Price earns 2024 Dakar berth with Sonora win; Casey Currie joins Price as a class podium finisher in Mexican 1000
After five grueling days of competition in the 2023 Sonora Rally, Monster Energy athlete Sara Price earned her way into the 2024 Dakar Rally by taking the National Auto Class victory. Price’s winning time was nearly an hour ahead of her closest competition in the navigation-style rally, allowing her to claim the automatic berth in next year’s Dakar awarded to the class winner through the Road to Dakar program.
“The Sonora Rally was one for the books and I am honestly still on cloud nine,” said Price, who completed the event in 17:14:04 in her Can-Am Maverick X3 and won two stages and the prologue. “Getting to Dakar has been a dream of mine since 2015 and this year I decided to put 100% of my focus towards it. We are going to Dakar and I can’t wait to do it!’’
But the Sonora win wasn’t all that Price had up her sleeve. Just days later, Price hit the desert once again as part of a massive Evolution Stock Turbo UTV entry list for the 2023 NORRA Mexican 1000, eventually taking her second win in as many events. Once again, she put a comfortable margin on her closest competitor in her new Can-Am, finishing the five-day event in 19:51:46 and posting a margin victory of more than 20 minutes.
Joining Price as a Mexican 1000 podium finisher was Casey Currie, who finished third in the Evolution Open UTV class as part of a father-son driving effort in his Polaris RZR Pro R. Currie’s 19:32:50 secured the final podium spot in class by more than an hour, and nearly cracked the overall top 10 across all classes, which include an eclectic mix of modern and vintage race cars, trucks, UTVs, ATVs, and motorcycles.
“Amazing week!” Currie said after the event. “(We’re) on the podium with a third place finish. My dad did a great job all week driving and we finished it off today. The crew killed it, and our Pro R worked flawless. What an epic event. Now to enjoy Cabo.”
Monster Energy athletes have excelled throughout the 2023 campaign across some of UTV racing’s most prominent events. Currie took top honors in the Open class in the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship in February, while Price earned a victory in the BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 in March in the UTV Pro Super Stock Turbo class. In April, Rodrigo Ampudia kicked off the SCORE World Desert Championship by winning the Pro UTV Forced Induction class at the San Felipe 250 with the fastest time among all UTV entries.