DakarWorld Rally-Raid Championship

2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: Tobias Ebster punches Dakar 2024 ticket with Rally2 win

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Credit: Tobias Ebster

In 1995, Heinz Kinigadner won the inaugural Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge Bike overall. Twenty-eight years later, his nephew Tobias Ebster can call himself an ADDC champion too.

Despite not racing for the World Rally-Raid Championship and being rather new to the sport of rally raid, Ebster is already a winner after beating back W2RC contenders Jean-Loup Lepan and Paolo Lucci for the ADDC’s Rally2 overall. Ebster, a motocross and enduro rider whose most recent cross-country foray was the 2022 FIM Bajas World Cup finale in Dubai, is now eligible for the 2024 Dakar Rally as the best finisher of nine riders in the Road to Dakar programme intended for amateurs hoping to run the legendary event for the first time.

The Austrian set the tone from the get-go by winning his class in the Prologue, and continued his momentum through the five stages as he was never outside the podium; even a crash and clutch failure in Stage #1 still ended with a third-place finish. Although Lucci quickly took the overall lead by winning three legs in a row, a dislocated wrist and wiring problem in Stage #4 virtually doomed his prospects. Lepan won that stage to become the new leader entering the final day with Ebster breathing down his neck as the two were separated by just forty-three seconds.

Ebster delivered the finishing blow when he won the last stage by 3:20 on Lepan. While short of the overall, Lepan was top performer among W2RC competitors and also claimed the Junior Trophy for riders under twenty-five years of age for the second straight round. Alex McInnes and Justin Gerlach, the latter a newcomer to the W2RC, also completed the race in the Junior Trophy.

“To stand on the top step of the podium today is simply incredible when you consider that this is my first world championship, first official desert rally, and I have been on a rally bike exactly five times before I started this race,” said Ebster.

Despite settling for third, Lucci’s three stage wins along with his runner-up in Dakar placed him in the Rally2 lead ahead of Lepan by five points. Dakar winner Romain Dumontier elected to skip Abu Dhabi and fell to third in the standings, though Rally2 riders are permitted to drop one round from their championship total. Michael Docherty, third in points after Dakar, missed the ADDC for a wrist injury he sustained in the opener.

Vincent Biau rounded out the overall top ten as the best Malle Moto finisher, or competitors racing without any outside assistance. Four riders competed as Malle Moto entries with Hamdan Al-Ali and Jon Florea also making the finish. Florea endured a particularly brutal ADDC in which he tore a ligament in his left shoulder in Stage #1 which sidelined him until the penultimate day, during which he became pinned underneath his bike after getting stuck on a steep dune before being rescued by the T3 duo of Dania Akeel and former Dakar bike rider Taye Perry. Andrei Danila, a close friend of Florea and fellow Malle Moto rider, crashed on the final leg and broke a collarbone and three ribs.

“On one hand, I am happy to have managed to get back into the race despite my accident, pleased that I finished what I started. On the other hand, I am aware that my overall performance in this race will work against my Dakar24 qualifier,” wrote Florea in a race debrief. “To know that my buddy is in hospital and not with me, celebrating his first desert race finish, is another dark cloud hanging over this! But I’m sure that time will heal our physical and emotional wounds, and that we will both come back stronger and more motivated than ever!”

Four riders did not make the finish including Konrad Dąbrowski, whose poor luck with his health continued when he exited in Stage #4 because of back pain that had been lingering since the start of the rally due to poor suspension in his bike. He missed Dakar due to appendicitis days before the race, while his fourth-place run in the 2022 Rally2 championship was hindered by the effects of COVID-19. Alissa Harkin, the lone female rider in the class, was also among the retirements.

