Dakar Rally
MOTORBIKE RACE: CHARTING A NEW WORLD
| Key points:The entry list features 136 riders ready to tackle the 7,706 km route, including 5,146 km of specials where the battle for the crown in the 46th edition of the Dakar will unfold.Toby Price and Sam Sunderland have moved on to fresh pastures, leaving just two former Dakar champions in the hunt —Kevin Benavides and Ricky Brabec. Both are reaching for the stars despite suffering hair-raising crashes earlier in 2024.This will blow the title fight wide open, with the W2RC champion, Ross Branch, determined to continue his rise and the progression of the manufacturer Hero, who have brought Nacho Cornejo into their stable. Honda remain in the mix with Adrien Van Beveren and Tosha Schareina, who are also chasing their maiden Dakar victory. Over at KTM, the red-hot form of the winner of the Rallye du Maroc, Daniel Sanders, promises to spice up the competition, while the 19-year-old Spaniard Edgar Canet will give a taste of things to come when he becomes the youngest factory rider in the history of the category.The Indian Harith Noah, now a Sherco factory rider, will attempt to defend his Rally 2 crown against challengers such as Romain Dumontier and Michael Docherty. Riders who win the Dakar while sporting race number 1 are few and far between. The last reigning champion to mount a successful title defence in the motorbike category was Marc Coma in 2015, when he made the newest addition to a collection of five Touareg trophies that now takes pride of place in his trophy cabinet. A decade on, much to the dismay of the purists (and Ricky Brabec, to some extent), it is the W2RC champion, Ross Branch, who will be racing as número uno. This small departure from tradition has the merit of naming as top favourite the rider who has undoubtedly been the man of the year: the most consistent, the most in-form, sometimes the fastest (no overall but five stage wins throughout the season), and always the most cheerful, which certainly helps. His consistency propelled him to second place behind his American rival at the last Dakar. The Botswanan’s quantum leap was even more remarkable in that it marked Hero’s best-ever performance, cementing the Indian manufacturer’s position among the heavy hitters in the category. The team’s rising stock has enabled them to lure the Chilean Nacho Cornejo into their ranks, where he will serve either as a second team leader or as a trusted lieutenant to the “Kalahari Ferrari”. This will come in handy when taking on the competition… With two motorbikes on the podium in the last edition, Monster Energy Honda HRC have a legitimate shot at the throne. Questions linger over the fitness of their leader, Ricky Brabec, who gave his knee a proper battering in a crash at the Rallye du Maroc in October. While a return to top form is not entirely out of the question for the American, Adrien Van Beveren has shown more robust form since his third-place Dakar finish, going on to take second place in the W2RC, right behind Ross Branch. The time may have come for the man from northern France in his tenth attempt, but in the Honda camp, the much younger Tosha Schareina is also showing the growing maturity that becomes more evident with each passing year. The Spaniard is almost level with VBA neck in the W2RC standings and even finished ahead of him in the Moroccan round, which doubled as a dress rehearsal before the Dakar. The Red Squadron has no shortage of talent, with Skyler Howes and Pablo Quintanilla also among the serious contenders for the crown awarded in Shubaytah. There has been quite a shake-up in the KTM universe, with all four factory riders now united under the RedBull KTM Factory Racing banner. The main consequence of this reunion is that the Benavides Bros. are back together, although their current form is hard to gauge: Kevin, a two-time Dakar winner (2021 and 2023), took a nasty tumble while building up to the Desafío Ruta 40, while his younger brother, Luciano, crashed during that same event but managed to bounce back in time to bag third place at the Rallye du Maroc. The Austrian manufacturer’s most bankable asset may well be found Down Under with Daniel Sanders, who has put his youthful impetuosity behind him and dominated the Rallye du Maroc with a steady hand. Finally, the team manager, Jordi Viladoms, was unable to resist the temptation to pluck the brightest prospect from the Catalan hotbed without delay: Edgar Canet, spotted by Nani Roma when he was just 10 years old, clinched seventh place in Morocco (second in Rally 2) at the tender age of 19 and is set to become the youngest factory rider in KTM’s Dakar history. The Spanish wunderkind stands out as the clear favourite for top rookie honours and perhaps even the Rally 2 crown. The Indian Harith Noah won the class last January. Defending his title will be one of Sherco’s key objectives, though Lorenzo Santolino is eager to feature in the battle for the top 5. When it comes to the fight for victory and a podium spot in Rally 2, the contenders are lining up in droves. Romain Dumontier is switching to a Honda this time round, aiming to recapture the thrill of his 2023 triumph. Meanwhile, the lightning-fast South African Michael Docherty has shown glimpses of consistency, clinching third in Rally 2 in Morocco. Tobias Ebster has stepped out of the Original by Motul ranks to gun for a strong result in the class and Konrad Dąbrowski, just 24 years old and heading into his fourth Dakar, looks well-equipped to keep climbing the ladder. |
