Results and championship table following a dramatic final stage on the 2023 Desafio Ruta 40, World Rally-Raid Championship in Argentina where Tosha Schareina takes victory ahead of Luciano Benavides the new W2RC points leader and Adrien Van Beveren wins the final stage as rivals clock speeding penalties.

The list of riders speeding on the final stage of the Desafio Ruta 40 was a long one. It’s almost like they wanted to get the thing over with in a hurry? Race leader Tosha Schareina, Ricky Brabec, Pablo Quintanilla, Ross Branch and Rally2 rider Romain Dumontier all received two minutes. Toby Price, Luciano Benavides and Michael Docherty each bagged six minutes for their indiscretions.

The good news for most of them was that most of them got caught and the results were largely unchanged. That means the leader from the first day in Argentina, Honda’s second-tier rider under the factory team tents (but not officially a Monster Honda Rally Team rider), Tosha Schareina has claimed a remarkable victory.

The young Spaniard showed plenty of promise when he jumped on the Honda for the first time at round three of the W2RC series, the Sonora Rally. He claimed stage wins and showed a knack for staying out front and bagging time bonuses to.

This week’s Desafio Ruta 40 was a much tougher test but Schareina withstood the challenge, posting fast and consistent times, benefitting from being up front and claiming those bonus times across most of the day’s racing, and going on to clinch his first major race victory.

Fact fairy alert:

W2RC championship live feed made the interesting fact that Schareina wins Honda its ninth in 11 Desafio Ruta 40 editions, and their seventh in a row.

Javier Pizzolito won in 2011 and 2014, Pablo Rodríguez in 2012, the late Paulo Gonçalves in 2015 and 2018, Felipe Ellis in 2017 and Kevin Benavides in 2016 and 2017.

The only times Honda haven’t won were in 2010 with Laurent Lazard and 2013 when the legend that was Kurt Caselli took KTMs to the win.

adrien_van_beveren_dsc_1523

Van Beveren final stage winner

The shuffling of riders when the speeding penalties were handed out meant the final stage victory went to Adrien Van Beveren. It’s fair to say the Honda rider hasn’t had the race he wanted or needed in his challenge for the world championship. The Frenchman could also have benefitted from Price’s woes on stage two (more on that below) and the subsequent points haul but hasn’t had the pace this week, despite the large amount of riding in his favoured sand.

Hero Motosport’s Ross Branch took second on the final day ahead of Ricky Brabec who has made third his own all week to claim third overall for the rally. Branch was fourth for Hero’s best result overall at a W2RC event.

Trying to make amends for a huge deficit of one hour incurred when his rear suspension failed on stage two, Toby Price was actually the fastest rider on the special today. Clocking in a time of 2:35:43 but once they’d discovered that throttle was held open for just a little too long in a restricted zone, six minutes were added, dropping the Aussie to fourth. Still, that brings him to ninth overall and at least some championship points.

548114_toby-price_desafio-ruta-40_2023_0324_desafio-ruta-40-202_p19507

Desfaio Ruta 40 stage 5 results:

1. A. VAN BEVEREN MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2:39:44

2. R. BRANCH HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 2:40:42

3. R. BRABEC MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2:41:23

4. T. PRICE RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 2:42:43

5. B. COX (BAS WORLD KTM RACING TEAM 2:43:19

6. T. SCHAREINA HONDA TEAM 2:43:20

7. P. QUINTANILLA MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 2:44:35

8. M. DOCHERTY BAS WORLD KTM RACING TEAM 2:47:33

9. L. BENAVIDES HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING 2:49:09

10. J. LEPAN DUUST RALLY TEAM 2:50:57

2023 Desafio Ruta 40 overall results:

1. T. SCHAREINA (ESP) GP class HONDA TEAM 15:58:46

2. L. BENAVIDES (ARG) GP HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING 16:10:22

3. R. BRABEC (USA) GP MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 16:20:02

4. R. BRANCH (BWA) GP HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY 16:25:31

5. A. VAN BEVEREN (FRA) GP MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 16:27:38

6. P. QUINTANILLA (CHL) GP MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 16:37:54

7. I. CORNEJO (CHL) GP MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM 16:51:03

8. B. COX (ZAF) Rally2 class BAS WORLD KTM RACING TEAM 17:01:01

9. T. PRICE (AUS) GP RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 17:24:00

10. K. DABROWSKI (POL) R2 DUUST RALLY TEAM 17:39:54

11. R. DUMONTIER (FRA) R2 HUSQVARNA HT RALLY RAID 17:51:29

12. J. LEPAN (FRA) R2 DUUST RALLY TEAM 17:55:12

13. M. ANDUJAR (ARG) Quad 19:24:30

14. D. LLANOS (ARG) R2  XRAIDS EXPERIENCE 19:30:13

15. F. MORENO (ARG) Quad 19:37:37

16. S. ROSTAN (ARG) R2 19:47:59

17. M. MEDEIROS (BRA) Quad 19:55:09

18. F. VIEL (ARG) Quad 20:57:23

19. S. URQUÍA (ARG) R2 XRAIDS EXPERIENCE 20:57:33

20. G. GONZALEZ (ARG) Quad 21:07:35

140431_luciano-benavides_desafio-ruta-40_2023_0345

2023 World Championship coming down to final round

Second place in his home race, despite dropping to ninth on the final stage after he collected an additional six minutes of time penalties, Luciano Benavides will be consoled by the fact he is the new W2RC points leader.

The Argentine leap frogs Toby Price who had the rear suspension failure on stage two. It was tough luck for Price it must be said and it’s super rare for a thing like that to happen to a factory bike – as Enduro21 found out at the 2023 Dakar Rally when we paid a fly-on-the-wall visit to the KTM Group service area; “No-one wants to be that person who makes a mistake and costs the rider time on the stage or a mechanical DNF”… Read just how damn careful they are with these bikes here:  Enduro21 Notebook: Behind the scenes look at factory Dakar service

No doubt the KTM suspension technician responsible for servicing Toby’s WP rear shock the night before will be as devastated as anyone but the truth is it potentially lost them and Price the world title. Luckily for the Austrian manufacturer, they have the next guy in line on their books too.

Championship points standings after round 5 (one round remaining in Morocco):

  1. Luciano Benavides 80
  2. Toby Price 71
  3. Adrien Van Beveren 66
  4. Ross Branch 45
  5. Kevin Benavides 43
  6. Nacho Cornejo 41
  7. Daniel Sanders 39
  8. Pablo Quintanilla 39  
  9. Ricky Brabec 38
  10. Skyler Howes 34

 

The final round six of the series will take place at the Rallye Du Maroc (Morocco Rally) on October 12-18.

 

Photo Credit: A.S.O. Julien Delfosse + Cin Cin Movies