2023 Rallye du Maroc: Marek Goczal wins in T3 debut, Seth Quintero wins title

The World Rally-Raid Championship‘s T3 points battle was one of the tightest for any category since its inception as the top three—all Americans racing for Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team—was separated by nine points entering the season-ending Rallye du Maroc. Mitch Guthrie held just a three-point edge over Austin Jones with Seth Quintero in tow.

Jones spoke with The Checkered Flag shortly after the trio swept the Stage #2 podium, calling the championship fight “really hard” as “every stage matters, every day matters, every kilometre matters.” Unfortunately for him, he was unable to complete every kilometre as he one of many victims in an attrition-filled Stage #4 with his car breaking down twenty kilometres in. Guthrie, who won Stage #2, was eliminated from contention the day prior for the same reason.

Entering the final stage, Guthrie needed a “little bit of a miracle” if he wanted any shot at the title, but it never came despite winning the leg. As the last man standing of the trio, Quintero went on to finish second overall to clinch his maiden title by just five points over Guthrie.

“This championship feels like a long time coming,” said Quintero. “We’ve been on the cusp of it in previous years. Even this year, we had so many ups and downs along the way and we came into this last round third overall. We knew we just had to go for it and that’s what we did.”

With his fellow Americans out of the picture, Quintero’s main rivals for the rest of the rally were the Goczał family of EnergyLandia Rally Team, who was making their début in T3. Eryk Goczał, the family’s scion and Dakar Rally T4 winner, did not take long to adjust to his new ride as he won the Prologue and Stage #1. However, his overall lead was dashed the next day when he broke both differentials and was left stranded in the desert, prompting him to start a fire to signal for help which led to a reprimand from the FIA. He retired for good after a Stage #3 engine failure.

While Eryk’s maiden T3 rally was cut short, his father Marek and uncle Michał kept the family effort going strong. Marek took the overall lead after a runner-up to Francisco Lopéz Contardo in Stage #3 followed by Michał winning Stage #4 and placing second behind Guthrie on the final day. A pair of mechanical issues on the second and third days relegated Michał to last among finishers, while Marek held off Quintero to win the overall.

The win was Marek’s first since the 2022 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in T4. He was the only T3 winner in 2023 not from the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team as Jones won in Dakar, Quintero claimed Abu Dhabi, and Guthrie went back-to-back at the Sonora Rally and Argentina.

“We still think it’s an early project, we need to do some more work,” Eryk told Cross-Country Rally News. “As it showed on myself, I didn’t finish two of the stages, which means we could not continue the rally, but it’s something we test before Dakar. That’s why we’ll come back here in a week to work on the cars, to improve it even more before Dakar. I am very happy, because we managed to claim the second vice-world champion title in T4 from only winning the Dakar, so I think that’s a huge surprise to me because I just checked the results, I didn’t even anticipate that it could have happened so it’s a great surprise.

“I think we can celebrate now when we come back to Poland, of course from the win of the rally, from the win of the two stages, I think the domination, and we are proud of the surname Goczał.”

The Goczałs were not the only T3 newcomers after graduating from T4. Rokas Baciuška, who won his second straight T4 championship prior to the Desafío Ruta 40, finished fourth in Stage #1 before dropping out with a broken rear suspension arm. His Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing team-mate Lopéz retired a day after his stage win when his front differential broke, though he was already out of the overall with a burned-out fuel pump in Stage #1.

Reigning W2RC T5 champion Kees Koolen scored a top five in his first championship race in a Light Prototype. He finished a spot ahead of Dania Akeel, who was doing her maiden W2RC race in an MCE-5 Taurus T3 Max from Wevers Sport; Claude Fournier, another Taurus T3 convert, was fourteenth.

Lukas Lauda, the son of Formula One legend Niki Lauda, finished thirteenth in just his third career rally raid to beat those like FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas T3 champion João Dias.

