A great show was put on by the aces of the W2RC FIM with his motorcycles and quads in the mythical ‘El Cóndor-Copina’ -17 kms.- which served as Foreword for him Route 40 Challengethe fourth date of the World Rally Raid Championshipwhich was launched today in Cordova and will also visit the provinces of San Juan and La Rioja.
The morning that allowed the protagonists to climb with the sun to the departure area, fog closed in the Altas Cumbres of Cordoba around noon and at 1 p.m., at the time of the departure of the machines, the poor visibility was the note of the high difficulty that the ‘riders’ had to overcome in the entire first half of the section.
Only, over the last suspension bridges on the descent to Copina, did the vision become clear again.
In this context, Tosha Schareina of the official Honda team and last winner of the DR40 had to work hard to beat her teammate and Dakar 2024 winner, Ricky Brabec, by just 2s, and by 28s over the championship leader, the Botswanan Ross Branch of the Hero team.
The Argentine Luciano Benavides, wearing #1 on his Husquarna for being the current FIM rally world champion, also did a great job putting the first KTM Group bike in the classification, 4th, 39s behind Tosha.
“I had a difficult moment, save for a fall, but then I was able to do the entire route in good shape and enjoy the support of the public,” the man from Salta told the microphones of Cadena 3 Argentina, which broadcast the competition live from the mountains with his rally team.
He was not the only Argentine who shone, because Jeremías Pascual from Cordoba with a private Husquarna of the Pedregas Team, placing 5th at 44s, immediately after Benavides.
Adrien Van Beveren -Honda-, Sebastián Buhler -Hero-, E. Canet Ardevol -KTM-, Daniel Sanders -GasGas-, Skyler Howes -Honda-, Pablo Quintanilla -Honda-, Ignacio Cornejo -Honda-, Sam Sunderland -GasGas- Romain Dumontier -Honda-, and Bradley Cox -KTM-, completed the Top 15.
In the quadricycles, the performance of the Córdoba brothers Facundo and Mariano Viel +16s was outstanding, who took the first two positions in the Prologue with the four-wheeled motorcycles assisted by the always efficient Mec Team, overtaking the winner of the Dakar, Manuel Andújar +24s. Two other people from Córdoba, Giuliano Giordana +1.18″ and Mariano Bennazar +1.48s, completed the Top 5.
K. Wisniewski, J. Carignani, A. Fantoni, S. Martínez and L. Martínez close the top ten positions.
Tomorrow, Stage 1 -381 kms. of special and 128 kms. liaison – will take the pilots to leave the bivouac at 6:40 a.m., to get underway at the DSS at 8:15 a.m. The chosen paths begin near the Estancia ‘Santa Catalina’, to continue heading north towards Ongamira, to cross Cruz del Eje, climb the high mountains towards ‘La Candelaria’ and descend from there to a final point near Molinari, so it is presumed, according to the spectator points -Ongamira, Cruz del Eje and Molinari- that were announced yesterday.
Chain 3 Motorfrom the Córdoba Convention Center, Campamento DR40, with photographs of DR40.
