Dustin Jones wins in Can-Am Maverick R’s racing debut

The 2024 Can-Am Maverick R was branded as the most powerful UTV upon reveal in August. Indeed, it only needed just one race to prove its meddle as Dustin Jones won the Silver State 300 overall in its competitive début.

Jones, a Can-Am Off-Road ambassador, set a total time of 5:11:39, leading a contingent of Can-Ams with Vito Ranuio and Phil Blurton trailing. It was the first time in Best In The Desert‘s sanction or any major American desert series that a UTV won a race outright. He had started fourth while World Rally-Raid Championship T3 leader Mitch Guthrie was on pole, though Jones quickly worked his way past the trio ahead of him. Ranuio finished three minutes behind Jones.

Blurton was also in a Maverick R; when the R was revealed, the 2021 SCORE International overall champion called the stock model faster than his usual race-ready Maverick. Jones’ Maverick, prepared by S3 Power Sports, featured stock suspension parts and gussets along the front lower arms.

While an overall victory with a UTV podium sweep is obviously impressive, there is the caveat of the field only having a single Trick Truck and three Class 6100 cars, both categories that typically dominate races. Said truck, driven by Jonathan Brenthel, finished eleventh overall while his brother Jordan Brenthel was fourth behind the UTVs in a Class 6100. Only forty-five entries also took part, partly owing to the race taking place just a week after SCORE’s Baja 400 while the California 300 is in two weeks; the Silver State 300 is normally held in April, but was moved to September due to heavy flooding.

Guthrie, who finished runner-up in the BITD’s Vegas to Reno in August, settled for fourth in the UTV Trophy Unlimited class and ninth overall.

The Maverick R was the product of a five-year development project by Bombardier Recreational Products, though its seven-speed dual clutch transmission—unprecedented for UTVs—began production eight years before reveal. One of the car’s key features is a very unusual tall-knuckle front suspension to improve handling and increase suspension travel, which also makes it wider than its predecessors at seventy-seven inches (eighty inches is the maximum under BITD regulations).

BRP has stressed that the Maverick R was not explicitly designed as a racing vehicle but rather a “high performance […] mass production car”. To this end, it received over 500 thousand kilometres of testing before it was finally introduced to the public.

Class winners