (de Leeuw) did so perfectly. I’m also pleased with my own driving, although that turn yesterday could perhaps have been a bit better.”

Car Open

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	229	Agostino Rizzardi	Claudio Fenati	CountrysideWays	20:45:45.52	Leader
2	214	Vincent Thijs	Arjan van Tiel	RT Offroad	21:30:31.99	+ 44:46.47
3	204	Hardo Mere	Joonas Oja	HM Racing Team	22:34:13.53	+ 1:48:28.01
4	212	Koen Wauters	Tom de Leeuw	Feryn Dakar Sport	23:13:34.43	+ 2:27:48.99
5	231	Magdalena Zając	Błażej Czekan	Proxcars TME Rally Team	23:26:25.38	+ 2:40:39.98
6	218	Rainer Ruutli	Mihkel Svätski	Seiklejad	24:45:46.96	+ 4:00:01.44
7	215	Tarvo Klaasimae	Ats Tsupsman	Mudest Offroad Team	26:03:42.15	+ 5:17:56.96
8	211	Gaëtan Gé	Jean-Pierre Normand	Team Mecapark	41:49:49.49	+ 21:04:03.99
9	220	Aymen Khlifi	Jamel Ben Khalifa	Rev Team	46:02:18.66	+ 25:16:33.14
10	217	Piotr Urbaniak	Marcin Platek	Urbaniak Rally Team	47:03:15.91	+ 26:17:30.39
11	226	Tudor Alexandru Mircea	Valentin Alexandroae	Kamikaze Team	58:39:31.27	+ 37:53:45.97
12	209	Johnny Mauduit	Renaud Fauville	Team Caposud	60:23:38.74	+ 39:37:53.22
13	203	Konrad Theobald	Ramona Theobald	Kraftverkehr Torgau	94:59:09.64	+ 74:13:24.12
14	222	Youssef Haj Ltaief	Mustapha Benarfa	Rev Team	106:59:41.79	+ 86:13:56.27
15	224	Pascal Feryn	Kurt Keysers	Feryn Dakar Sport	113:22:07.40	+ 92:36:21.988
16	227	Remigiusz Wutkowski	Michał Goleniewski	Wutkowski Motorsports	120:19:52.31	+ 99:34:06.97
17	207	Maximilian Buechel	Florian Willer	Iron Bull Desert Team	125:06:00.00	+ 108:20:14.94
18	208	Richard Cretier	Sandra Rivière	Team Mecapark	129:36:00.00	+ 108:50:14.94

Car Limited

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	221	Abdul el Karim Ben Hassan	Mohamed Ali Drira	Tunis Automobile Club	22:59:29.37	Leader
2	216	Ewald Holler	Markus Bodzenta	Helka Competition	42:19:27.45	+ 19:19:58.08
3	206	Abdennour Benabdennour	Gregory Kucipak	Nour	55:43:24.69	+ 32:43:55.32
4	210	Ernst Amort	Carmen Borkowetz	Pircher Williams	67:25:21.68	+ 44:25:52.31
5	202	Gilles Girousse	Daniel Hulster	Aventure Girousse	119:59:00.00	+ 96:59:30.96

