2023 Rallye du Maroc: Romain Dumontier completes all-podium run with Rally2 title

Bradley Cox finished the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship on a tear as he won the Rally2 class at the final two races of the season, but his campaign was ultimately a story of “what could have been”. He hurt his elbow on the first day of the Dakar Rally, which sidelined him for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge before mechanical issues plagued him at the Sonora Rally, and he ended the calendar fourth in points.

Still, closing out the year by winning the first stage of the Rallye du Maroc and never letting go of the overall lead was a pretty nice consolation prize ahead of next year’s Dakar. Cox won the Prologue and Stage #1, eventually building up such a strong advantage that he could ride more conservatively on the final day and finish fifth but still take the outright win with ease.

Romain Dumontier was the only Rally2 rider to score podiums in every race he entered, winning at Dakar and Sonora followed by a third at the Desafío Ruta 40 and second in the Rallye du Maroc. While he dominated the class in his two victories, the pair of non-wins were still displays of consistency as he never finished a stage lower than fourth. Even when he missed the podium in Stage #4, it was only by a minute and a half to Paolo Lucci.

“A season full of pitfalls but we managed to get through to the end,” Dumontier described the year. He finished runner-up in the 2022 Rally2 standings.

Lucci entered Morocco trailing Dumontier by thirteen points but was unable to overtake him in the championship or rally overall. He was the lone Rally2 rider to enter all five rounds but crashed out in Argentina.

“Would have preferred to go up one more step but things didn’t always go the way I hoped,” commented Lucci, “but in the end I’m happy and grateful for all the experiences brought home and for getting the chance to try until the end.”

After winning three stages at the Desafío Ruta 40, Michael Docherty continued his momentum by claiming two more in Morocco. However, his rally ended on the final day when he overshot a dune and hit his head on his bike’s handlebars, followed by a mechanical issue that formally prevented him from continuing.

Rally2 was the largest class in Morocco by a wide margin with a staggering ninety-seven entries. Many of the near-century were preparing for the 2024 Dakar Rally, while others were hoping to use the event to earn free registration for Dakar via the Road to Dakar. Toby Hederics won the latter as he finished an impressive sixth in his W2RC début.

Jane Daniels entered her first W2RC race just days after securing her fourth FIM Women’s EnduroGP World Championship. While still new to rally raid with only a few months of experience, she finished thirtieth in class and right behind fellow female rider Yael Kadshai. Kadshai was also the highest finishing woman at the unrelated Morocco Desert Challenge in April. Steff Rowe, another entry in the Rallye du Maroc’s Women’s Trophy, retired after hurting her left arm by crashing into a rock shortly after Stage #4 began.

With such a massive field, it was not surprising that there were plenty who did not make it to the end. Twenty failed to finish, ranging from the aforementioned riders gearing up for Dakar to W2RC regulars, with some getting into horrendous accidents.

Kove Moto brought a quartet of bikes to Morocco, though the Chinese manufacturer’s national riders Fang Xiangling and Sunier were the only ones to reach the finish. Xavier Flick, the team’s new factory rider, withdrew after Stage #1 to return to France following his father’s death. Neels Theric retired after an unusual but violent accident in Stage #4 when Julien Jagu and his fellow riders got lost on a plateau without a CAP reading (basically a compass direction); Jagu turned around to rejoin the course amid a cloud of dust, only for Theric to slam into his bike at nearly 100 kilometres an hour. Lucci, who was among the lost competitors, activated the distress signal for them and they were airlifted to hospital. Despite the impact, Theric only suffered a broken hand while Jagu broke his elbow.

While Dumontier had the perfect bookends to 2023, Konrad Dąbrowski suffered the opposite as he missed Dakar due to appendicitis before a Stage #2 crash in Morocco led to a concussion and broken shoulder. The stage also saw Matthieu Jauffraud rupture his Achilles and fracture his tibia, while Modestas Siliunas‘ bike ignited into flames that Quad champion Laisvydas Kancius tried to extinguish using his vehicle to no avail.

Tobias Ebster, who stunned the Rally2 world by winning the class in Abu Dhabi, sustained a shoulder dislocation and labrum tear two kilometres into the opening stage. Gioele Meoni, son of the late Dakar Rally legend Fabrizio Meoni, broke his shoulder after losing control of his bike along a small mountain in Stage #4. Romain Bouzigon nearly made it to the rally finish only to hit a rock just fifty kilometres short of going the full distance, breaking his collarbone.

