Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team teammates AJ Jones and Seth Quintero took second and third place finishes in the T3 class in today’s Stage 6 of the 2023 Dakar Rally, and they remain in those same positions overall at this point of the event as a result. While each lost a little bit of time to overall Lightweight Prototype leader Guillaume De Mevius, who won the stage, Jones is still within nine minutes of first place, and Quintero is a comfortable third, just under an hour behind Jones but well clear of defending winner Chaleco Lopez in fourth.

Just a few short years ago, American motorcycle racer Skyler Howes was one of the Dakar Rally’s most beloved privateers, selling off possessions and raising funds for an opportunity to compete in the world’s biggest rally raid. Two years ago, he landed his first factory contract with Husqvarna, and now, after five stages of the 2023 edition of the event, he finds himself in the overall lead by more than two minutes over the legendary Toby Price.

American racers have established themselves as forces to be reckoned with in two classes of racing in the Dakar Rally in recent years: motorcycles, where Ricky Brabec took the overall victory in 2020, and UTVs, where Casey Currie won in the same year. Today, it was a pair of different names at the top of the stage charts, hinting that 2023 could be more of the same.

2020 Dakar Rally winner Ricky Brabec put in a solid opening day of action, and benefitted from a handful of speeding penalties to some of his top competitors, to claim the motorcycle class win in Stage 1 of the 2023 Dakar Rally, avenging two years of early-race troubles to lead a throng of American riders in the top 10. Americans had a similarly successful day in the T3 Lightweight Prototype class, with three racers—led by Seth Quintero, winner of 12 stages last year—in the top six.

Each year, the global motorsport calendar kicks off with one of the toughest racing events in the world, as the Dakar Rally puts many of the world’s top off-road racers to the test over two weeks of competition through the Saudi Arabian desert. The event kicked off earlier today with a return to seaside action, as today’s Prologue stage from Sea Camp near Yanbu gave racers a 13-kilometer shakedown in preparation for one of the most grueling challenges in motorsport.