The Dakar Rally Rolls On
A
merica's Ricky Brabec
(Honda) is staring down
the barrel of his second career
Dakar Rally win as of Tuesday,
January 16.
With three stages left to run,
the 2020 rally winner and factory
Honda pilot had yet to win a
stage but carded three second-
place finishes, ensuring he
heads into Stage 10 of 12 with a
6:59 lead over Hero Motorsports'
Ross Branch.
"Today was possibly one of
my only shots to make a big
push and try to make a bit bigger
gap than 40 or 50 seconds, so
I gave it my all today," Brabec
said after the most recent Stage
Nine. "I think tomorrow we're
probably going to have to open,
but if I can clean up, I think we'll
be set free. In the 2020 Dakar,
I pulled a gap early on, and this
has definitely been the most
stressful race of my life because
it's so close. Anyway, with a few
more days to go, let's keep the
hopes up and keep charging."
Branch and Brabec have
swapped the rally lead between
themselves since the beginning,
with only Brabec's teammate
"Nacho" Cornejo able to take the
overall rally lead off the pair after
Stage Four.
The Chilean has enjoyed a
superb rally thus far with three
stage wins, more than any other
rider, but has not maintained the
same consistency as Brabec and
Branch and lies third, 13:46 off
his teammate Brabec.
Adrien Van Beveren is an
-
other of the factory Honda pilots
(there are five in total with Bra-
bec, Cornejo, Van Beveren, Pablo
Quintanilla and Skyler Howes).
The Frenchman has taken two
stage wins thus far in 2024
but threw away a third win on
Stage Eight when he deliberately
slowed to try and get a better
starting position. The problem
WIND
IN THE
P36
Ricky Brabec is so
close to a second
Dakar win he can
almost smell it, but
there are still three
stages to go.
