Van Beveren Wins Rallye du Morocco Stage 2 | Price P5

2022 Rallye du Morocco – Phase Two
World Championships of Cross Country Competitions FIM

Stage Two of the Rallye Du Maroc saw the riders head into the southern desert near Laayoune, yielding great results for Team Monster Energy Honda with the first stage victory going to Adrien Van Beveren.

Skyler Howes placed fourth on stage for the day, finishing just over three minutes behind the winner of the day, but Howes’ results put him in an interim lead.

The vast desert landscape from southern Morocco finally arrived, as the convoy left Tan Tan in the direction of Laayoune. The drivers faced a total of 437 km 122 km in the track and followed by 315 km of the special stage in this second stage.

It’s time to embrace the plateaus, rock trails and much longer stretches of dunes – well-known mistakes. Bivouac is set and the temperature rises to 37ºC!

Van Beveren was the winner of the race of the day, signing his first successful career with the Monster Energy Honda Team, with KTM’s Kevin Benavides delivering a stellar ride with second-fastest times and an unfinished finish yet. full three minutes with the race winner of the day.

Dakar 2020 winner Ricky Brabec was third, ahead of Skyler Howes, who made the best use of his starting position to make up for time and catch up with the drivers ahead. Skyler moved into the lead stage on time at about 87 km and maintained that position for most of the day.

Fouling with a particularly hard-to-find waypoint, Skyler and the group he was traveling with, ended up losing to the chase group by a few minutes. However, with many drivers suffering the same fate, Howes was able to rally to finish his race in 4th place overall.

Toby Price also had a solid day in the Moroccan dunes, finishing fifth and rising to second in the interim overall rally standings, 1m40 away from the overall leader.

Sam Sunderland placed sixth on stage two although it took some time to identify a troubled WPC, José Ignacio Cornejo in seventh, ahead of Franco Caimi.

Luciano Benavides shows great speed, being able to catch up with those around him and open up a good stretch of route. Finishing the day in ninth place, nine minutes and 13 seconds behind the stage winner, Luciano is now in third place overall, three minutes behind teammate and interim rally leader, Howes and forty-two seconds.

Pablo Quintanilla – who has struggled with pain from yesterday’s crash – is 10th, while Ross Branch drops to 12th.

In Rally2, Michael Burgess was 14th on the stage, with D. Goodman at 83rd.

Tomorrow’s leg of the Rallye Du Maroc includes a round of departures and arrivals at Laayoune. There will be a total of 323 km to do, 23 km in the laiason and 299 km of the special leg. More sand and dunes.

Adrien Van Beveren – P1

“It is a great feeling to win a race and this comes when I first started working with Honda – this is my first race with the team. I had a great day and I was able to navigate in the best possible way. That’s where I make the difference. This is very good news not only for me – it certainly depends on my motivation – but for the whole team. “

Kevin Benavides – P2

“Today is a really good day for me, I have been striving all day. I feel really good on the bike and that’s thanks to the team and all the hard work we put into testing and development. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind a racer and was forced to eat his dust for about 100 km. I lost a little time there, it was frustrating. Then there’s a perspective that I think everyone struggles with. I spent a little more time there. Then I continued on to the finish line and was able to finish second. Tomorrow is going to be tough, but I’ll focus on my navigation and gas supply as always. “

Ricky Brabec – P3

“I feel pretty strong today, but begging it took me a while. I was out of the piste and I couldn’t find a trail control point, so I guess I lost here by about six minutes. Then my teammate Adrien Van Beveren arrived and we continued together. In the end it wasn’t a bad period. I’m about 4 minutes late and tomorrow things can change. I believe we are still vying for a spot on the podium. “

Skyler Howes – P4

“I’m happy with the way I ride today – the bike is excellent and I’m happy with my navigation all the way. The organizers really challenged all of us today with some hard to find spots and I think it was a tough day for everyone in general. There are some tracks with waypoints at the end that are especially hard to find. The wind has hidden the tracks so much that it’s hard to tell if you’re in the right place. Then we hit the dunes and it was a real challenge. They’re super soft, but there’s also the rain that makes them harder to walk. We were in a group of four when we got there and each of us opened it up in turn. With all the challenges, I’m happy to finish with a good result, so now we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

Price Toby – P5

“Phase two is going well for me and I am in a strong position overall. It was a good result in the sixth stage, but not too far behind those ahead in time, so there should be good results for tomorrow. Yes, it was definitely a tough day today – they definitely tried to make things difficult and tested us with views. One thing in particular is really difficult, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack! When you try to race at the same time, it’s really tough, but I think people struggled a bit with that. Overall, I’m happy, I’ve been in the two-wheeler all day and now I’m ready for day three. “

José Ignacio Cornejo – P7

“Today I feel much better than yesterday. I’m pretty comfortable riding my bike and that made all the difference. I made a bit of a mistake in navigating when I got off the piste in the bush, so it took me a couple of minutes. In a word, I can say I had a solid day. “

Luciano Benavides – P9

“The second day is in the book. A really good day, but definitely a tough one. I started in second and caught Ross (Branch) after a short while and paved the faster pistes myself. After refueling, we were in a group of four, including Skyler, and we all went out for a bit. At one point, one of the waypoints didn’t validate for me, so I had to go back to get it. I was able to accelerate and catch up with the others shortly after in the dunes. Having the opportunity to open up and still have a good time on my makeup is really important to my confidence, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow now and hopefully I can keep this momentum going. “

Pablo Quintanilla – P10

“This is a difficult period for me, because I have been struggling with a lot of pain in my shoulder due to yesterday’s collision. I tried my best to stay focused on riding but it was not an easy job, especially in the short distances. Now the priority is to keep doing a good race for the team trying to avoid mistakes. I am very happy to be in Morocco! “

2022 Rallye du Morocco, Stage 2 Results (Provisional)

Rallye du Morocco 2022 standings after Stage 2