SSV

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	422	Juraj Varga	Radovan Schneider	Varga Motorsport Team	21:44:19.18	Leader
2	438	Tomáš Kubiena	Miroslav Losos	Story Racing	23:14:15.39	+ 1:29:56.21
3	416	Eric Culus	Carla Isidoro	Les Copains de la Terre	23:48:13.65	+ 2:03:54.47
4	433	Duica Nicusor	Duica Nicoleta	Dumobat	24:33:07.27	+ 2:48:48.09
5	419	Marcin Graczyk	Artur Kordala	Martin Racing Team	24:51:02.39	+ 3:06:43.21
6	424	Michel Visy	Loïc Minaudier	Rally Events	25:10:48.32	+ 3:26:29.14
7	432	Paolo Scalzotto	Aldo de Lorenzo	RZR Racing	26:59:17.92	+ 5:14:58.74
8	407	Stefan Kober	Martin Zeh	PORS	27:11:11.44	+ 5:26:52.26
9	420	Marian Andreev	Marius Pop	M&M Race Team	27:36:19.12	+ 5:51:59.99
10	414	Hanne Wilzing	Robin Pupp	Wilzing Racing Team	28:08:08.27	+ 6:23:49.09
11	410	Adrian von Lerber	Peter Schumann	Brigal Team	28:25:41.32	+ 6:41:22.14
12	426	Werner Pfeuffer	Frank Hartwig	Pfeuffer	28:25:54.61	+ 6:41:35.43
13	403	Sven Syfrig	Michael Ginter	TimeOut Racing	28:34:18.36	+ 6:49:59.18
14	435	Arjan Donders	Edwin Vloemans	Quadwinkel	28:54:39.41	+ 7:10:20.23
15	428	Kader Bey	Philippe Severac	Elbey Travel	29:34:14.79	+ 7:49:55.61
16	409	Daniel Pernot	Thierry Laloup	AT4R	30:59:39.67	+ 9:15:20.49
17	417	Jens Nador	Steffen Kühne	JS Racing	32:53:45.14	+ 11:09:25.99
18	439	Harry Thomas	Rudi Wiesner	PORS	35:07:42.24	+ 13:23:23.06
19	412	Nikola Hristov	Nedko Hristov	Synthesia Racing	35:19:53.14	+ 13:35:33.99
20	434	Keiko Hamaguchi	Umberto Fiori	Jazz Tech Team ASD	37:51:33.77	+ 16:07:14.59
21	429	Edward Ruszczyc	Krzysztof Kubiś	RedFox OffRoad Team	38:12:58.20	+ 16:28:39.02
22	405	René-Jean Rinaldi	Frédéric Jean / Claude Ladhoue	AT4R	38:20:48.96	+ 16:36:29.78
23	411	Pit Karches	Anja Schweyer	PORS	41:48:23.96	+ 20:04:04.78
24	404	Matthias Krüger	Hans Christian Maurer	Daktec	43:27:40.39	+ 21:43:21.21
25	415	Jan Wilzing	Jaroslav Kosan	Wilzing Racing Team	47:27:39.36	+ 25:43:20.18
26	430	Matthieu Marconnet	Chloe Simon	Team Mac Racing	48:55:20.99	+ 27:11:01.81
27	408	Jimmy Sciacca	Sabrina Gimenez	Rider 78	57:36:56.51	+ 35:52:37.33
28	425	Jori Panhuijzen-van der Velden	Tom Panhuijzen	Greenteam Panhuijzen	58:40:00.38	+ 36:55:41.20
29	418	Nicolas Martinez	Loriane Forgues	Aravis Rallye Raid	61:06:55.77	+ 39:22:36.59
30	423	Michel Salvatore	Peter Sera	Rally Events	61:19:55.18	+ 39:35:36.00
31	427	Uwe Götzel	Matthew Gird	UG Rallyesport / TimeOut Racing	61:53:12.74	+ 40:08:53.56
32	421	Thomas Ullrich	Katrin Bohlen	Ullrich	66:22:02.16	+ 44:37:42.99
33	477	Edwin Opstelten	Henny van Kouwen	EDDS Thundercamels	67:49:38.18	+ 46:05:19.00
34	406	Frédéric Henricy	Eric Bersey	AT4R	81:06:45.96	+ 59:22:26.78
35	436	Paul Coyne	Robert Eadie	Coyne / Eadie – PTAqua Racing	98:39:59.88	+ 76:55:40.70
36	444	Marco van Geugten	Michaelle Opstelten	EDDS Thundercamels	100:54:11.37	+ 79:09:52.19
37	440	Hugues Lacam	Delphine Delfino	Speed Up Racing	102:30:26.37	+ 80:46:07.19
38	431	Gianpaolo Bedin	Sara Torielli	Raitec Racing	120:56:39.35	+ 99:12:20.17
39	437	Richard Oguez	Anne Ordu	Oguez	133:40:00.00	+ 111:55:40.98

Truck

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	507	Gerrit Zuurmond	Tjeerd van Ballegooy	Klaas Kwakkel	Rainbow Truck Team	24:27:01.49	Leader
2	501	Paolo Calabria	Loris Calubini	Giuseppe Fortuna	Eagle Racing Team	29:30:10.51	+ 5:03:09.02
3	505	Francicus van Lenkveld	Pieter van de Sande	Roel van Lankveld	Lankveld Rally Team	37:59:43.52	+ 13:32:42.03
4	506	Tom Heuer	Christoph Tum	Marco Richter	Sueptitz Motorsport	40:33:54.33	+ 16:06:52.98
5	504	Philippe Roman	Cédric Delmas	Mathieu Tonello	Roman	46:01:35.49	+ 21:34:34.00
6	508	Mike Panhuijzen	Bert van Loon	Pieter Kuypers	Greenteam Panhuijzen	82:09:44.14	+ 57:42:42.96

Enduro

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	16	Dương Nguyễn-Khoa	France Road Book	22:20:22.75	Leader
2	91	Edvard Sokolovskij	AG Dakar School	22:27:06.45	+ 6:43.97
3	14	Urban Jerkič	Desert Soul Rally Team	22:36:12.81	+ 15:50.06
4	8	Christian Pastori	Compass Racing Team	23:12:51.83	+ 52:29.08
5	64	Dominique Robin	Robin Rally Raid	24:02:55.25	+ 1:42:32.95
6	65	Julien Robin	Robin Rally Raid	25:01:44.89	+ 2:41:22.14
7	81	Saulius Klevinskas	AG Dakar School	25:13:15.38	+ 2:52:52.96
8	21	Alaeddine Bengherifa	Fédération Algérienne des Sports Mécaniques	25:49:56.11	+ 3:29:33.93
9	11	Laurynas Avyžius	Arch Moto Team	26:48:25.19	+ 4:28:02.94
10	15	Mathieu Leboe	NPS	27:51:18.25	+ 5:30:55.95
11	22	Rachid Laribi	Fédération Algérienne des Sports Mécaniques	39:40:56.98	+ 17:20:34.23
12	18	Taher Fourati	Team Fourati Racing	45:49:53.64	+ 23:29:30.98
13	19	Florian Barbotte	France Road Book	61:54:10.73	+ 39:33:47.99
14	12	Alexandre Malassigne	Alexandre Malassigne	61:55:49.72	+ 39:35:26.99
15	20	Abdelkader Mebarki	Abdelkader Mebarki	120:19:31.95	+ 97:59:09.20

ATV

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	10	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	24:58:36.50	Leader
2	17	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	35:44:24.29	+ 10:45:47.97

Featured image credit: Gall Media / RBI Media