2023 Desafio Ruta 40: Gustavo Gallego survives in T4

With T4 points leader Rokas Baciuška sitting out the Desafío Ruta 40, all Shinsuke Umeda needed to do was start and finish the race to attain fifty points towards the World Rally-Raid Championship. Even if he ended up finishing last, simply completing the race earned him maximum points.

Umeda was one of just four drivers competing in Argentina in the production SSV class, and the only entry competing for the W2RC. While the smallest FIA class in the field, it was not devoid of drama as everyone but Gustavo Gallego either suffered a stage retirement or a major mid-race setback. Drivers who fail to finish a stage but are able to continue the rally are subject to substantial time penalties that eliminate them from overall contention.

Gallego and Enrico Gaspari avoided retiring from stages and therefore comprised the top two overall. Still, the margin of victory was over four hours as a mechanical issue in Stage #2 caused Gaspari to fall two hours behind, and another failure occurred in the final ten kilometres of Stage #5 that led to him finishing forty-eight minutes back.

Although he is not racing for points, Gallego still notched his first international rally raid victory in an SSV. The 2017 Argentine Cross-Country Rally Champion previously ran the Dakar Rally on a quad and finished third overall in the 2019 edition. Incidentally, that year’s Dakar Quad winner Nicolás Cavigliasso also competed in an SSV at the DR 40, albeit in the T3 class and showed speed despite being hampered by mechanical problems.

“This is the goal we set ourselves and we managed to finish in first place,” said Gallego. “We did things very well, we never stopped, we didn’t get lost. I’m more than happy as this was my first race (in T4). It was good to know that we were in the fight. We registered for T4 to see how this first experience was going to be and we always had a mindset of finishing the race.”

Eduard Pons was the top driver in the first half as he won the Prologue and opening pair of stages, only for his overall hopes to end by retiring with a broken tie rod just forty-three kilometres into Stage #3. He recovered by winning Stage #4 and a recorded a second-place finish to Gallego on the last day. His final time of 38:07:25 was over nineteen and a half hours behind Gallego.

Pons’ co-driver Jaume Betriu, an eight-time Spanish Enduro Champion, is now two-for-two in T4 class podiums after finishing second in CERTT and third among FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas entrants in his maiden race at the Baja España Aragón in July.

“The accumulated experience in the South American country will be of great help for the following challenges,” said Pons. “The toughness of the Argentine race brought out the best in us and we were able to see how well we understood each other on board the Can-Am.”

Umeda’s race literally came crashing down in the penultimate stage when he made an error and rolled down a large dune in the Fiambalá area. He had been second overall entering the day, but the crash ultimately left him off the overall podium though he was eventually rescued and reached the finish.

Although at the back end of the quartet, completing the race nonetheless earned Umeda the class win in the W2RC. Baciuška still has his second straight championship mathematically ensured as he is sixty points ahead of Umeda, who finally moves past Dakar Rally winner Eryk Goczał—who has not raced in the W2RC since due to university—for second.

T4 overall results

Finish	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	12	403	Gustavo Gallego*	Eugenio Arrieta	South Racing Can-Am	18:34:37	Leader
2	14	401	Enrico Gaspari*	Ricardo Torlaschi	Xtremeplus	22:41:26	+ 4:06:49
3	21	402	Eduard Pons*	Jaume Betriu	South Racing Can-Am	38:07:25	19:32:48
4	23	400	Shinsuke Umeda	Maurizio Dominella	Xtremeplus	41:48:02	+ 23:13:25

T4 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Eduard Pons*	7:37
Stage #1	Eduard Pons*	3:30:25
Stage #2	Eduard Pons*	4:07:18
Stage #3	Gustavo Gallego*	3:38:50
Stage #4	Eduard Pons*	3:30:31
Stage #5	Gustavo Gallego*	3:09:14

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 T4 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Rokas Baciuška	189	Leader
2	Shinsuke Umeda	129	– 60
3	Eryk Goczał	86	– 103
4	Pau Navarro	73	– 116
5	Marek Goczał	67	– 122
6	Michal Goczał	50	– 139
7	Rebecca Busi	45	– 144
8	Yasir Seaidan	35	– 154
9	Bruno Conti de Oliveira	30	– 159
T-10	Sebastián Guayasamin	27	– 162
T-10	Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira	27	– 162
12	Molly Taylor	20	– 169
13	Nicolás Cavigliasso	13	– 176
	Michele Cinotto	0	– 189

Co-drivers’ standings

Some co-drivers have worked with drivers in other categories. Those do not count for this championship nor are they mentioned below.

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Rokas Baciuška	189	Leader
2	Oriol Mena	Eryk Goczał	86	– 103
3	Aku Facundo Jaton	Shinsuke Umeda	79	– 110
4	Maciej Marton	Marek Goczał	67	– 122
T-5	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Michal Goczał	50	– 139
T-5	Maurizio Dominella	Shinsuke Umeda	50	– 139
T-7	François Cazalet	Pau Navarro	45	– 144
T-7	Sébastien Delaunay	Rebecca Busi	45	– 144
9	Alexey Kuzmich	Yasir Seaidan	35	– 154
10	Pedro Bianchi Prata	Bruno Conti de Oliveira	30	– 159
11	Michaël Metge	Pau Navarro	28	– 161
T-12	Ricardo Torlaschi	Sebastián Guayasamin	27	– 162
T-12	Maykel Justo	Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira	27	– 162
14	Andrew Short	Molly Taylor	20	– 169
15	Valentina Peregarini	Nicolás Cavigliasso	13	– 176