Rally2 overall results

FinishNumberRiderTeamTimeMargin
196Tobias Ebster*SRG Motorsports18:41:50Leader
276Jean-Loup LepanDUUST Diverse Rally Racing Team18:44:27+ 2:37
346Paolo LucciBAS World KTM Racing Team18:52:52+ 11:02
453Toni MulecBAS World KTM Racing Team19:27:29+ 45:39
554Bruno Santos*Bruno Santos22:10:47+ 3:28:57
621Alex McInnes*MotoZone Racing22:53:50+ 4:12:00
768David McBride*Vendetta Racing UAE22:57:37+ 4:15:47
867Oran O’Kelly*Vendetta Racing UAE23:21:09+ 4:39:19
988Modestas Siliunas*AG Dakar School23:45:31+ 5:03:41
1044Vincent Biau*Vincent Biau23:53:25+ 5:11:35
1134Ashish Raorane*Xraids Experience25:09:05+ 6:27:15
1245Yoshio Ikemachi*BAS World KTM Racing Team25:37:33+ 6:55:43
1333Pierre Saeys*HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing25:55:34+ 7:13:44
1431Weston Carr*HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing28:40:53+ 9:59:03
1539Benjamin Melot*Benjamin Melot31:14:26+ 12:32:36
1640Mark Davidson*Mark Davidson31:17:21+ 12:35:31
1732Ganzorig Chuluun*HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing33:11:29+ 14:29:39
1858Gediminas Satkus*AG Dakar School33:38:32+ 14:56:42
1935Dominique Cizeau GiraultXraids Experience35:09:41+ 16:27:51
2027Marwan Al-Rahmani*MX Ride Dubai36:08:52+ 17:27:02
2126Sultan Al-Baloosh*MX Ride Dubai36:58:02+ 18:16:12
2238Justin Gerlach*Justin Gerlach43:16:17+ 24:34:27
2328Hamdan Al-Ali*Hamdan Al-Ali61:52:00+ 43:10:10
2469David Mabbs*Vendetta Racing UAE84:50:49+ 66:08:59
2592Jon FloreaJon Florea104:51:41+ 86:09:51
DNF23Konrad DąbrowskiDUUST Diverse Rally Racing TeamDNFN/A
DNF29Alissa Harkin*HT Rally Raid Husqvarna RacingDNFN/A
DNF43Darren Goodman*Darren GoodmanDNFN/A
DNF93Andrei DanilaAndrei DanilaDNFN/A
* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship
Italics – Malle Moto entry
Underscore – Road to Dakar entry

Rally2 stage winners

StageNumberRiderTeamTime
Prologue96Tobias Ebster*SRG Motorsports42:56
Stage #146Paolo LucciBAS World KTM Racing Team3:14:07
Stage #246Paolo LucciBAS World KTM Racing Team3:36:06
Stage #346Paolo LucciBAS World KTM Racing Team3:51:22
Stage #476Jean-Loup LepanDUUST Diverse Rally Racing Team4:09:58
Stage #596Tobias Ebster*SRG Motorsports2:36:51

Overall winners

ClassNumberCompetitorTeamTime
T1207Yazeed Al-RajhiOverdrive Racing16:28:06
T3302Seth QuinteroRed Bull Off-Road Junior Team16:58:31
T4400Rokas BaciuškaRed Bull Can-Am Factory Racing17:25:47
RallyGP42Adrien Van BeverenMonster Energy Honda Rally Team17:13:39
Rally296Tobias Ebster*SRG Motorsports2:36:51
Quad174Abdulaziz AhliAbu Dhabi Team22:01:51

W2RC Rally2 standings

RankRiderPointsMargin
1Paolo Lucci50Leader
2Jean-Loup Lepan45– 5
3Romain Dumontier38– 12
4Toni Mulec30– 20
5Michael Docherty24– 26
6Mathieu Dovèze17– 33
7Jacob Argubright15– 35
8Dominique Cizeau Girault13– 37
9Jan Brabec12– 38
T-10Jon Florea11– 39
T-10Mirjam Pol11– 39
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Justin is not an off-road racer, but he writes about it for The Checkered Flag.
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