Christopher Nolan wishes he could’ve fitted the new Challenger-spec Can-Am Maverick R into his upcoming telling of The Odyssey, if only to futher spite the people complaining about historical accuracy in a fictional story.

Speaking of odysseys, Mitchel van den Brink was pleasantly surprised to win both his class and the overall at the Baja Greece. It certainly helped that all of the usual contenders were wiped out in the end like the suitors trying to hook up with Penelope (do spoilers even matter for a millenniums-old story that most people have already read in school?).

While previously enjoying success in the Challenger category with the Maverick X3, BRP shifted its rally focus to the SSV side following the Maverick R’s release. With things going well on that front, partner South Racing formally reintroduced Can-Am to the T3 class at this weekend’s Baja Greece by developing a Maverick R fit to compete in it.

Van den Brink, who won the 2025 FIA World Baja Cup in SSV with the Maverick R, was involved with the CHG1 version’s development in Portugal. It has plenty of similarities to the SSV counterpart down to the 966cc turbocharged Rotax engine and funky front-knuckled suspension, but comes with a bigger and closed cockpit, a carbon body, and its seats are homologated for 2027. The Challenger model also relies on J.Juan brakes and is supposed to be more affordable than other cars in its class like the Taurus.

The Maverick R matched up in Greece against a pair of Taurus Evo Max cars piloted by Hamed Al-Wahaibi and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari. However, the Tauruses quickly fell behind; Al-Kuwari struggled with the mud and water splashing up, while Al-Wahaibi had his share of mechanical problems.

While this meant van den Brink had the class win all but secured provided he reached the finish, the latter goal was one that other categories couldn’t quite achieve. The final stage was unusually brutal as overall leader Benediktas Vanagas had a brake disc hub snap just 50 kilometers from the finish.

“We started hearing strange noises,” Vanagas explained. “We thought we could push through, but it was impossible. You cannot reach the finish line on three wheels. Externally, the Hilux is undamaged; it is just missing a wheel.”

Tomasz Białkowski was even more unlucky on the leg as he rolled down a hill and crashed into a tree. He and Dariusz Baśkiewicz were unharmed, but their Polaris being upside down meant they were the race’s only DNF.

With attrition taking its toll, van den Brink ended up beating the T1+ car of Lionel Baud for both the stage win on Sunday. In fact, UTVs swept the FIA podium. T3 hanging with Ultimate vehicles isn’t a particularly unusual phenomenon in European cross-country rallies, where forests and tight courses are basically the great equalizer.

“Compliments to South Racing. That team built a top-class car,” said van den Brink, who also won the 2025 Baja Greece in SSV. “This T3 can hold its own against the Tauruses, and it’s great that we won with such a large lead.”

Magdalena Zając rounded out the Ultimate podium in third, but you’d be forgiven for not relalizing. Zając pointed out that she wasn’t invited to join Trněný and Baud at the prize-giving ceremony even though podiums for every category were to be recognized. The same happened at the 2025 edition when she finished third in Ultimate there as well.

Dania Akeel locked up her brakes in Stage 1 while going through wet leaves, causing her to slide off course into a river. The final day went smoother as she placed second in class and third overall, though she was in too much of a hole to break out of. Still, she was glad to reach the finish.

“It wasn’t really the plan, but I learned a lot. That’s the most important thing,” Akeel remarked.

Baja Greece was a combination race for the FIA World and European Baja Cups.

FIA

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	4	205	Karel Trněný	Václav Pritzl	X-Force Racing	Ford F-150 EVO	T1+	8:34:43.2	Leader
2	6	201	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	X-raid Mini JCW Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	8:42:14.4	+ 7:31.2
3	7	207	Magdalena Zając	Błażej Czekan	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	8:44:13.2	+ 9:30.0
4	8	206	Costel Cășuneanu	Sergiu Itu	Costel Cășuneanu	Mini All4 Racing	T1.1	8:49:41.1	+ 14:57.9
5	10	202	Khalid Al-Jafla	Andrei Rudnitski	Al-Jafla Racing	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	9:02:40.3	+ 27:57.1
6	15	204	Maria Luís Gameiro	Rosa Romero Font	X-raid Mini JCW Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	11:31:1.9	+ 2:56:28.7
7	16	203	Benediktas Vanagas	Aisvydas Paliukėnas	Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	14:58:15.7	+ 6:23:32.5
8	17	200	Dania Akeel	Sébastien Delaunay	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	15:34:44.4	+ 7:00:01.2

Challenger

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	1	300	Mitchel van den Brink	Bart van Heun	South Racing / Eurol Rally Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	8:01:51.9	Leader
2	13	301	Hamed Al-Wahaibi	Maciej Giemza	DaklaPack Rallysport	Taurus Evo Max	11:05:36.4	+ 3:03:44.5
3	14	302	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	Max Delfino	QMMF Racing	Taurus Evo Max	11:11:12.7	3:09:20.8

