ROUND 1 / JANUARY 3-17, 2026
YANBU, SAUDI ARABIA
OFF-ROAD I FIM WORLD RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONSHIP
P80
Round two of the five-round
2026 FIM World Rally-Raid
Championship will be held in
Portugal over March 17-22.
CN
Dakar Rally Overall Bike (Top 10)
1. Luciano Benavides (KTM) 49:00.41
2. Ricky Brabec (Hon) +00:00.02
3. Tosha Schareina (Hon) +00:25.12
4. Skyler Howes (Hon) +00:56.41
5. Daniel Sanders (KTM) +01:03.15
6. Adrien Van Beveren (Hon)
+01:04.46
7. Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo (Her)
+01:39.50
8. Ross Branch (Her) +02:49.15
9. Toni Mulec (KTM) +02:57.18
10. Preston Campbell (Hon) +03:01.55
As for the remaining Ameri-
cans competing in the 2026 Da-
kar, Mason Klein switched teams
again
for the race, this time head-
ing the new Hoto Factory Racing
enterprise out of
China. Klein
had another up-and-down event,
with the highlight being a seventh
place on stage seven. He would
eventually cross the line in 14th,
making it four Americans inside
the top 15.
Brandon Krause (KTM), how
-
ever, did not see the finish line.
In his
Dakar debut, the American
crashed out hard on stage five and
had to withdraw from the event.
Campbell inherited the class
lead after stage four and was
looking good to take the win as
a rookie, but Mulec refused to
give in, gradually whittling down
Campbell's 20-minute advan
-
tage to take the lead on stage
11,
a position he would never
lose. For his work, Campbell
was still awarded Rookie of the
Rally in second place, with Ven-
tura holding onto third.
In the Original
By Motul
category for solo riders with no
outside mechanical help, Benji
Melot (KTM) finally added the
class win to his tally after finish
-
ing so close to the win in 2025.
The Frenchman
led home Josep
Pedro (Husqvarna) and Jerome
Martiny (Honda).
Benavides is hoisted aloft by
his team as the enormity of his
win begins to sink in.