Rally2 overall results

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Time	Margin
1	32	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:37	Leader
2	30	Romain Dumontier	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	17:20:05	+ 13:28
3	31	Paolo Lucci	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:27:46	+ 21:09
4	76	Jean-Loup Lepan	DUUST Diverse Racing	17:31:14	+ 24:37
5	44	Tommaso Montanari*	Fantic Rally Team	19:10:41	+ 2:04:04
6	71	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:11:16	+ 2:04:39
7	106	Jaromír Romančík*	Orion – Moto Racing Group	19:18:51	+ 2:12:14
8	41	Jeremy Miroir*	Fantic Rally Team	19:21:25	+ 2:14:48
9	109	Diego Llanos*	Xraids Experience	19:26:48	+ 2:20:11
10	43	Jan Brabec*	Strojrent Racing	19:38:30	+ 2:31:53
11	39	Benjamin Melot*	Team Esprit KTM	19:57:07	+ 2:50:30
12	110	Salvador Guiomar Vargas*	Xraids Experience	20:20:27	+ 3:13:50
13	70	Jérôme Bas*	Team Giroud Universal Ride	20:23:47	+ 3:17:10
14	54	Josep Pedró Subirats*	Xraids Experience	20:48:19	+ 3:41:42
15	94	Alexandre Vaudan*	Team Casteu	21:01:13	+ 3:54:36
16	49	Fang Xiangliang*	Kove Moto	21:22:16	+ 4:15:39
17	72	Tomás de Gavardo*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	21:28:12	+ 4:21:35
18	53	Thomas Kongshøj*	Joyride Race Service	21:34:03	+ 4:27:26
19	45	Sunier*	Kove Moto	21:37:32	+ 4:30:55
20	107	Dušan Drdaj*	Orion – Moto Racing Group	21:53:56	+ 4:47:19
21	83	Marshall Méplon*	Marshall Méplon	22:04:45	+ 4:58:08
22	46	Cesar Rojo*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	22:06:54	+ 5:00:17
23	128	Clément Artaud*	Team Dumontier Racing	22:16:51	+ 5:10:14
24	88	Jérémie Gerber*	Nomade Racing	22:19:14	+ 5:12:37
25	48	Jeremy Poncet*	Xtrem Garage	22:25:07	+ 5:18:30
26	108	Julien Dalbec*	Nomade Racing	22:37:12	+ 5:30:35
27	136	Guillaume Borne	Africa Rallye Team	22:41:41	+ 5:35:04
28	105	Martin Prokeš*	Orion – Moto Racing Group	22:43:40	+ 5:37:03
29	133	Yael Kadshai* #	Nomade Racing	22:54:52	+ 5:48:15
30	131	Jane Daniels* #	Fantic Rally Team	22:56:57	+ 5:50:20
31	67	Bruno Leblanc*	Bruno Leblanc	23:01:53	+ 5:55:16
32	98	Fabien Domas*	Drag’on Rally Team	23:37:06	+ 6:30:29
33	87	Damien Bataller*	Team DB Racing	23:39:22	+ 6:32:45
34	100	Stéphane Brunaud*	Nomade Racing	23:44:07	+ 6:37:30
35	90	Adrien Costes*	Nomade Racing	23:56:24	+ 6:49:47
36	123	Fabian Von Thuengen*	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	24:04:58	+ 6:58:21
37	122	Weston Carr*	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	24:24:12	+ 7:17:35
38	125	Ganzorig Chuluun*	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	24:37:36	+ 7:30:59
39	115	Adrien Roland*	RM Nature et Énergie	24:38:37	+ 7:32:00
40	112	Sébastien Herbet*	Team Dumontier Racing	24:52:23	+ 7:45:46
41	66	Bertrand Domet*	DOM Team	24:53:20	+ 7:46:43
42	65	Arnaud Domet*	DOM Team	24:55:16	+ 7:48:39
43	80	Mykolas Paulavicius*	Mykolas Paulavicius Dakar Team	25:07:59	+ 8:01:22
44	85	Jean-Philippe Révolte*	Révolte Racing	25:21:43	+ 8:15:06
45	82	Christopher Jautard*	Nomade Racing	25:46:08	+ 8:39:31
46	74	Mathieu Feuvrier*	Nomade Racing	25:55:00	+ 8:48:23
47	57	Gad Nachmani*	Club Aventura Touareg	25:57:16	+ 8:50:39
48	104	Benjamin Bourdariat*	RS Concept Team	26:03:49	+ 8:57:12
49	97	Maxime Pouponnet*	Team Maxime Pouponnet	26:06:47	+ 9:00:10
50	63	Javier Campos*	Javier Campos	26:13:46	+ 9:07:09
51	61	Jim Moisa*	Enduro Normandie Rally Team	26:26:31	+ 9:19:54
52	118	Benjamin Lepelley*	Team Dumontier Racing	26:55:20	+ 9:48:43
53	84	Carl Searles*	Searles2Dakar	27:05:49	+ 9:59:12
