The 11th edition of the DESAFIO RUTA 40 YPF wrapped with Top American and former Dakar Rally winner Ricky Brabec on the box. Tosha Shareina, also riding a Honda CRF 450 Rally, won the race, meaning that Honda enlarged its record in this competition with 9 victories out of 11.
"We have finished the rally and it was a good week with a brutal first day of course with some issues but we fought through them and managed to finish off Ruta 40," said Brabec from the post-race podium. "It feels good to be back in South America and after this week I think I am looking forward to coming back here next year. Today it was a close stage that I almost won, but then I got a penalty."
For the last stage, riders did a 305 km liaison and 258 km of Special Stage between the cities of Belén and Salta. The margin to recover was short on a fast day of gravel and sand tracks. In the end, the penalties handed down to several riders for exceeding the speed limit in the special made the organization recalculate the results. Schareina, Brabec, Quintanilla, Branch and Dumontier got two-minute penalties upon arrival at the bivouac. Price, Benavides and Docherty got 6-minute penalties.
Now there is only one more stop for the World Rally-Raid Championship W2RC: The Morocco Rally will close the season October 13-18.