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	2	403	Mansour Al-Helei	Khalid Al-Kendi	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	8:24:01.2	Leader
2	3	401	Hedda Hosås	Pol Tibau	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	8:32:07.3	+ 8:06.1
3	5	404	Murat Kaplanoğlu	Aleksandar Trendafilov	ASC BMW Motorsport Bulgaria	Can-Am Maverick R	T4	8:41:38.2	+ 17:37.0
4	9	405	Yağız Birinci	Uğur Tepe	Birinci Racing Performance	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	8:54:01.5	+ 30:00.3
5	11	400	Fernando Álvarez	Xavier Panseri	South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	9:10:16.6	+ 46:15.4
DNF	DNF	402	Tomasz Białkowski	Dariusz Baśkiewicz	Kamena Rally Team	Polaris RZR Pro R	SSV1	DNF	N/A

Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	12	500	Fernando Barreiros	José Sá Pires	Fernando Barreiros	Isuzu D-Max	10:27:23.3	Leader
2	18	501	Almashna Al-Shammari	Abdullah Al-Shammari	Almashna Al-Shammari	Nissan Patrol	19:10:42.0	+ 8:43:18.7

National

NTH

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	7	700	Fotis Koutsoubos	Anastasios Tsagarakis	Koutsoubos Engineering	Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 90	TZ1.2	10:48:28.6	Leader
2	8	701	Ioannis Vorrias	Athanasios Bakas	Ioannis Vorrias	Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution	TZ1.2	10:54:07.9	+ 5:39.3
3	12	702	Ahmet Tinkir	Ali Kutay	Ali Kutay	Mitsubishi L200	TZ1.2	13:03:09.6	+ 2:14:41.0
4	15	704	Giorgos Koutsoubos	Giorgos Vasileiou	Koutsoubos Engineering	Suzuki Vitara	TZ1.1	16:59:10.9	+ 6:10:42.3
5	16	705	Apostolos Moraitis	Konstsantinos Mpirmpilis	Leon Racing GR	Suzuki Jimny	TZ1.1	17:01:46.1	+ 6:13:17.5
6	17	706	Panagiotis Koutsoubos	Konstantinos Exarxos	Koutsoubos Engineering	Suzuki Grand Vitara	TZ1.1	18:57:46.8	+ 8:09:18.2
7	18	703	Andreas Tziallas	Nikolaos Makarios	Andreas Tziallas	Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ	TZ1.4	20:36:21.1	+ 9:47:52.5

NSSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	1	802	Taxiarchis Adamopoulos	Theodoros Argyropoulos	Taxiarchis Adamopoulos	Can-Am Maverick R	9:53:42.5	Leader
2	2	803	Riccardo Ambrosetti	Cristian Darchi	Riccardo Ambrosetti	Can-Am Maverick R	9:57:25.5	+ 3:43.0
3	3	810	Mattheos Skaftouros	Kyriakos Kottis	Mattheos Skaftouros	Can-Am Maverick R	9:57:29.2	+ 3:46.7
4	4	809	Dimitrios Kokkinos	Ioannis Varvakis	Euroenergy	Can-Am Maverick R	10:00:25.3	+ 6:42.8
5	5	805	Nikolas Mitsotakis	Achilleas Adamidis	Nikolas Mitsotakis	Can-Am Maverick R	10:06:26.4	+ 12:43.9
6	6	804	Evaggelos Bersis	Petros Sioutis	Evaggelos Bersis	Can-Am Maverick R	10:46:13.9	+ 52:31.4
7	9	800	Lampros Dionisakopoulos	George Kanellopoulos	Lampros Dionisakopoulos	Can-Am Maverick R	11:44:26.1	+ 1:50:43.6
8	10	811	Ioannis Akratos	Marios Tsaousoglou	Fastkey Rally Team	Can-Am Maverick R	11:46:56.2	+ 1:53:13.7
9	11	808	Federico Ambrosetti	Stefano Tironi	Federico Ambrosetti	Can-Am Maverick X3	12:41:49.8	v2:48:07.3
10	13	806	Ernest Kuś	Grzegorz Szymanski	Ernest Kuś	Can-Am Maverick X3	15:49:10.6	+ 5:55:28.1
11	14	807	Dimitrios Palaiokostas	Dimitrios Amaxopoulos	Dimitrios Palaiokostas	Can-Am Maverick R	16:29:43.4	+ 6:36:00.9
DNF	DNF	801	Vladislav Velkov	Nikolai Rumenov	Vabonti Racing Team	Can-Am Maverick R	DNF	N/A

Featured image credit: South Racing