On December 8, CFMOTO officially claimed that it will compete in the Dakar Rally on January 5, 2024.

After five years of development, CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team will finally make their Dakar Rally debut in 2024 as part of a programme that will take them across nearly the entire World Rally-Raid Championship. Team manager Antanas Kanopkinas will race at Dakar on his CFMOTO CFORCE 1000 in the Quad category.

CFMOTO C-Force 1000 features a V-type two-cylinder four-stroke 963cc water-cooled engine producing 79 horsepower at 7000 RPM, a CVT transmission and manual switching of two/four-wheel drive modes.

Quad bikes will follow exactly the same course and route as two-wheelers, cars, trucks, etc. However, quad bikes are a niche category in any rally, including the Dakar Rally, with only 10 quad riders registered for the 2024 Dakar. And except for a CFMOTO model, the remaining nine models are YAMAHA Raptor 700s. The Dakar Rally set up its first quad bike class after moving from North Africa to South America in 2009, and the YAMAHA Raptor 700 dominated all 15 quad bike champions since the first quad bike match, and the CFMOTO really independently compete with YAMAHA this time.

Four-wheelers will follow exactly the same course and route as two-wheelers and cars and trucks. But four-wheelers are a niche category in any rally, including the Dakar Rally, and only 10 quads have registered for Dakar 2024. In addition to one Spring breeze, the remaining nine cars are Raptor 700 from Yamaha. With the Dakar Rally having its first quad division since it moved from North Africa to South America in 2009, the Yamaha Raptor 700 has dominated all 15 quad races since its inception, and the Spring Breeze is truly challenging Yamaha’s dominance this time around.

Apart from the Dakar Rally from January 5 to 19, CFMOTO is expected to compete in four of the five W2RC sub-races in 2024, namely the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February, the Rally Across the Iberian Peninsula in April and the Rally Morocco in October.