2023 Desafio Ruta 40: Ferioli, Sallum win Open classes

While the World Rally-Raid Championship made up the bulk of the headlines at the Desafío Ruta 40, the Open classes for competitors not under FIA or FIM sanction were also filled with stories of their own.

In fact, Open racers arguably stole the show from the Prologue when the T3 of Alfredo Olmedo spun off course and rolled down a cliff. Miraculously, Olmedo and his car were able to continue the rally and even finished on the podium in Stage #3 before retiring for good the next day.

Otherwise, another T3 swept the stages as Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli set the fastest time of all three Open Auto classes, beating his classmate Rodrigo Caballero by over an hour. Although competing in a non-FIA class, Ferioli already has experience in sanctioned competition as a longtime Dakar Rally quad rider and SSV racer, including winning a T4 stage in the 2023 edition.

Juan José Semino held off defending South American Rally Race T3.2 winner Diego Blas for the T4 win. With no prior Dakar experience, the victory earned him free registration for the 2024 Dakar Rally via the Road to Dakar programme.

In the Open Moto class, Joaquín Debeljuh proved to be the top rider on his RVM Rally, a rebadged Kove bike; Kove, which successfully completed the Dakar Rally and Sonora Rally earlier in the W2RC season, has a partnership with RVM to operate in Argentina. However, his race came undone when he crashed on the final stage and dislocated his shoulder.

His exit opened the door for Marcio Yampa and Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum, the latter holding off the 2021 Campeonato Argentino de Rally y Navegación and SARR champion for the overall win by just three minutes. Blas Zapag Peralta, a former rallycross driver, joined them on the podium; his father Blas Zapag Sr. won the Open Auto category.

The family affair also extended to the Rostans as Santiago Rostan won the Open Quad class and son Juan Santiago Rostan won the Road to Dakar for bikes in Rally2.

One of the more unique entries was Juan Nimo, who is paralysed from the waist down due to a motocross accident but has continued his career with a special Honda Tornado with a frame to support him. He officially retired from the race after arriving too late on the penultimate stage due to a broken clutch, but still completed the final leg and was celebrated as such.

Open overall results

Auto

Finish	Class Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Category	Time	Margin
1	1	670	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	Gonzalo Rinaldo	Ferioli Racing Team	T3	17:34:31	Leader
2	2	674	Rodrigo Caballero	Nicolas Bollero	Rodrigo Caballero	T3	18:40:43	+ 1:06:12
3	3	677	Antonio Pennesi	Martin Wintersteter	ATV Sport Rally	T3	20:27:00	+ 2:52:29
4	1	678	Juan José Semino	Gonzalo Oltra	Xcorpion Rally Racing	T4	20:59:00	+ 3:24:29
5	1	650	Blas Zapag	Juan Jose Sanchez	Copetrol Rally	Cars	23:06:34	+ 5:32:03
6	2	675	Diego Blas	Victor Patricio	GM Motorsport	T4	23:40:55	+ 6:06:24
7	4	672	Pablo Macua	Antonela Fazzi	Macua Sport Team	T3	35:12:19	+ 17:37:48
8	2	651	Ramon Nuñez	Juan Antonio Cosiansi	Salta Rally Team	Cars	50:32:15	+ 32:57:44
9	3	676	Javier Velez	Fernando Imperatrice	GM Motorsport	T4	50:44:2	+ 33:09:49
10	5	673	Ruben Gentile	Yessica Gentile	HV Racing	T3	58:17:37	+ 40:43:06
DNF	DNF	652	Sergio Larreguy	Nestor Norha	Etap Racing	Cars	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	671	Alfredo Olmedo	Daniel Lopez	Can-Am Racing Team	T3	DNF	N/A

Moto

Finish	Class Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Category	Time	Margin
1	1	605	Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum	MED Racing Team	Moto	22:36:24	Leader
2	2	608	Marcio Yampa	MEB Belén Rally	Moto	22:39:32	+ 3:08
3	3	606	Blas Zapag Peralta	MED Racing Team	Moto	24:11:10	+ 1:34:46
4	1	623	Santiago Rostan	Pampa Rental Rally Team	Quad	25:28:33	+ 2:52:09
5	2	621	Matías Innocente	Corrientes Dakar Team	Quad	46:23:26	+ 23:47:02
6	4	603	Matías Aranoa	Enfermos por el Dakar Rally Team	Moto	53:14:56	+ 30:38:32
DNF	DNF	600	Joaquín Debeljuh	RVM Rally Team	Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	602	Martín Franco	MED Racing Team	Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	604	Agustin Pedersen	Revo	Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	607	Juan Nimo	Particular Revo	Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	609	Agustin Donovan	Donovan Racing Team	Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	610	Eduardo Parra	Revo	Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	611	Juan Cruz Carrizo	JC Electricidad SA	Moto	DNF	N/A

Open stage winners

Auto

Stage	Auto	Time	T3	Time	T4	Time
Prologue	Blas Zapag	7:57	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	7:19	Juan José Semino	8:34
Stage #1	Blas Zapag	3:38:37	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	3:26:29	Diego Blas	3:55:44
Stage #2	Blas Zapag	5:20:03	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	4:25:00	Juan José Semino	4:34:40
Stage #3	Blas Zapag	4:44:48	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	3:23:21	Juan José Semino	4:08:13
Stage #4	Blas Zapag	6:15:15	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	3:25:02	Juan José Semino	4:38:49
Stage #5	Blas Zapag	3:07:51	Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli	2:54:39	Juan José Semino	3:32:14

Moto

Stage	Moto	Time	Quad	Time
Prologue	Blas Zapag Peralta	1:05:52 (8:14)	Santiago Rostan	1:14:16 (9:17)
Stage #1	Joaquín Debeljuh	3:29:29	Santiago Rostan	5:03:20
Stage #2	Joaquín Debeljuh	4:45:21	Santiago Rostan	5:23:09
Stage #3	Marcio Yampa	4:11:01	Santiago Rostan	4:49:03
Stage #4	Joaquín Debeljuh	4:14:56	Santiago Rostan	4:56:07
Stage #5	Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum	3:14:56	Matías Innocente	3:45:48

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