2023 Rallye du Maroc: Giroud bookends Quad season with wins, Kancius scores crown

Perhaps the most memorable moment of Laisvydas Kancius‘ 2023 Rallye du Maroc was him doing doughnuts to try to extinguish a fire on the Rally2 bike of fellow Lithuanian Modestas Siliunas, to no success as the blaze continued to consume it. What he did not fail at, on the other hand, was winning a World Rally-Raid Championship in the Quad category.

Despite winning the Prologue, Kancius was not much of a factor in the rally itself as he failed to score a podium in any of the five stages. Stage #3 delivered the killing blow to his overall hopes when he received eight and a half fours in time penalties for missing a waypoint and failing to finish due to electrical problems. He was able to repair his Yamaha Raptor 700 in time to continue the rally, eventually finishing seventh overall of nine finishers, over twelve hours behind winner Alexandre Giroud.

While the finish was his worst of the season, Kancius virtually had the championship locked up entering Morocco. He led Rodolfo Guillioli by sixteen points going into the finale; in order for Guillioli to pull off the comeback, he would have needed to win while Kancius either retired or finished seventh for W2RC riders at best, the latter impossible as there were only six such entrants. Kancius’ seventh overall was good for fourth among championship contenders, while Juraj Varga beat Guillioli for the W2RC win.

Kancius ended the season with 82 points, nine ahead of Guillioli, and a win at the Sonora Rally.

“A lot of strength, effort, nerves, time, and everything possible were put into this result,” said Kancius. He is one of two Lithuanian W2RC champions alongside Rokas Baciuška in T4. “Although the Morocco Rally was a bigger challenge than I expected and at one point it seemed that everything was slipping out of your hands, but when you are so close to the goal, you can’t give up.”

Giroud, the reigning W2RC Quad champion, elected not to defend his title but made select starts anyway. He won the season-opening Dakar Rally in January for the second consecutive year before settling down to treat a acromioclavicular joint injury he exacerbated at Dakar.

Manuel Andújar, who won the Desafío Ruta 40, was poised to notch his second straight win after claiming the first three stages. Howveer, his quad started to lose oil during the penultimate leg and he opted to retire to preserve the engine for later events. With Andújar out of the picture, Giroud won the last two days.

Abdulaziz Ahli was the only Quad winner in 2023 to not race at Morocco, exclusively entering and winning the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for the third year in a row.

After scoring a podium on début in Abu Dhabi, CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team successfully brought home both of their quads at Morocco with Gaëtan Martinez and Mindaugas Skudutis. Skudutis suffered an electrical failiure while Martinez lost power steering on the first day, causing the former to drop to the bottom of the ranking due to a stage retirement penalty, before they completed the rest of the rally without much trouble.

“It’s a good feeling to start in the same competition together with the most famous names of this sport,” said Skuditis. “It’s a very good experience and feeling to be here.”

Quad overall results

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Time	Margin
1	186	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	21:07:24	Leader
2	182	Juraj Varga	Varga Motorsport	21:27:20	+ 19:56
3	181	Rodolfo Guillioli	Pepitas Racing Team	22:25:16	+ 1:17:52
4	187	Jérôme Connart*	Team Giroud	23:10:47	+ 2:03:23
5	189	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	24:23:33	+ 3:16:09
6	184	Semuel Desbuisson*	Drag’on Rally Team	28:34:27	+ 7:27:03
7	180	Laisvydas Kancius	Story Racing SRO	33:32:43	+ 12:25:19
8	185	Toni Vingut*	Visit Sant Antoni – Ibiza	36:23:54	+ 15:16:30
9	188	Mindaugas Skudutis	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	40:57:55	+ 19:50:31
DNF	183	Manuel Andújar	7240 Team	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

Quad stage winners

Stage	Rider	Time
Prologue	Laisvydas Kancius	1:05:35.8 (13:07.8)
Stage #1	Manuel Andújar	4:02:13
Stage #2	Manuel Andújar	3:49:21
Stage #3	Manuel Andújar	4:01:01
Stage #4	Alexandre Giroud*	5:02:16
Stage #5	Alexandre Giroud*	2:26:56

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	14:49:09
T2	251	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	22:14:17
T3	315	Marek Goczał	EnergyLandia Rally Team	16:22:12
T4	403	João Ferreira	South Racing Can-Am	18:26:24
T5	506	Michiel Becx*	Team de Rooy	21:32:34
RallyGP	8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:56:43
Rally2	32	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:37
Rally3	164	Cheikh Yves Jacquemain	Africa Rallye Team	23:42:39
Quad	186	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	21:07:24
Open Auto	601	Jérôme Cambier*	MD Rallye Sport	21:21:46
Open SSV	653	Tomas Mickus*	BRO Racing	21:42:23
Road to Dakar Bike	71	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:11:16
Road to Dakar SSV	420	William Grarre*	Team Horizon Off-Road	21:50:39

W2RC Quad standings

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Laisvydas Kancius	82	Leader
2	Rodolfo Guillioli	73	– 9
3	Juraj Varga	71	– 11
4	Pablo Copetti	38	– 44
T-5	Abdulaziz Ahli	25	– 57
T-5	Manuel Andújar	25	– 57
7	Carlos Alejandro Verza	20	– 62
T-8	Adomas Gančierius	16	– 66
T-8	Gaëtan Martinez	16	– 66
T-10	Antonas Kanopkinas	11	– 71
T-10	Toni Vingut	11	– 71
12	Mindaugas Skudutis	10	– 72