With the Dakar Rally axeing the Quad class for 2025, Manuel Andújar hoped to finish his profession within the class on a powerful notice when the World Rally-Raid Championship visited his native Argentina for the Desafío Ruta 40. Not solely did he and his countrymen dominate from begin to end, Andújar clinched the Quad title a spherical early in his closing begin as he doesn’t intend to run the finale in Morocco.
Andújar, the reigning Dakar and DR 40 winner for Quads, was close to excellent as he received 4 stages-including one on his twenty-eighth birthday-and beat all however Facundo Viel by almost two hours. Argentines swept the highest 4 with Andújar forward of Viel, Giuliano Giordana, and Juan Carlos Carignani.
Viel drew first blood with a powerful Prologue as he completed seventh amongst all FIM riders, sooner than everybody in Rally3 and simply behind a single Rally2 competitor along with his brother Mariano second at school. It was fully Andújar after that, nevertheless, en path to the general win, his second worldwide rally title after claiming the 2021 FIM Cross-Nation Rallies World Championship (predecessor to the W2RC), and the inaugural Ibero-American Cross Nation Rally Championship as the perfect performing Quad rider from Latin America.
Though he has expressed curiosity in switching to driving a side-by-side automobile (a standard avenue for former Quad riders), Andújar will quiet down for some time earlier than determining his future plans within the sport.
“Now I’m going to go fishing,” he remarked to Somos Dakar. “I’m going to fish in peace after which we’ll see what the long run holds for us. However the fact is that for now I’m going to be away from rally raid for some time. It’s a disgrace as a result of it’s what I’m enthusiastic about, however till we discover new horizons and a brand new aim, I’m going to remain out of this.”
Facundo settled for second, solely ending off a stage podium as soon as when he was fourth instage #2. Giordana was over an hour behind him after leaping from fifth to 3rd on the ultimate day, leapfrogging Carignani and Kamil Wiśniewski.
Wiśniewski, the winner in Portugal the place the Amaury Sport Organisation confirmed Quads wouldn’t seem at Dakar in 2025, completed fifth general and second amongst points-eligible riders. Though this moved him from fifth to second, he was already too far again to catch Andújar previous to Argentina as he trails by 31 factors (FIM race winners earn 25 factors). Hani Al-Noumesi, the one rider entered with a mathematical shot as he was seventeen factors again, was eradicated by a mechanical subject on the primary stage.
After retiring from Portugal with {an electrical} subject, Suany Martinez completed seventh forward of her father Leonardo Martinez Saucedo.
Cooper Van Vliet had a tumultuous rally that started when he slid off beam within the Prologue and crashed, leading to injury that pressured him to finish the stage in first gear, rebounded with a second to Andújar in Stage #3, needed to be towed again to the bivouac the subsequent day after his Yamaha gave out on the end, then retired on the final day when the quad “simply locked up” at 130 km/h twenty kilometres in. The Australian had been working fourth general previous to Stage #5.
Quad general outcomes
Quad stage winners
W2RC Quad standings
For readability, rivals registered for the championship who haven’t earned factors are excluded.
