Looks Like It Might Be Luciano Benavides’ Year In Rally Raid!

[advrider]

With Round 4 of the FIM’s World Rally Raid Championship in the books, it looks like Luciano Benavides could be set up for the championship this year. The Husqvarna factory rider currently leads the W2RC standings with a healthy nine-point lead over second-place Toby Price (KTM), with only one race left to go!

Lucaino Benavides now has a healthy lead in the championship. Photo: Husqvarna

Benavides padded his lead with a second-place finish at the five-stage Desafio Ruta 40 race in Argentina last week. It’s an event where the Benavides brothers have traditionally done well, although a Honda rider took the race win—and he wasn’t an official factory rider. Spanish rider Tosha Schareina led the race from the start, but he’s not even a member of the Monster Energy factory squad. At the 2023 Dakar Rally, he rode under the BAS Dakar banner, and he’s still not on the main Honda team.

Nevertheless, Big Red’s marketeers were happy to celebrate another win at the Desafio Ruta 40—the manufacturer has won seven in a row in Argentina.

As for Toby Price—the popular Aussie racer led the overall standings headed into the Argentina race, but a blown-up shock on the second stage was enough to torpedo his chance at a win. Teammate Matthias Walkner towed him to complete the day, so that also nuked Walkner’s chance at a win. It’s possible that Mullet Man… errrr, Price… could make up those points against Benavides, though. There will be plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong for the Husqvarna rider at the Morocco rally in October.

A couple of other riders whose Argentina trip went poorly: Sam Sunderland had a DNF on his GasGas, as he fell ill mid-race. A tough blow for SunderSam, as he crashed out of the Sonora Rally previously, and is seriously down the points standings as a result. Elsewhere in the paddock, Honda’s Adrien Van Beveren also missed his opportunity to make up some points in the standings; he won the final stage in Argentina, but was only fifth on the race, and that leaves him in third overall. He’s basically out of competition for the championship unless some major luck comes his way in Morocco.

Here’s what the W2RC top-10 standings looks like, four races into 2023:

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

The racing continues in Morocco, in just over a month’s time!

Vezi sursa