World Rally-Raid Championship

2023 Desafio Ruta 40: Tosha Schareina dominates bikes, Luciano Benavides takes points lead

4 Mins read
Credit: Honda Racing Corporation

While not part of the factory team nor racing for World Rally-Raid Championship points, Tosha Schareina‘s move from KTM to Honda has been a smashing success so far. After finishing runner-up in his début with the Japanese manufacturer in Sonora, he was easily the top rider at the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina.

After finishing fifth in the Prologue, Schareina was virtually perfect as he won the first three stages. Argentina’s Luciano Benavides was the only reason he did not simply cruise to the overall win, having finished second to him in all three legs.

Not willing to let the Spaniard crash his homecoming, Benavides caught the leader in Stage #4 and averted a sweep as he edged out Schareina for the stage win by thirty-six seconds. Benavides was the only competitor with a feasible chance at overtaking Schareina for the overall entering the final day, but the gap between the top two and everyone else meant Benavides had all but secured the W2RC victory as the highest-running championship rider, which awards the standard max points even if one does not win the rally overall.

With this in mind, Benavides and Schareina elected to ride conservatively for the final stage. Both ironically received speeding penalties, though it did not affect their stage or overall finish as Schareina still won with eleven minutes on Benavides. The victory is Schareina’s second with Honda after the Baja España Aragón in his home country in July.

“I am proud to be in Argentina and nothing better than a victory in my first time here. The support of all the people here is inhuman,” Schareina said. “This was a super complete race. This is a rally and until the last moment we didn’t know what was going to happen. We just had to grit out teeth and we did it.”

Honda factory rider Ricky Brabec joined them on the overall podium while Ross Branch got the final step for the W2RC top three. Despite winning the final stage (albeit inherited due to penalties), Adrien Van Beveren just missed out on the latter by two minutes.

Although Schareina’s win does not earn him W2RC points, Brabec and Van Beveren’s contributions to Monster Energy Honda Rally Team helps advance them past Red Bull KTM Factory Racing for the manufacturer’s championship lead. Honda has a six-point edge over KTM entering the season finale in Morocco in October, though Benavides’ Husqvarna Factory Racing is still in contention with 114 points to Honda’s 128.

As the W2RC winner, Benavides is the new RallyGP points leader with a nine-point advantage over KTM’s Toby Price.

“I’m really, really happy. It’s been an amazing race here in Argentina and to finish the race as leader of the world championship is truly something incredible,” Benavides stated. “Now, it’s time to celebrate a little bit, a few days of rest, and then full focus on Morocco because I want to do well there and make history as world champion. The fans here have been fantastic, especially on the final stage where they were cheering us into the finish, that felt amazing. I’d love to be able to reward them by claiming the world title.”

Despite finishing Stage #1 in fourth, Price’s rally unravelled the next day when his rear shock broke. His team-mate Matthias Walkner, who is mathematically out of championship contention, sacrificed parts from his bike for Price to continue. Too far back to catch Benavides, Price focused on completing the race to salvage as much points as possible and finished eighth, last among finishers. To add insult to injury, Price had won the final stage but received a six-minute speeding penalty that relegated him to fourth.

“Unfortunately, it’s probably wrecked the championship for us,” said Price. “It is what it is, so you just have to swallow it and move on to the next round.”

Walkner was one of three retirements in the class alongside Sebastian Bühler and Sam Sunderland. Sunderland fell sick the night before Stage #3 and withdrew while Bühler suffered a mechanical failure the following day. The former’s exit continues a difficult season for the 2022 Dakar Rally winner, who got hurt on the first stage of this year’s edition and missed the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with another injury.

Benavides’ brother and 2023 Dakar Rally champion Kevin Benavides could not enter his home race due to a broken wrist in testing weeks prior. Daniel Sanders, who beat Schareina for the Sonora Rally win, also sat out Argentina after he broke his femur in May.

RallyGP overall results

FinishNumberRiderTeamTimeMargin
168Tosha Schareina*Honda Team15:58:46Leader
277Luciano BenavidesHusqvarna Factory Racing16:10:22+ 11:36
32Ricky BrabecMonster Energy Honda Rally Team16:20:02+ 21:16
416Ross BranchHero MotoSports16:25:31+ 26:45
542Adrien Van BeverenMonster Energy Honda Rally Team16:27:38+ 28:52
67Pablo QuintanillaMonster Energy Honda Rally Team16:37:54+ 39:08
711José Ignacio CornejoMonster Energy Honda Rally Team16:51:03+ 52:17
88Toby PriceRed Bull KTM Factory Racing17:24:00+ 1:25:14
DNF1Sam SunderlandRed Bull GasGas Factory RacingDNFN/A
DNF14Sebastian BühlerHero MotoSportsDNFN/A
DNF52Matthias WalknerRed Bull KTM Factory RacingDNFN/A

RallyGP stage winners

StageRiderTime
PrologueAdrien Van Beveren54:52 (6:48)
Stage #1Tosha Schareina*3:00:12
Stage #2Tosha Schareina*3:27:40
Stage #3Tosha Schareina*2:58:13
Stage #4Luciano Benavides2:53:57
Stage #5Adrien Van Beveren2:39:44
Final Prologue times are calculated by multiplying the raw time by eight; the latter is in parentheses

Overall winners

ClassNumberCompetitorTeamTime
T1200Nasser Al-AttiyahToyota Gazoo Racing15:10:03
T3302Mitch GuthrieRed Bull Off-Road Junior Team16:22:31
T4403Gustavo Gallego*South Racing Can-Am18:34:37
RallyGP68Tosha Schareina*Honda Team15:58:46
Rally221Bradley CoxBAS World KTM Racing Team17:01:01
Rally3122Ardit KurtajXraids Experience23:15:45
Quad152Manuel Andújar7240 Team19:24:30
Open Auto650Blas Zapag*Copetrol Rally23:06:34
Open T3670Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli*Ferioli Racing Team17:34:31
Open T4678Juan José Semino*Xcorpion Rally Racing20:59:00
Open Moto608Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum*MED Racing Team22:36:24
Open Quad623Santiago Rostan*Pampa Rental Rally Team25:28:33
Road to Dakar Auto678Juan José Semino*Xcorpion Rally Racing20:59:00
Road to Dakar Moto69Juan Santiago Rostan*Pampa Rental Rally Team25:28:33

W2RC RallyGP standings

RankRiderPointsMargin
1Luciano Benavides80Leader
2Toby Price71– 9
3Adrien Van Beveren66– 14
4Ross Branch45– 35
5Kevin Benavides43– 37
6José Ignacio Cornejo41– 39
7Daniel Sanders39– 41
8Pablo Quintanilla39– 41
9Ricky Brabec38– 42
10Skyler Howes34– 46
11Sebastian Bühler16– 64
12Matthias Walkner13– 67
13Franco Caimi11– 69
14Mason Klein4– 76
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Justin is not an off-road racer, but he writes about it for The Checkered Flag.
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