2023 Desafio Ruta 40: Despite Docherty dominance, Bradley Cox triumphs in Rally2

Michael Docherty impressed in his return to the World Rally-Raid Championship at the Desafío Ruta 40 after missing the last two rounds due to injury, even if the final results don’t reflect it.

He won three stages in the Rally2 category, outscoring rival and BAS World KTM team-mate Bradley Cox‘s two, but was out of the overall picture in Stage #2 after shrubs yanked the fuel pump supply connector off his bike with fifty kilometres before the finish. Unable to get the bike fixed in time, he was forced to withdraw from the stage. While Rally2 riders are allowed to continue the rally after a stage retirement provided they can repair their bike (a luxury not granted for the top-level RallyGP class), bowing out of a leg results in a hefty time penalty that eliminates them from the overall.

Docherty returned to the race for the second half with a vengeance by claiming two more stage wins. He especially impressed in Stage #4 as he finished fourth among all bikes, keeping pace with eventual RallyGP champion Tosha Schareina as he did on the first day. Of course, due to his DNF, he had to settle for fifteenth overall.

With Docherty out of the picture, Konrad Dąbrowski and Romain Dumontier became Cox’s main challengers for the rest of the race but were still too far back to mount enough of a charge. Entering the final stage, Dąbrowski trailed Cox by nine minutes and forty seconds, and failed to close the gap as Cox instead won the leg to ice the victory. Despite a navigation mistake, a flurry of RallyGP penalties allowed Cox to finish Stage #5 in fifth for all riders.

The victory is Cox’s first in W2RC competition and his second at a 2023 international rally raid; his first of the latter came at the Taklimakan Rally in China in June. His overall time of 17:01:01 put him eighth in the overall bike classification.

“I’ve never raced in Argentina before. This is unbelievable. I’ve heard so many stories from here, my dad did it in a car. He gave me a little bit of advice, but that was long ago,” Cox stated. “From the moment I saw it, I just fell in love with the terrain. Every day was great for me. I started off steady and managed to get my way closer and closer to the top ones. I even managed to ride in the top three on time in a couple of days.

“I’m super happy to win the Rally2 W2RC, it was the goal. The first half of my year was not so good: crash in Dakar, missed Abu Dhabi, Mexico was terrible, so this is a good step for me. Argentina was the lucky country, maybe I’ll move in.”

While finishing eleven minutes back of Cox, Dąbrowski still recorded his first W2RC podium.

Dumontier’s third was a strong conclusion to a race that began in disaster. He suffered a mechanical failure partway through the Prologue that necessitated an engine change, resulting in a fifteen-minute time penalty, followed by crashing and having another minute tacked on for speeding in Stage #1. While he was too far back to catch Cox, he could have flipped with Dąbrowski for second had the penalties not occurred.

Nonetheless, the podium allows the Dakar Rally and Sonora Rally winner to regain the W2RC Rally2 points lead from Paolo Lucci. Lucci suffered a hard crash in Stage #2 that prevented him from continuing.

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge W2RC victor Jean-Loup Lepan remains third in points with a fourth, while Prologue winner Diego Llanos placed fifth as the highest-finishing rider not competing for points. Juan Santiago Rostan was sixth and clinched free registration for the 2024 Dakar Rally.

Behind Rostan, Dakar veteran Sebastián Urquía was seventh; Urquía won the Group N class at the last DR 40 in 2018. Iván Martín, the reigning M2 champion of Argentina’s domestic rally regularity series Campeonato Argentino de Rally y Navegación (CaNav), finished thirteenth overall.

Lucci and Jeremías Pascual were the only riders to not reach the finish. Pascual, the only competitor on a Beta and the 2022 South American Rally Race runner-up, had a mechanical issue in Stage #2 followed by his navigation tower breaking off two days later. On the final day, Pascual crashed and had to be airlifted out.

