Michael Docherty impressed in his return to the World Rally-Raid Championship at the Desafío Ruta 40 after missing the last two rounds due to injury, even if the final results don’t reflect it.
He won three stages in the Rally2 category, outscoring rival and BAS World KTM team-mate Bradley Cox‘s two, but was out of the overall picture in Stage #2 after shrubs yanked the fuel pump supply connector off his bike with fifty kilometres before the finish. Unable to get the bike fixed in time, he was forced to withdraw from the stage. While Rally2 riders are allowed to continue the rally after a stage retirement provided they can repair their bike (a luxury not granted for the top-level RallyGP class), bowing out of a leg results in a hefty time penalty that eliminates them from the overall.
Docherty returned to the race for the second half with a vengeance by claiming two more stage wins. He especially impressed in Stage #4 as he finished fourth among all bikes, keeping pace with eventual RallyGP champion Tosha Schareina as he did on the first day. Of course, due to his DNF, he had to settle for fifteenth overall.
With Docherty out of the picture, Konrad Dąbrowski and Romain Dumontier became Cox’s main challengers for the rest of the race but were still too far back to mount enough of a charge. Entering the final stage, Dąbrowski trailed Cox by nine minutes and forty seconds, and failed to close the gap as Cox instead won the leg to ice the victory. Despite a navigation mistake, a flurry of RallyGP penalties allowed Cox to finish Stage #5 in fifth for all riders.
The victory is Cox’s first in W2RC competition and his second at a 2023 international rally raid; his first of the latter came at the Taklimakan Rally in China in June. His overall time of 17:01:01 put him eighth in the overall bike classification.
While finishing eleven minutes back of Cox, Dąbrowski still recorded his first W2RC podium.
Dumontier’s third was a strong conclusion to a race that began in disaster. He suffered a mechanical failure partway through the Prologue that necessitated an engine change, resulting in a fifteen-minute time penalty, followed by crashing and having another minute tacked on for speeding in Stage #1. While he was too far back to catch Cox, he could have flipped with Dąbrowski for second had the penalties not occurred.
Nonetheless, the podium allows the Dakar Rally and Sonora Rally winner to regain the W2RC Rally2 points lead from Paolo Lucci. Lucci suffered a hard crash in Stage #2 that prevented him from continuing.
Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge W2RC victor Jean-Loup Lepan remains third in points with a fourth, while Prologue winner Diego Llanos placed fifth as the highest-finishing rider not competing for points. Juan Santiago Rostan was sixth and clinched free registration for the 2024 Dakar Rally.
Behind Rostan, Dakar veteran Sebastián Urquía was seventh; Urquía won the Group N class at the last DR 40 in 2018. Iván Martín, the reigning M2 champion of Argentina’s domestic rally regularity series Campeonato Argentino de Rally y Navegación (CaNav), finished thirteenth overall.
Lucci and Jeremías Pascual were the only riders to not reach the finish. Pascual, the only competitor on a Beta and the 2022 South American Rally Race runner-up, had a mechanical issue in Stage #2 followed by his navigation tower breaking off two days later. On the final day, Pascual crashed and had to be airlifted out.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to finish this race, but that’s the way it is, racing is racing,” wrote Pascual. “Never give up.”
