The Viking Challenger, a new T3 car developed by Sports Racing Technologies, will make its debut later this month at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal. It’s got a heck of a driver for its maiden start too as SRT has enlisted defending Dakar Rally Challenger winner Pau Navarro and his navigator Jan Rosa.

Navarro had been intimately involved with testing the car in recent months, describing it as “really fun to drive”. After suspension testing in muddy conditions in France, he quipped that he also appreciated how “the car is really dirty and I’m really dry and clean.”

SRT is a Latvian firm that mainly builds and fields rally cars. The company also has UTVs like Can-Am Mavericks in its arsenal, and from which some elements are used on the Viking too like the differential. SRT’s clients have included Dakar alumni and fellow Baltic rally drivers Vladas Jurkevičius and Urvo Männama, 2025 Dakar winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi when he dabbled in WRC, and ARA star Brandon Semenuk.

Semenuk and WRC driver Mārtiņš Sesks have also helped test the Viking. The car would later undergo testing in France and at the Nasser Racing Camp in Spain.

RX Carbon built the car’s carbon fiber body paneling. The body parts are also easily removable to allow for access to the Viking’s inner workings.

Besides the Viking, Minotor’s own CH1 T3 car will also run its first race in Portugal with Stéphane Sarrazin. Sarrazin was supposed to race Dakar but the team pushed the entry back two months to continue development.

Featured image credit: Viking Challenger