TAURUS

 Off-road runs in Austin’s blood. ‘AJ’ as he’s known on the bivouac, spent his childhood learning the ins and outs of racing, although it was only in 2018 that he got behind the wheel himself, after spending a year as his dad’s co-driver. In his first full season, Austin took the SCORE International championship by storm, claiming victories at the Baja 500 and Baja 1000 in the Trophy Truck Spec class. Austin took his first steps in rally-raid towards the end of 2018 by entering the Rallye du Maroc. Second on the 2021 Dakar (SSV class), he followed that up by competing in the World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, taking three wins, including the final in Abu Dhabi to lift his first world title -and then going on to win his first Dakar at the beginning of 2022. Throughout the American has relied on his Brazilian co-driver's even more impressive record of achievements. Gustavo Gugelmin has seven Dakars under his belt. In 2018, with his compatriot Reinaldo Varela, he won the SSV category and followed that by winning the 2019 world cup in their category. Ten years ago, the Brazilian won the FIA World Cup in the T2 category. After their 2022 Dakar win and the marathon status points it gave them, the Jones / Gugelmin pairing were logical favourites to take the inaugural 2022 W2RC championship. Except a run of bad luck stopped them from making the break from rivals Mareck Goczal and Rokas Baciuska and going into the final round in Andalusia the three were separated by just 2 points! In the end Austin finished the race in fourth place to take third in the championship. The 2023 Dakar saw Austin and Gustavo move up to the fiercely competitive T3 class for lightweight prototypes but clearly they were not intimidated by the experience, winning their class first time out. They went on to compete in all the remaining rounds of the W2RC in that category, going into the last round, the Rallye du Maroc, neck and neck with Seth Quintero and Mitch Gutherie. Unfortunately Morocco didn’t go their way and a 20th place saw them finish the W2RC on the last step of the podium once again. Atfer a fifth place in Challenger category in Yanbu Dakar arrival, American driver switched with a news co-driver, ex-teammate of the Goczal family and Rokas Baciuska. The first association of Oriol Mena and AJ was successful, winning three stages in the category in the ADDC, catching victory and a fifth overall place. Nice re-start for AJ !