T3 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	316	Marek Goczał	Maciej Marton	EnergyLandia Rally Team	16:22:12	Leader
2	302	Seth Quintero	Dennis Zenz	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	16:37:19	+ 15:07
3	303	Cristina Gutiérrez	Pablo Moreno Huete	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	16:43:01	+ 20:49
4	318	Ignacio Casale*	Alvaro Leon	X-raid Team	17:02:20	+ 40:08
5	309	Kees Koolen	Wouter Rosegaar	GRallyTeam	17:15:32	+ 53:20
6	312	Dania Akeel	Taye Perry	Wevers Sport	17:18:48	+ 56:36
7	331	Paul Spierings*	Jan Pieter van der Stelt	Dakar Team Spierings RaceArt	17:54:46	+ 1:32:34
8	327	Romain Locmane*	Charlie Herbst	Quad Bike Evasion	18:53:52	+ 2:31:40
9	320	Lucas Del Rio*	Bruno Jacomy	South Racing Can-Am	18:55:39	+ 2:33:27
10	321	Oscar Ral Verdu*	Xavier Blanco Garcia	Buggy Masters Team	18:59:16	+ 2:37:04
11	306	David Zille	Sebastian Cesana	South Racing Can-Am	19:53:16	+ 3:31:04
12	319	Hernán Garcés*	Juan Pablo Latrach	South Racing Can-Am	20:33:47	+ 4:11:35
13	332	Lukas Lauda*	Stefan Henken	South Racing Can-Am	21:18:18	+ 4:56:06
14	317	Claude Fournier	Patrick Antoniolli	BBR Motorsport	21:24:02	+ 5:01:50
15	324	João Dias*	João Miranda	Santag Racing	21:26:11	+ 5:03:59
16	330	Jorge Segura Vidiella*	Sergi Brugue Carreras	FN Speed Team	22:00:45	+ 5:38:33
17	337	Freddy Fast*	Alexander Toril	South Racing Can-Am	35:36:12	+ 19:14:00
18	335	William Buller*	Jordão Daniel	Franco Sport	35:37:11	+ 19:14:59
19	322	Rui Carneiro*	Manuel Porém	RC Motorsport	36:03:42	+ 19:41:30
20	301	Austin Jones	Gustavo Gugelmin	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	36:31:49	+ 20:09:37
21	326	Luis Portela Morais*	David Megre	GRallyTeam	37:00:00	+ 20:37:48
22	329	Gert-Jan Van Der Valk*	Branco de Lange	Arcane Racing	37:18:51	+ 20:56:39
23	341	Andre Hort*	Enio Bozzano Junior	BBR Motorsport	40:35:20	+ 24:13:08
24	334	Mário Franco*	Rui Franco	Franco Sport	42:35:22	+ 26:13:10
25	323	Tiago Reis*	Valter Cardoso	Santag Racing	49:59:42	+ 33:37:30
26	333	Lex Peters*	Wouter de Graaff	Arcane Racing	54:41:41	+ 38:19:29
27	325	Pal Lonyai*	Filippo Ippolito	X-raid Team	58:23:03	+ 42:00:52
28	338	André Van Ginkel*	Tim Rietveld	Arcane Racing	80:36:37	+ 64:14:25
29	300	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	83:55:06	+ 67:32:54
30	315	Michał Goczał	Szymon Gospodarczyk	EnergyLandia Rally Team	85:51:03	+ 69:28:51
DNF	304	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	Diego Ortega Gil	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	307	Erik Van Loon	Henrie Verschuuren	South Racing Can-Am	DNF	N/A
DNF	308	Rokas Baciuška	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	314	Eryk Goczał	Oriol Mena	EnergyLandia Rally Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	336	Roger Grouwels*	Ronald Van Nederpelt	Dakar Team Spierings RaceArt	DNF	N/A
DNF	339	Jean-Denis Piccini*	Stéphane Denécheau	JDV Sports	DNF	N/A
DNF	340	Marcelo Tiglia Gastaldi*	Carlos Sachs	BBR Motorsport	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T3 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Eryk Goczał	10:49.6
Stage #1	Eryk Goczał	3:33:45
Stage #2	Mitch Guthrie	3:10:14
Stage #3	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	3:20:18
Stage #4	Michał Goczał	3:48:21
Stage #5	Mitch Guthrie	1:58:38

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 T3 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Seth Quintero	201	Leader
2	Mitch Guthrie	196	– 5
3	Austin Jones	190	– 11
4	Cristina Gutiérrez	138	– 63
5	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	104	– 97
6	João Ferreira	97	– 104
7	Mattias Ekström	77	– 124
8	David Zille	69	– 132
9	Claude Fournier	55	– 146
T-10	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	41	– 160
T-10	Marek Goczał	41	– 160
12	Aliyyah Koloc	34	– 167
13	Dania Akeel	31	– 170
14	Hélder Rogrigues	22	– 179
15	Annett Quandt	20	– 181
16	Kees Koolen	18	– 183
17	Michał Goczał	17	– 184
18	Erik van Loon	13	– 188
	Eryk Goczał	0	– 201
	Francisco Alvarez	0	– 201

Co-drivers’ standings

Some co-drivers have worked with drivers in other categories. Those do not count for this championship nor are they mentioned below. Co-drivers also do not earn points if their driver is not competing for the W2RC.

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Dennis Zenz	Seth Quintero	201	Leader
2	Kellon Walch	Mitch Guthrie	196	– 5
3	Gustavo Gugelmin	Austin Jones	190	– 11
4	Pablo Moreno Huete	Cristina Gutiérrez	138	– 63
5	Juan Pablo Latrach	Francisco López Contardo, Hernán Garcés*	78	– 123
6	Emil Bergkvist	Mattias Ekström	77	– 124
7	Filipe Palmeiro	João Ferreira	74	– 127
8	Sebastian Cesana	David Zille	69	– 132
9	Szymon Gospodarczyk #	Claude Fournier, Michał Goczał	52	– 149
T-10	Maciej Marton	Marek Goczał	41	– 160
T-10	Cédric Duplé	Jean-Luc Ceccaldi	41	– 160
12	Stéphane Duple	Aliyyah Koloc	34	– 167
13	Sébastien Delaunay	Erik van Loon	29	– 172
14	Bruno Jacomy	Hernán Garcés*, Lucas Del Rio*	26	– 175
15	Manuel Porem	João Ferreira	23	– 178
16	Gonçalo Reis	Hélder Rodrigues	22	– 179
17	Arnold Brucy	Claude Fournier	20	– 181
18	Wouter Rosegaar	Kees Koolen	18	– 183
19	Sergio Lafuente	Dania Akeel, Diego Martinez	15	– 186
20	Annie Seel	Annett Quandt	11	– 190
21	Lisette Bakker	Annett Quandt	9	– 192
	Diego Ortega Gil	Francisco Lopéz Contardo	0	– 201
	Oriol Mena	Eryk Goczał	0	– 201
	Xavier Panseri	Fernando Álvarez Castellano	0	– 201