Results from the 2022 Rallye du Maroc, World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) round where Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Skyler Howes has taken the overall victory ahead of teammate Luciano Benavides.

Skyler Howes has claimed his first-ever rally-raid world championship race win with second place on the fifth and final stage of the 2022 Rallye du Maroc. The American put in a storming ride across five days in the Moroccan desert to ahead of world champions and Dakar winners to finish just over seven minutes ahead of his teammate Luciano Benavides.

As the sixth rider into today’s stage, Skyler had to chase down and catch the riders ahead, making up time needed to finish on the podium. But he’s been in confident mood all week and put in an impressive shift on the route back to Agadir to place second on the stage, just six seconds behind the day winner for the second time this week, HRC’s new signing Adrien Van Beveren. The result was enough to top the final rally timesheets by seven minutes and 13 seconds and secure the win.

 

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This marks the 30-year-old’s first world championship race win and comes on the back of a lot of effort with the team developing KTM Group 450 Rally bikes and also reflects “Skyler’s focus and work ethic” say Husqvarna.

Skyler Howes: “We’re at the finish of the Morocco Rally and I finished first, which is super cool! The final stage was quite technical actually, it wasn’t a walk in the park. The navigation was tricky, and I did a couple of circles out there which slowed me down a little bit.

“I was still able to finish second on the stage, which was enough to win the overall, and I have to admit it’s the coolest thing of my whole life! Honestly, I’m over the moon. It’s a dream come true to take the win here in Morocco, and the plan is to carry this momentum on to the Dakar Rally.”

Howes will skip the final World Championship round in Andalucia to race the Sonora Rally in Mexico later this month.

Sunderland odds-on for world title in Andalucia

Fifth in the end at this Morocco rally is a comedown after back-to-back wins earlier in the season for Sam Sunderland but the GASGAS rider remains in charge of the world championship standings on 74 points. Monster Energy Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla also didn’t have the best of Rallye du Maroc’s after crashing on the early stage injuring his shoulder. But the Chilean remains second on 52 points just two ahead of his HRC teammate Ricky Brabec (50 points).

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Brabec in fact climbs from fourth to third place while HRC new boy Adrien Van Beveren took two stage wins in Morocco and moves up to sixth position with 33 points. The Andalucía Rally later this month could see even more upheavals in the top 10.

Moto Rally 2: Klein unstoppable

Throughout the Rallye du Maroc, Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing Team) was impressive as ever in keeping pace with the Rally GP riders. By his standards it was a harder round with issues to deal with a long the way meaning he ‘only’ won three stages out of five.

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But crucially he lead the overall rankings handsomely for the entire race to win and entire the final W2RC Rally 2 round in Andalucia on 88 points with his closest pursuer Romain Dumontier (Team Dumontier Racing), third in Morocco, on 60 points.

Rally 3: a great start

Behind all the glitz and glamour for main rally riders, a new class was born in Rallye du Maroc on enduro bikes. Equpped naturally with larger fuel tanks and navigation equipment, it was their first of the two legs that make up the FIM Rally 3 World Cup.

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Maybe it was local knowledge but Moroccan Amine Echiguer was victorious on four of the five stages and always led the overall rankings.

Guillaume Borne (Husqvarna Morocco Rally) and Indian Abdul Wahid (Sherco TVS Factory) completed this first podium of the Rally 3 category.

The Rally2 category was also won by an American, in fact training partner of Howes Mason Klein who took a comfortable victory of 40 minutes ahead of his BAS teammate Bradley Cox. 

Overall Rally GP Standings – 2022 Rallye du Maroc:

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Overall Rally 2 Standings – 2022 Rallye du Maroc:

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2022 Rallye du Maroc stage 5 results:

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Photo Credit: A.S.O Charley Lopez + Julien Delfosse + G. Hazard  + DPPI + Rally Zone