Toby Price
Leads 2023
Rallye Du Maroc
T
he final round of the 2023 World
Rally-Raid Championship is
underway with the Rally of Morocco.
Five stages total 1392 miles across
the week of October 12-18. Luciano
Benavides comes into the rally leading
the overall W2RC points series ahead
of Toby Price and Adrien Van Beveren.
Price continues to grit out this year's
rally after suffering a throat injury ear
-
lier in the week. The KTM rider crossed
second on stages two and three, which
earned him valuable time on his main championship
rival, Benavides. Two second-place results bump him
to the overall lead after three stages of racing, 3:48
up on second-place Ross Branch.
"Not a bad day for me today," Price said after stage
three. "The 330 kilometers went pretty quick, so the
average speed was a lot faster. But for sure, it was
rocky out there. I was able to keep up a good speed.
I did make a couple of little navigation mistakes, but
on the whole everything went well."
Hero Motorcycles' Ross Branch currently sits
second in the overall rankings. The "Kalahari Ferra
-
ri'' finished third in the prologue before topping the
charts on stage one by over 90 seconds. A 10th
place on stage two wasn't ideal, but he rebounded
with a fifth on the third stage. He's just under four
minutes behind Price in cumulative times.
Pablo Quintanilla sits third overall on the time
charts. Even with a time penalty on stage one, the
Honda rider put together a strong pace for second
and backed it up with a sixth and a fourth on the
following days. He's just over five minutes back.
Privateer Honda rider Tosha Schareina won
stage three.
Americans Ricky Brabec and Skyler Howes, who
are now teammates on the factory Honda HRC
team, have already withdrawn from this year's race.
Howes crashed hard in the prologue, while Brabec
suffered a mechanical failure on stage one. Brabec
was second in the prologue but fuel issues, accord
-
ing to the team, ended his race on day one.
Red Bull GasGas Factory rider Sam Sunderland
also withdrew from the rally. Sunderland suffered
a crash before the race but tried to ride, eventually
pulling out after day one.
"Unfortunately, Sam struggled today because of
a crash earlier in the week while roadbook training,"
team manager Andrea Hoizi said after day one. "It's
nothing serious; he's just a little sore and struggling
to recover from his unfortunate crash this week."
Another casualty is KTM's Matthias Walkner who
withdrew during stage three after crashing.
CN
Overall (After 3 Stages)
1. Toby Price (KTM) 10:26:00
2. Ross Branch (Hero) +3:48
3. Pablo Quintanilla (Hon) +5:09
4. Luciano Benavides (Hus) +7:50
5. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +7:54
WIND
IN THE
P48
KTM's Toby Price
leads the way after
stage three of the
Rally du Maroc in
Morrocco.