54	81	Jonathan Savel*	Jonathan Savel	28:04:58	+ 10:58:21
55	102	Borja Pérez Casimiro*	Borja Pérez Casimiro	28:12:35	+ 11:05:58
56	120	Ramon Vidal Bregante*	Ramon Vidal Bregante	28:18:36	+ 11:11:59
57	55	Max Bianucci*	Nomade Racing	28:21:47	+ 11:15:10
58	99	Craig Searles*	Searles2Dakar	28:48:47	+ 11:42:10
59	56	Rémy Brochart*	RM Nature et Énergie	28:53:11	+ 11:46:34
60	40	Jon Florea*	Gerula Racing	29:11:48	+ 12:05:11
61	95	Rémy Moreau*	Nomade Racing	30:07:59	+ 13:01:22
62	124	Axel Mustad*	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	30:18:48	+ 13:12:11
63	50	Thomas Georgin*	Enduro Normandie Rally Team	31:12:08	+ 14:05:31
64	78	Stéphane Bouvier*	Team BS Adventure	31:27:21	+ 14:20:44
65	51	Mathieu Girard*	Nomade Racing	31:45:57	+ 14:39:20
66	58	Dennis Mildenberger*	Nomadas Adventure	31:53:51	+ 14:47:14
67	114	Alexandre Yon*	Enduro Normandie Rally Team	32:22:46	+ 15:16:09
68	37	Mathieu Dovèze*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	36:40:04	+ 19:33:27
69	86	Guillaume Martin*	Nomade Racing	37:01:16	+ 19:54:39
70	103	Loïc Peyrichout*	Team LPC	40:54:28	+ 23:47:51
71	89	Paul Costes*	Nomade Racing	41:14:12	+ 24:07:35
72	134	Christian Aboud	Africa Rallye Team	48:14:54	+ 31:08:17
73	96	Frédéric Baudry*	Nomade Racing	56:55:10	+ 39:48:33
74	116	Slawomir Sypien*	DUUST Diverse Racing	71:15:10	+ 54:08:33
75	62	Frédéric Grignion*	RM Nature et Énergie	80:02:34	+ 62:55:57
76	69	Jorge Escobedo Gil*	Pedrega Team	81:55:58	+ 64:49:21
77	121	John Spelier*	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	83:18:38	+ 66:12:01
DNF	33	Michael Docherty	BAS World KTM Racing Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	34	Konrad Dąbrowski	DUUST Diverse Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	36	Dominique Cizeau Girault	Xraids Experience	DNF	N/A
DNF	38	Neels Theric*	Kove Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	59	Darren Goodman*	Nomadas Adventure	DNF	N/A
DNF	64	Modestas Siliunas*	AG Dakar School	DNF	N/A
DNF	73	Matthieu Jauffraud*	Matthieu Jauffraud	DNF	N/A
DNF	91	Samuel Fremy*	Nomade Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	92	Gediminas Satkus*	AG Dakar School	DNF	N/A
DNF	93	Julien Jagu*	Julien Jagu	DNF	N/A
DNF	101	Guillaume Rosier*	Guillaume Rosier	DNF	N/A
DNF	113	Perrick Demonceaux*	Dems Machine	DNF	N/A
DNF	117	Jakub Krezymon*	DUUST Diverse Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	119	Steff Rowe* #	Steff Rowe	DNF	N/A
DNF	126	Gioele Meoni*	Dakar4Dakar	DNF	N/A
DNF	127	Ferran Zaragoza Rosa*	Pedrega Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	129	Xavier Flick*	Kove Moto	DNF	N/A
DNF	137	Tobias Ebster*	Kini Rally Racing Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	139	Romain Bouzigon*	Team Esprit KTM	DNF	N/A

Rally2 stage winners

Stage	Rider	Time
Prologue	Bradley Cox	58:20.5 (11:40.5)
Stage #1	Bradley Cox	3:33:37
Stage #2	Michael Docherty	3:08:59
Stage #3	Romain Dumontier	3:24:03
Stage #4	Michael Docherty	3:50:54
Stage #5	Paolo Lucci	2:00:01

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 Rally2 standings

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Romain Dumontier	99	Leader
2	Paolo Lucci	82	– 17
3	Jean-Loup Lepan	71	– 28
4	Bradley Cox	60	– 39
5	Jacob Argubright	35	– 64
6	Michael Docherty	33	– 66
7	Konrad Dąbrowski	31	– 68
8	Toni Mulec	30	– 69
9	Mathieu Dovèze	28	– 71
10	Dominique Cizeau Girault	23	– 76
11	Neels Theric	13	– 86
12	Jan Brabec	12	– 87
T-13	Jon Florea	11	– 88
T-13	Jiří Brož	11	– 88
T-13	Mirjam Pol	11	– 88
16	Sunier	9	– 90