2023 Rallye du Maroc: Joao Ferreira wins in T4 debut

A week before the Rallye du Maroc, João Ferreira sat down with The Checkered Flag to discuss his new home at South Racing Can-Am, having made the unorthodox jump from T3 to T4 for the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship finale and 2024 season. While Morocco was his first time racing in the class and in a Can-Am Maverick, he already had lofty goals of doing his best to win, explaining he wanted “to have fun, get used to the car. It’s the first preparation for Dakar which is our main goal. We’ll give our best to learn together with the team, the car everyday, me and Filipe (Palmeiro). I really hope in the final stage we can win Morocco.”

Thirteen days later, he lived up to his word as he and navigator Palmeiro were Morocco winners.

Despite a slow start due to an early mistake followed by a broken door latch, Ferreira took the overall lead with a fourth in Stage #2. From there, he battled for the win with South Racing team-mate Sara Price, another TCF interviewee who made her début as a W2RC driver after winning the Sonora Rally’s non-FIA Open class in April to qualify for the 2024 Dakar Rally.

Price won Stages #2 and #3, beating Ferreira in the latter by just twenty-four seconds, before Ferreira returned the favour by triumphing in the final two legs. The two were separated by just twenty-one seconds in Stage #4. Leading Price by 11:49 entering the final day, Ferreira sealed the deal as he beat her by 42:32.

Stage #1 winner Enrico Gaspari suffered a pair of engine failures, including one during pre-rally shakedown, before retiring altogether after rolling his Polaris in Stage #4. While his Xtremeplus team was certainly disappointed with how the rally ended, they were perhaps more livid with his co-driver Ricardo Torlaschi who criticised the engine reliability on social media.

In a letter published shortly after the rally, team manager Marco Piana accused Torlaschi of sabotaging the engine used in testing by disconnecting the front differential drain plug before pouring sand through the filler cap. Piana claimed this was done in retaliation for Torlaschi refusing to pay their local mechanics following the Desafío Ruta 40 in September and instead requested for the team to do so, only for the team to provide the money to them directly without his involvement.

“I allow myself to say that before making comments in bad taste about the Polaris, creating many problems for Xtremeplus, Mr. Torlaschi should think carefully and sweep his house clean,” concluded Piana’s letter. “Because the truth is that in the bivouac many teams or drivers who hired him regretted it because they had to deal with a person who created many inexplicable situations for them.

“The last word is if, as Mr. Torlaschi writes, the Polaris is unreliable, etc., he even more so and should be avoided like the plague.”

Rokas Baciuška, who clinched his second consecutive T4 championship prior to Argentina, entered Morocco in T3 as did Dakar Rally T4 winner Eryk Goczał. DR 40 victor Gustavo Gallego also did not take part as he was an Argentina-only entrant not competing for points, while that race’s W2RC winner Shinsuke Umeda finished third among eligible drivers in Morocco.

Umeda had already secured second in the T4 championship prior to the finale.

“I’m not sure why I started this kind of thing, but I think it started after I raced in the Gobi Desert at Rally Mongolia and thought I’d like to run in deserts around the world,” recalled Umeda. “In that sense, I feel like I accomplished my goal by running in Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Mexico, Russia, and Mongolia, all of which hosted the Dakar Rally. So next year, I’d like to return to a humble life, focusing on modest work, without buying a car or running motorsport (from a distance).”

Souad Mouktadiri retired from the race after a massive accident in Stage #1 with the T1 of Magdalena Zajac, though nobody was hurt. Rebecca Busi retired on the final day when her T4 caught fire in the closing thirty kilometres. Eduard Pons, who dominated in Argentina before being taken out by a mechanical issue, also bowed out in Stage #5 when he suffered a broken gearbox while vying for a top five finish.

