Ryan Nitzen | October 14, 2023
The final round of the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship is underway with the Rally of Morocco. Five stages total 1392 miles across the week of October 12-18. Luciano Benavides leads the overall points series ahead of Toby Price and Adrien Van Beveren. Racing has already begun so stay tuned to this thread for updates throughout the week.
Stage 5
Stage five marks the final day of the Rallye Du Maroc. Only a 94.4 mile special makes up the day’s racing as there’s no liaison on today’s stage.
Pablo Quintanilla ended the week on a high note with a win on the final stage. The Honda rider rode consistently all week and finished about a minute and a half ahead of second place. Quintanilla finished third overall for the rally, edging Ross Branch for the final podium spot.
Luciano Benavides took second on the final stage and with it won the overall World Rally Raid Championship. The Argentina native finished just under 90 seconds behind Quintanilla but well ahead of rival, Price. The title came down to the final day with Benavides taking second overall for the rally.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” said Benavides. “To finish like this against Toby on the last day of the rally while opening the stage is incredible, I can’t thank the team enough for all the hard work and their belief in me! Today was crazy! The navigation for this stage was tricky, I did get lost at some points, but I managed to get back on track quickly and make up time. I loved opening the stage on the dunes and I knew that I had to get ahead as the others would be catching me up. Finally I’ve got my first World Championship!”
Tosha Schareina rebounded for third on the last day, only two seconds up on fourth place Ross Branch. With bonuses applied, the Honda rider finished fifth overall for the week.
Toby Price took sixth on the day but wins the overall rally by three full minutes. In short, Price won the battle but Benavides won the war. After a shock failure at the previous round in Argentina, Price was left with a points deficit that was too large to make up. Despite a valiant effort in Morocco, he finished just four points shy of the World Rally Raid title.
“Yeah, It was a really good stage,” said Price. “I had one little mishap but other than that I’m happy to have won the round here in Morocco. The championship is a hard one to swallow, we put up a good fight and did everything we could but 2023 just hasn’t been the greatest season for us. I’m happy in the fact that I never gave up and put in 100 percent right to the finish. I’ll take a little time now to get some rest but then we’re soon looking ahead to the Dakar in January.”
1. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) 1:49:17
2. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +1:24
3. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +3:34
4. Ross Branch (Hero) +3:36
5. Adrien Van Beveren (Hon) +3:58
1. Toby Price (KTM) 15:56:43
2. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +3:00
3. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +3:12
4. Ross Branch (Hero) +4:44
5. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +8:40
1. Luciano Benavides (Hus) 100 points
2. Toby Price (KTM) 96 pts
3. Adrien Van Beveren (Hon) 76 pts
4. Ross Branch (Hero) 58 pts
5. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) 55 pts
Stage 4
Stage four is arguably the toughest stage on this year’s rally With a 46 mile liaison and a 231 mile special, the riders were in for another grueling day on the penultimate stage.
Toby Price took third, just shy of four minutes back from stage winner Benavides. After earning close to four minutes of bonus time for opening the stage, he still leads the overall rankings by almost six minutes Price has just one more day to score points on Benavides.
Nacho Cornejo crosses second, 1:50 back from Benavides. The Honda rider is on a podium streak as of late but still sits sixth in overall times.
Luciano Benavides made up crucial time with a win on stage four. The Husqvarna rider started sixth but was the fastest man to each checkpoint. He’s now third in the overall classification and still leads the championship points standings.
1. Luciano Benavides (Hus) 3:35:12
2. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Hon) +1:18
3. Toby Price (KTM) +2:24
4. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +3:17
5. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +3:26
1. Toby Price (KTM) 14:02:38
2. Ross Branch (Hero) +5:56
3. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +6:24
4. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +8:00
5. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +9:54
Stage 3
Stage three marks the half-way point of this year’s rally with a 208 mile special and a 67 mile liaison. Tosha Schareina is back on the gas with another stage win, three minutes clear of second place. With another win on the week, Schareina propels back into the top five overall, just shy of eight minutes back.
Toby Price logged second on stage three. With two back-to-back second place results, Price now sits atop the overall time charts. He’s 3:48 ahead of Ross Branch in third.
“It was really rocky out there,” said Price. “The bike felt really good the whole day and I was able to keep up a good speed. I did make a couple of little navigation mistakes, but on the whole everything went well. The bonus time helps, but of course to get that you have to be out front and opening the stage, which can prove really hard.”
Nacho Cornejo grabbed another third place on stage three. This is his second podium result in as many days and crossed just 40 seconds off of Price’s time.
Benavides came through sixth and now sits fourth overall. He’s 7:50 back from Price as the rally heads into the final stages.
1. Tosha Schareina (Hon) 3:03:35
2. Toby Price (KTM) +3:06
3. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Hon) +3:46
4. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon)+6:58
5. Ross Branch (Hero) +7:58
1. Toby Price (KTM) 10:26:00
2. Ross Branch (Hero) +3:48
3. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +5:09
4. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +7:50
5. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +7:54
Stage 2
A 184 mile special and a 62 mile liaison made up the second stage of the Morocco Rally with a looped course that started and ended at the bivouac at Zagora. Honda’s, Tosha Schareina once again put himself at the front of the field with the fastest time of just over three hours. He lost about 20 minutes after missing a waypoint in stage one but bounced back with a win on the following day.
Toby Price clocked second, just one minute behind Schareina and bumped up to second overall. He’s now only 1:04 behind Ross Branch in the overall rankings and leads his main rival Luciano Benavides. Ignacio “Nacho” Cornejo grabbed third in his first podium of the week. Branch crossed with the 10th best time but still leads the overall by just over a minute.
1. Tosha Schareina (Hon) 3:02:15
2. Toby Price (KTM) +1:00
3. Ignacio Cornejo (Hon) +2:21
4. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +3:34
5. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +4:56
1. Ross Branch (Hero) 7:18:15
2. Toby Price (KTM) +1:04
3. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +2:21
4. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +3:34
5. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +3:49
Stage 1
Stage 1 kicked off the real racing with a 246 mile liaison and a 195 mile special test, the longest day of this year’s rally. American Ricky Brabec sat second overall going into the stage but was forced to withdraw due to a mechanical issue. Now he and American teammate Skyler Howes are both out for this year’s rally.
Ross Branch took the stage in aboard his Hero machine. He’s building confidence with a stage win and leads the overall rally after day one. Pablo Quintanilla took second, the best of the Honda HRC riders. He got hit with a two-minute penalty that put him back over three minutes from Branch. Matthias Walkner clocked the third best time of the day ahead of Luciano Benavides and Toby Price.
Stage 1 Highlights
1. Ross Branch (Hero) 3:13:17
2. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +1:41
3. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +4:18
4. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +5:43
5. Toby Price (KTM) +6:42
1. Ross Branch (Hero) 4:08:42
2. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +2:41
3. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +5:38
4. Toby Price (KTM) +7:22
5. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +7:33
Prologue
After taking the overall win at the Desafio Ruta 40, Tosha Schareina picked up where he left off by winning the M0rocco prologue. An 11.8 mile liaison and a 56 mile timed special took the top riders only 11 minutes to complete with Schareina and Brabec tying on overall time. Schareina is still not an official W2RC contender nor a factory HRC rider, but he continues to top the overall field. Ross Branch grabbed third, just two seconds back. The Prologue times are still important as they will be multiplied by five and added to the overall time after stage one.
1. Tosha Schareina (Hon) 11:03
2. Ricky Brabec (Hon) +0:00
3. Ross Branch (Hero) +0:02
4. Toby Price (KTM) +0:10
5. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +0:18