“It wasn’t the way I wanted to finish this race, but that’s the way it is, racing is racing,” wrote Pascual. “Never give up.”

Rally2 overall results

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Time	Margin
1	21	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:01:01	Leader
2	23	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Diverse Racing	17:39:54	+ 38:53
3	17	Romain Dumontier	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	17:51:29	+ 50:28
4	76	Jean-Loup Lepan	DUUST Diverse Racing	17:55:12	+ 54:11
5	29	Diego Llanos*	Xraids Experience	19:30:13	+ 2:29:12
6	69	Juan Santiago Rostan*	Pampa Rental Rally Team	19:47:59	+ 2:46:58
7	113	Sebastián Urquía*	Xraids Experience	20:57:33	+ 3:56:32
8	60	Francisco Arredondo*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	21:27:38	+ 4:26:37
9	57	Fabien von Thüngen*	Fabien von Thüngen	22:36:11	+ 5:35:10
10	61	Carlos Llibre*	Xraids Experience	22:40:34	+ 5:39:33
11	67	Rolando Martinez*	Xraids Experience	22:56:29	+ 5:55:28
12	56	Jiří Brož	BAS World KTM Racing Team	23:30:32	+ 6:29:31
13	65	Iván Martín*	Iván Martín	25:08:04	+ 8:07:03
14	35	Dominique Cizeau Girault	Xraids Experience	25:15:58	+ 8:14:57
15	111	Michael Docherty	BAS World KTM Racing Team	29:01:02	+ 12:00:1
16	55	David Martin*	MED Racing Team	29:33:11	+ 12:32:10
17	64	Carlos Malo Peña*	Carlos Malo Peña	44:34:04	+ 27:33:03
DNF	46	Paolo Lucci	BAS World KTM Racing Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	66	Jeremías Pascual*	Jeremías Pascual	DNF	N/A

Rally2 stage winners

Stage	Rider	Time
Prologue	Diego Llanos*	57:20 (7:10)
Stage #1	Michael Docherty	3:08:23
Stage #2	Bradley Cox	3:46:54
Stage #3	Michael Docherty	3:10:21
Stage #4	Michael Docherty	2:57:17
Stage #5	Bradley Cox	2:43:19

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	15:10:03
T3	302	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	16:22:31
T4	403	Gustavo Gallego*	South Racing Can-Am	18:34:37
RallyGP	68	Tosha Schareina*	Honda Team	15:58:46
Rally2	21	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:01:01
Rally3	122	Ardit Kurtaj	Xraids Experience	23:15:45
Quad	152	Manuel Andújar	7240 Team	19:24:30
Open Auto	650	Blas Zapag*	Copetrol Rally	23:06:34
Open T3	670	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli*	Ferioli Racing Team	17:34:31
Open T4	678	Juan José Semino*	Xcorpion Rally Racing	20:59:00
Open Moto	608	Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum*	MED Racing Team	22:36:24
Open Quad	623	Santiago Rostan*	Pampa Rental Rally Team	25:28:33
Road to Dakar Auto	678	Juan José Semino*	Xcorpion Rally Racing	20:59:00
Road to Dakar Moto	69	Juan Santiago Rostan*	Pampa Rental Rally Team	25:28:33

W2RC Rally2 standings

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Romain Dumontier	79	Leader
2	Paolo Lucci	66	– 13
3	Jean-Loup Lepan	58	– 21
T-4	Bradley Cox	35	– 44
T-4	Jacob Argubright	35	– 44
6	Michael Docherty	33	– 46
7	Konrad Dąbrowski	31	– 48
8	Toni Mulec	30	– 49
9	Dominique Cizeau Girault	23	– 56
10	Mathieu Dovèze	17	– 62
11	Neels Theric	13	– 66
12	Jan Brabec	12	– 67
T-13	Jon Florea	11	– 68
T-13	Jiří Brož	11	– 68
T-13	Mirjam Pol	11	– 68
16	Sunier	9	– 70