The 2017 Dakar featured its first ever UTV racers. Polaris is riding high off the lockout win, covering every one of the five finishing vehicles. Leandro Torres and co-driver Lourival Roldan have become the very first Dakar SSV (UTV) class winners, taking the 2017 title in their factory Xtreme Plus Polaris RZR1000XT machine, by an impressive 4h 42m.
Of the eight starters, there were five Polaris RZRs and three Yamaha YXZ1000Rs. Unfortunately, none of the Yamahas finished the race. “It is only my second Dakar and I only started in cross country rallying just last year.” Commented Torres. “Now I take the victory of the first edition of the SSV category in the Dakar and this is incredible. My dream has come true. It was hard, but very different compared to last year. I was more aggressive and I adored the special stages with the many surface changes. The road connections were tough too, as they were long and temperatures ranged from five to 50 degrees. It was tough, but to win the Dakar is just incredible.”
The second-place slot was filled by rookie Chinese driver Wang Fujiang and co-driver Li Wei. “The first stages were difficult because of the high heat,” Wei explained, “we thought we would never make it. We even had to drive at night and we have never done that before, but our team manager Marco kept us motivated and we progressed day after day to finish second in SSV, and as the first rookies. An incredible experience.”
Locking out the podium for Polaris was the Russian pairing of Ravil Maganov and Kirill Shubin. Early stage winners with impressive pace, it would be small mistakes that would hamper their progress, still finishing well despite some bad luck.
Marco Piana was the team manager for Xtreme Plus, a Polaris based race team, was extremely happy with his team’s performance through the race. “I am extremely proud of what we have all achieved as a team,” Piana said at the end of the race. “To win the Dakar is special, but to fill the podium, get every RZR home and to be the only manufacturer in our class to finish the race is simply incredible. A huge thank you to everyone that has supported us and our drivers this year, it’s been a truly incredible ride.”
The UTV class started out small but judging how popular they are in the rest of the aftermarket, expect to see many more competitors in the class next year.
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