Seth
Quintero
United States
·
Rally Raid
Date of birth | 12 September 2002 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | San Marcos, CA |
Age | 23 |
Nationality | United States |
Career start | 2018 |
Disciplines | Motorsports Various |
Born in 2002, Seth Quintero grew up in San Marcos, California, where his family spent their recreational time off-roading in the desert. He first rode a quad bike at the age of just four years old.
Quintero, with his family as his team, started racing UTVs at the age of 10 in 2012, with the plan being to take things slowly, but, as he admits: “We’re super-competitive, and I wanted to do more and more. Things escalated pretty quickly.”
Excelling while still a teenager
In 2014, Quintero emerged to clinch the youth class of the UTV World Championship. “All of a sudden here’s this 11-year-old who won the biggest race of the year,” he recalls. “That’s when Red Bull noticed me.”
A year later, in 2015, Quintero was the UTV World Champion and the WORCS champion in the 170 (youth) class before moving up to the Production level. By 2018, he was racing in the Best in the Desert series. Quintero’s first race was the MINT 400 and the 15-year-old powered through the 400 miles [640km], finishing second. He was also the runner-up at the Pro UTV level at Vegas-to-Reno.
In 2019, as a 16-year-old, Quintero produced a near-perfect campaign, winning the Best in the Desert series championship for the Pro class by winning five of six events. And in so doing, he rewrote the record books by becoming the youngest ever driver to win the MINT 400, Vegas-to-Reno, UTV World Championship, the Parker 250 and the Silver State 300 in the UTV Pro NA class.
A memorable Dakar debut
In 2020, at the age of just 17, Quintero went to the Dakar for the first time but he was denied the chance to race when rally organisers deemed him to be too young.
The following year he did make his Dakar debut and became the rally's youngest ever stage winner. “We came out swinging and we proved our point that we’re here to stay,” Quintero said after his historic stage win. “The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team is not a team to be messed with. We’ll be back next year and we’ll be back better.”
Making history
In 2022, Quintero returned to the Dakar Rally alongside co-driver Dennis Zenz and proceeded to write his name into the record books again. The American ultimately missed out on a podium place in the T3 category, but achieved the highest number of stage wins in a single rally, securing 12 stage victories in Saudi Arabia.
Quintero and Zenz then parked on the podium at the 2023 Dakar, scoring second place overall in a Can-Am Maverick T3 as part of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA presented by BFGoodrich.
Quintero joined TOYOTA GAZOO Racing to tackle the 2024 Dakar Rally in the elite T1+ car class. He drove a Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ to victory in the Prologue stage alongside Zenz before some mechanical problems during Stage 4 resulted in the duo falling down the pecking order. Alongside his co-driver Zenz, Quintero earned a third-place finish overall at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
More stage wins at the Dakar
In 2025, Quintero achieved two more stage victories as he finished the Dakar Rally in ninth place overall. The following year, he once again achieved a stage victory on the way to another top-ten finish.
The joy of Rally Raid is clear on Seth Quintero's face
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
Seth Quintero finding the line no one else sees
© Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool
Seth Quintero likes to keep things light in the car and bivouac
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
Quintero has been gaining vital experience by racing worldwide
© Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool