Rebecca Busi hoped to run the full World Rally-Raid Championship in T4 for 2023, but those plans have already suffered a setback as a series of issues behind the scenes prevent her from running this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
In a social media post made Friday, Busi explained the Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo she raced in the Dakar Rally season kickoff was directly brought over to Abu Dhabi, but was not in condition to be approved after initial scrutineering. Concerns about her budget and finding alternative rides also exacerbated matters before she resigned to skipping the race, though she intends to follow on site.
“I’m in Abu Dhabi, after a few days spent training in Dubai. The idea was to race the second stage of the world championship but some organisational problems prevented me from doing so,” wrote Busi. “The Can-Am used in the Dakar was supposed to come directly here, but after the race it would not have passed the checks and we sent it home. I couldn’t find another means, partly due to the budget and partly due to the lack of contacts despite the organisation trying to help me in every way. The beginning is always like this, difficult and full of ups and downs. Right now I’m suffering a bit from being here without being able to race, I was looking forward to this race because I’m sure I would have enjoyed its 2000km of dunes.”
Dakar competitors’ vehicles were returned to their original owners in Marseilles, France, from Saudi Arabia last week after being impounded in the month following the Rally. Busi’s Can-Am suffered a severe engine failure in Stage #11 before she retired a day later due to the SSV breaking its control arms.
Prior to her exit, Busi had been thirty-ninth in T4 with a best leg finish of thirty-sixth in Stage #5. The race was her first in the Dakar Rally proper after contesting the Dakar Classic in 2022.
While it is to be expected that other W2RC legs feature significantly smaller grids than the Dakar Rally, there are multiple competitors sitting out Abu Dhabi due to circumstance. Most notably, RallyGP leader Kevin Benavides and reigning W2RC RallyGP champion Sam Sunderland both got hurt while testing in the days prior to the ADDC, while others like Sunderland’s team-mate Daniel Sanders and Rally2 rider Michael Docherty are still nursing injuries from Dakar. Eryk Goczał, who won T4 at Dakar to become the category’s points leader, dropped his W2RC pursuit to focus on his academics.