When Mitch Guthrie Jr drives his Ford Raptor off the start podium in Saudi Arabia next month for his maiden assault on the Dakar Rally in the T1+ category, it will be the realization of a dream.
The youngest member of M-Sport Ford’s rally raid roster came up through the Challenger class (formerly the T3 Lightweight Prototype category), narrowly missing out on victory to Red Bull team-mate and current Dacia T1 driver Cristina Gutiérrez on the final stage.
Those performances did not go unnoticed and were enough for Ford to be convinced of Guthrie Jr’s prowess. The reward was a factory seat alongside four-time winner Carlos Sainz, double winner Nani Roma and ultimate all-rounder, Mattias Ekström.
That may sound like a farfetched fairy-tale but come January it’s about to become very real for the Californian driver and navigator Kellon Walch.
Guthrie and co-driver Walch are pumped for their new challenge
“For me, it’s the dream [to race with Ford], because when you are racing at a young age, especially as an American in cross-country, it’s not easy, it’s a tough path,” Guthrie Jr tells DirtFish.
“To get into the T1+ class, which is the top category, is even tougher. So, to do well in the States, get noticed and get the opportunity to do some racing overseas and do well there to the point where I got noticed by Ford, it’s just all of these pieces being put together.
“And to be with Ford, the first season with this new team and the new car, it’s like a dream come true to me.”
If you know your UTV and King of the Hammers history, you’ll need no reminder of Guthrie Jr’s racing heritage. His father, Mitch Guthrie Sr, is a six-time winner of the King of the Hammers and a legend in US off-roading circles.
It’s a pretty big shadow to step out of, but Guthrie Jr isn’t concerned by being compared to his dad. Instead, he’s doing things his own way, and going a step further by competing on the world stage.
Not that the Dakar bore any resonance with the Californian when he was touring the American deserts as a child.
“I started doing desert racing and getting sponsors, and I didn’t know anything about the Dakar,” explains Guthrie Jr. “And then, eventually I got approached by Red Bull, and they sponsored me in the States, but at the same time they asked me if I was interested in doing the Dakar.
“And I was like: ‘Yeah, sure’ but I had no idea what it was so I kind of had to go home and study what it was!
“Because, in the States, there was really just a small crowd following the event, or even cross-country and I wasn’t one of them, but I started looking into it and started racing it which was the best way to do it.”
Unlike his team-mates, Guthrie Jr has yet to race the Raptor T1+ but has been at the forefront of the development of the new car, clocking over three thousand kilometers in the summer and getting himself properly acquainted with the much larger and more powerful surroundings.
“I’ve done a ton of testing, we’ve done maybe four of five trips to a whole bunch of different countries, to Spain and Morocco, France, and lots of different terrain and I feel really comfortable in the car,” explains Guthrie Jr, who contested October’s Rallye du Maroc in a Red Bull Junior Team Taurus T3.
“I’ve done thousands of kilometers in the car already and we are happy with the setups of the car and everything. Me and [navigator] Kellon [Walch] are comfortable, and now it’s just a question of getting out to Dakar to race.
“We’ve done a lot of simulations during testing, which means a lot of long days with the road book, and it was really demanding.”
Guthrie has not competed in the Raptor yet, but has completed significant testing mileage
Those long days are a necessary part of fine-tuning any car let alone one which has only just come out of the box. Guthrie Jr may be the less experienced racer of the M-Sport roster, but the blend of old and new within the team has helped the Raptor not only largely reliable, but quick as well.
It has also given Guthrie Jr himself a fast-track learning curve.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for me, to get my foot in the door and learn at a super-fast pace with guys like Carlos, Nani and Mattias,” says Guthrie Jr.
“Hopefully the learning curve will be less steep with them by my side, I can ask them so many questions, so they are all legends and being able to test with all three of them has been great. There’s so much I can learn from them, it’s crazy.
“Thankfully, the nice thing about racing in the Challenger class, you’re at the Dakar every year so I have had the chance to meet them and speak to them quite a bit, so I already knew them a bit before so definitely have gotten a lot closer to them now. I can go to them with questions and to get advice, but at the same time, I don’t always have to go to them, they can come to me as well and we can work together.”
Guthrie is focused on learning from his illustrious team-mates, but also feels he can help them
While much is new to Guthrie Jr for the 47th edition of the Dakar Rally, one constant over the years has been his trusty navigator in the passenger seat, Kellon Walch, who previously navigated for Robby Gordon in 2011 when the event was still held in South America.
“Kellon’s awesome, he’s a great guy first of all, and then when it comes to being in the passenger seat, he’s a brilliant navigator,” says Guthrie Jr.
“He’s done the Dakar so many times, he originally started on the bikes, so that’s huge when you are a bike guy moving to the passenger seat because you’re no longer having to ride and read the road book, you’re just reading the road book.
“Also, him being American too, it’s cool to have someone from the same country, that helps too because we can test together in the States, we use the same words and we’re just on the same page now. He knows what I’m thinking, and I know what he’s thinking, so that’s really good.”
