Ventura wins W2RC Desafio Ruta 40 Rally2 class; Schareina, Brabec, Crivilin & Price podium

Aboard the revolutionary crate-to-starting gate limited production Honda HRC CRF450RX Rally, Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally’s Martim Ventura (Portugal) stepped up and dominated Argentina’s Desafio Rute 40 YPF rally, winning three of the five stages – plus the Prologue – and placed 2nd in the other two in distancing himself from his Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally teammate, Brazil’s Bruno Crivilin, by 08:35 to take the overall FIM World Rally-Raid Championship’s Round 3 victory.

With the 13th annual Desafio Ruta 40 victory for Ventura – his first W2RC overall event win – he also moved into 1st place in the overall W2RC class standings, 60-65 ahead of KTM’s Toni Mulec (Slovenia) through three of five W2RC rounds.

“Struggled to get my rhythm in the beginning,” said Ventura. “This was a different desert, and I think I was struggling a bit because I was over riding. Then I was able to calm myself down, get my rhythm back, and get through the stage for the win – which is good.”
 

For 2nd place Rally2 Crivilin, the podium finish was his first as well in W2RC competition. “I’m really pleased with my first podium finish at the World Championship, and I’m also very pleased with how the Honda performed,” said Crivilin. “I’m also happy for Martín, too. Everything’s gone really well over the last few days; the bike was perfect, the entire team worked really hard. So I’m happy with the result.

“We’ll now train harder and hope for even better results in the next ones!”
 

Rounding out the top five scoring in the Desafio Ruta 40 Rally2 class was Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally’s American W2RC rookie Preston Campbell, who placed a respectable 4th overall.

In RallyGP racing in Argentina Monster Energy was led by Honda HRC Rally’s dynamic duo – Spain’s Tosha Schareina and America’s Ricky Brabec, who finished on the podium in 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.

Said Schareina, who scored one stage win (Stage 4) and was on the podium in each of the five stages plus the Prologue:

 “I’m happy to be back on the podium and to repeat the second place I achieved here two years ago. Today’s stage felt a lot like Dakar — very long, physically demanding, and with a big focus on navigation from start to finish. I gave everything out there and pushed as hard as possible. Of course, the goal is always to fight for the top step, so we need to keep working and improving to reach that first position. Now we leave Argentina sitting second in the championship, very close to Daniel (Sanders) in the standings. Everything is still open, and the title will be decided in the final two rounds of the season.”
 

Added Brabec, who raced – despite battling an illness for much of the week – to four podium finishes in Argentina: 

“The Ruta 40 was good. I got sick on Day Two, then had to battle that the rest of the week – which was irritating. Not feeling that well right now either. But I’m happy to get away with no injuries and a solid finish. So now it’s summer break. We’ll go home and recover, then keep pushing forward.”

Rounding out the top five in RallyGP class scoring for Monster Energy was Honda HRC Rally’s Skyler Howes in 5th position. The American put together a strong week with consistent top five stage finishes, including a 3rd place podium run on Stage 4.

Said Howes: “This week we were testing, doing a lot of things with the settings and changes on the bike. I wanted a better result, but this is how it goes sometimes. The result might not be what I want, but I had a successful race, some really good stage finishes and some really good improvement with the bike and the team.”
 

In the four wheel FIA portion of the Desafio Ruta 40, Monster Energy was led by Sara Price, who, racing for the Defender team, scored a 3rd place overall podium finish in the Car division. Price, along with navigator Saydiie Gray, became the first all-female team to compete in W2RC competition – and – became the first all-female W2RC team to win a stage.

FIM World Rally-Raid Championship
Round 3, Desafio Ruta 40 YPF, Argentina

Stage 5 RallyGP class results
2nd - Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda)
3rd - Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)
4th – Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda)
5th – Howes (Monster Energy/Honda)

Overall RallyGP FINAL Top Five (through 5 of 5 stages)
2nd - Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)
3rd - Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda)
5th - Howes (Monster Energy/Honda)

Stage 5 Rally2 class results
1st - Ventura (Monster Energy/Honda)
3rd - Crivilin (Monster Energy/Honda)
6th - Campbell (Monster Energy/Honda)

Overall Rally2 Top 5 (through 5 of 5 stages)
1st - Ventura (Monster Energy/Honda)
2nd - Crivilin (Monster Energy/Honda)
4th - Campbell (Monster Energy/Honda)
 

Stage 5 FIA Stock Car class
3rd - Price (Monster Energy/Defender)

Overall Stock Car Podium (through 5 of 5 stages)
3rd - Price (Monster Energy/Defender)