teammate Tosha Schareina.
The fancied Spaniard took a
stage win earlier in the event but
suffered a 10-minute penalty on
Stage Five for failing to leave the
bivouac-refuge between the flags,
which dropped him out of podium
contention. He's not totally out of
it yet but needs some misfortune
to befall one of the top three if
he's to make it back onto the po
-
dium thanks to his overall deficit
of
20 minutes and
13 seconds.
Fifth in the
overall standings
is Skyler Howes.
The Utahn Mon
-
ster Energy Honda
star
hasn't had the
podium pace of
years past, but his
consistent mid-
top-10 pace sees
him with a little
over four minutes
in hand from Hero Motorsport's
Nacho Cornejo, who in turn holds
a 17:55 gap over Adrien Van
Beveren.
Frenchman Van Beveren has
endured a nightmare first half
to the Dakar but is getting it
together, albeit too late in the
event to have any effect on the
podium results. The Monster
Energy Honda man lies seventh,
with 56 minutes in hand over
Ross Branch on the second Hero
Motorsports entry.
American Preston Campbell
continues to impress in the Ral
-
ly2 division. The Dakar rookie is
ninth overall
on another Monster
Energy Honda entry and leads
Slovenian Toni Mulec (KTM) by
nine minutes and 36 seconds
with four stages left to run.
As for the remaining Ameri
-
cans in Dakar 2026, Mason Klein
(Hoto)
holds down 15th overall,
Nathan Rafferty (KTM) is 56th,
and Brandon Krause (KTM) had
an early flight home after crash-
ing out on Stage Four.
CN
2026 Dakar Rally Results
After Stage 8
1. Luciano Benavides (KTM) 33:18:50
2. Daniel Sanders (KTM) +0:10
3. Ricky Brabec (Hon) +04:47
4. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +20:13
5. Skyler Howes (Hon) +41:06
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 13, 2026 P25
Daniel Sanders is only 10 seconds
off the overall lead.
Ricky Brabec is still
firmly in contention
for the overall win,
but the Californian
needs a stage win to
hoist him onto the
level of Benavides
and Sanders.