Rally2 overall results
| Finish | Number | Rider | Team | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 21 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 17:01:01 | Leader |
| 2 | 23 | Konrad Dąbrowski | DUUST Diverse Racing | 17:39:54 | + 38:53 |
| 3 | 17 | Romain Dumontier | HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing | 17:51:29 | + 50:28 |
| 4 | 76 | Jean-Loup Lepan | DUUST Diverse Racing | 17:55:12 | + 54:11 |
| 5 | 29 | Diego Llanos* | Xraids Experience | 19:30:13 | + 2:29:12 |
| 6 | 69 | Juan Santiago Rostan* | Pampa Rental Rally Team | 19:47:59 | + 2:46:58 |
| 7 | 113 | Sebastián Urquía* | Xraids Experience | 20:57:33 | + 3:56:32 |
| 8 | 60 | Francisco Arredondo* | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 21:27:38 | + 4:26:37 |
| 9 | 57 | Fabien von Thüngen* | Fabien von Thüngen | 22:36:11 | + 5:35:10 |
| 10 | 61 | Carlos Llibre* | Xraids Experience | 22:40:34 | + 5:39:33 |
| 11 | 67 | Rolando Martinez* | Xraids Experience | 22:56:29 | + 5:55:28 |
| 12 | 56 | Jiří Brož | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 23:30:32 | + 6:29:31 |
| 13 | 65 | Iván Martín* | Iván Martín | 25:08:04 | + 8:07:03 |
| 14 | 35 | Dominique Cizeau Girault | Xraids Experience | 25:15:58 | + 8:14:57 |
| 15 | 111 | Michael Docherty | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 29:01:02 | + 12:00:1 |
| 16 | 55 | David Martin* | David Martin | 29:33:11 | + 12:32:10 |
| 17 | 64 | Carlos Malo Peña* | Carlos Malo Peña | 44:34:04 | + 27:33:03 |
| DNF | 46 | Paolo Lucci | BAS World KTM Racing Team | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | 66 | Jeremías Pascual* | Jeremías Pascual | DNF | N/A |
Rally2 stage winners
| Stage | Rider | Time |
| Prologue | Diego Llanos* | 57:20 |
| Stage #1 | Michael Docherty | 3:08:23 |
| Stage #2 | Bradley Cox | 3:46:54 |
| Stage #3 | Michael Docherty | 3:10:21 |
| Stage #4 | Michael Docherty | 2:57:17 |
| Stage #5 | Bradley Cox | 2:43:19 |
Overall winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| T1 | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 15:10:03 |
| T3 | 302 | Mitch Guthrie | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 16:22:31 |
| T4 | 403 | Gustavo Gallego* | South Racing Can-Am | 18:34:37 |
| RallyGP | 68 | Tosha Schareina* | Honda Team | 15:58:46 |
| Rally2 | 21 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 17:01:01 |
| Rally3 | 122 | Ardit Kurtaj | Xraids Experience | 23:15:45 |
| Quad | 152 | Manuel Andújar | 7240 Team | 19:24:30 |
| Open Auto | 650 | Blas Zapag* | Copetrol Rally | 23:06:34 |
| Open T3 | 670 | Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli* | Ferioli Racing Team | 17:34:31 |
| Open T4 | 678 | Juan José Semino* | Xcorpion Rally Racing | 20:59:00 |
| Open Moto | 608 | Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum* | MED Racing Team | 22:36:24 |
| Open Quad | 623 | Santiago Rostan* | Pampa Rental Rally Team | 25:28:33 |
| Road to Dakar Auto | 678 | Juan José Semino* | Xcorpion Rally Racing | 20:59:00 |
| Road to Dakar Moto | 623 | Juan Santiago Rostan* | Pampa Rental Rally Team | 25:28:33 |
W2RC Rally2 standings
| Rank | Rider | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Romain Dumontier | 79 | Leader |
| 2 | Paolo Lucci | 66 | – 13 |
| 3 | Jean-Loup Lepan | 58 | – 21 |
| T-4 | Bradley Cox | 35 | – 44 |
| T-4 | Jacob Argubright | 35 | – 44 |
| 6 | Michael Docherty | 33 | – 46 |
| 7 | Konrad Dąbrowski | 31 | – 48 |
| 8 | Toni Mulec | 30 | – 49 |
| 9 | Dominique Cizeau Girault | 23 | – 56 |
| 10 | Mathieu Dovèze | 17 | – 62 |
| 11 | Neels Theric | 13 | – 66 |
| 12 | Jan Brabec | 12 | – 67 |
| T-13 | Jon Florea | 11 | – 68 |
| T-13 | Jiří Brož | 11 | – 68 |
| T-13 | Mirjam Pol | 11 | – 68 |
| 16 | Sunier | 9 | – 70 |