T4 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	403	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	South Racing Can-Am	18:26:24	Leader
2	410	Sara Price*	Jeremy Gray	South Racing Can-Am	19:20:45	+ 54:21
3	419	Juan Manuel Maña*	Giovanna di Blasi	Rasante Sport	20:11:35	+ 1:45:11
4	418	Victor Étienne*	Valentin Sarreaud	YDEO Competition	21:23:54	+ 2:57:30
5	420	William Grarre*	Julien Vincent	Team Horizon Off-Road	21:50:39	+ 3:24:15
6	416	Jeremie Renou*	Nicolas Larroquet	YDEO Competition	23:03:19	+ 4:36:55
7	409	Sebastien Caille*	Max Feldino	Team BTR Caille	23:45:04	+ 5:18:40
8	414	Pascal Henon*	Nicolas Charlier	Drag’on Rally Team	24:29:09	+ 6:02:45
9	412	Robert Szustkowski*	Jarosław Kazberuk	Xtremeplus	26:56:34	+ 8:30:10
10	402	Sebastián Guayasamin	Fernando Matias Acosta	FN Speed Team	36:13:35	+ 17:47:11
11	411	Grzegorz Brochocki*	Grzegorz Komar	Overlimit	42:50:48	+ 24:24:24
12	407	Adrien Choblet*	Laurent Magat	Team Casteu	43:53:29	+ 25:27:05
13	400	Shinsuke Umeda	Maurizio Dominella	Xtremeplus	44:14:27	+ 25:48:03
14	408	Robin Szustkowski*	Albert Gryszczuk	Xtremeplus	56:11:00	+ 37:44:36
DNF	401	Rebecca Busi	Sergio Lafuente	FN Speed Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	405	Eduard Pons*	Marc Erra Jove	South Racing Can-Am	DNF	N/A
DNF	406	Enrico Gaspari*	Ricardo Torlaschi	Xtremeplus	DNF	N/A
DNF	415	Souad Mouktadiri*	Delphine Delfino	Mouktadiri Racing Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	417	Hervé Guillaume*	Maxime Guillaume	BTR-Driverspark	DNF	N/A

T4 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	João Ferreira	12:20.3
Stage #1	Enrico Gaspari*	4:00:27
Stage #2	Sara Price*	3:45:27
Stage #3	Sara Price*	3:48:26
Stage #4	João Ferreira	4:13:33
Stage #5	João Ferreira	2:10:31

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	14:49:09
T2	251	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	22:14:17
T3	315	Marek Goczał	EnergyLandia Rally Team	16:22:12
T4	403	João Ferreira	South Racing Can-Am	18:26:24
T5	506	Michiel Becx*	Team de Rooy	21:32:34
RallyGP	8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:56:43
Rally2	32	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:37
Rally3	164	Cheikh Yves Jacquemain	Africa Rallye Team	23:42:39
Quad	186	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	21:07:24
Open Auto	601	Jérôme Cambier*	MD Rallye Sport	21:21:46
Open SSV	653	Tomas Mickus*	BRO Racing	21:42:23
Road to Dakar Bike	71	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:11:16
Road to Dakar SSV	420	William Grarre*	Team Horizon Off-Road	21:50:39

W2RC T4 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Rokas Baciuška	189	Leader
2	Shinsuke Umeda	160	– 29
3	Eryk Goczał	86	– 103
4	Pau Navarro	73	– 116
5	Sebastián Guayasamin	69	– 120
6	Marek Goczał	67	– 122
7	João Ferreira	54	– 135
8	Michal Goczał	50	– 139
9	Rebecca Busi	45	– 144
10	Yasir Seaidan	35	– 154
11	Bruno Conti de Oliveira	30	– 159
12	Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira	27	– 162
13	Molly Taylor	20	– 169
14	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. Co-drivers also do not earn points if their driver is not competing for the W2RC.

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Rokas Baciuška	189	Leader
2	Oriol Mena	Eryk Goczał	86	– 103
3	Maurizio Dominella	Shinsuke Umeda	81	– 108
4	Aku Facundo Jaton	Shinsuke Umeda	79	– 110
5	Maciej Marton	Marek Goczał	67	– 122
6	Filipe Palmeiro	João Ferreira	54	– 135
7	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Michal Goczał	50	– 139
T-8	François Cazalet	Pau Navarro	45	– 144
T-8	Sébastien Delaunay	Rebecca Busi	45	– 144
10	Fernando Matias Acosta	Sebastián Guayasamin	42	– 147
11	Alexey Kuzmich	Yasir Seaidan	35	– 154
12	Pedro Bianchi Prata	Bruno Conti de Oliveira	30	– 159
13	Michaël Metge	Pau Navarro	28	– 161
T-14	Ricardo Torlaschi	Sebastián Guayasamin, Enrico Gaspari*	27	– 162
T-14	Maykel Justo	Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira	27	– 162
16	Andrew Short	Molly Taylor	20	– 169
17	Valentina Peregarini	Nicolás Cavigliasso	13	– 176
	Sergio Lafuente	Rebecca Busi	0	– 189