2023 Sonora Rally: Rokas Baciuska sweeps T4

Rokas Baciuška solidifed his World Rally-Raid Championship T4 points lead after a perfect outing at the Sonora Rally as he won all six stages including the Prologue.

Baciuška is one of three class winners to sweep the rally’s five main stages alongside Romain Dumontier in Rally2 and Massimo Camurri of Rally3. He and Camurri are the only ones to take it a step further as they also claimed the Prologue, whose shorter distance typically results in more parity as teams try to understand the environment. The win is the reigning champion’s second in a row after the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

“There was no shortage of sports or everyday adrenaline in Mexico, but it was nice to get to know another new culture, impressive nature,” said Baciuška. “Five days in a strict racing mode and here we are, already very close to the world champions title for the second year in a row.”

Eduard Pons provided the closest competition throughout the first half of the rally by finishing second across the first three stages, with the slimmest gap being just six and a half minutes in Stage #2, though Baciuška maintained distance thanks to Pons receiving penalties for speeding. However, Pons’ race was upended when his car broke down in the penultimate stage.

With Pons out of the picture, the only other two entries in T4, Rebecca Busi and Shinsuke Umeda, were assured rally podium finishes. They were already guaranteed such finishes in just the championship as they declared for points while Pons did not, though the latter plans to run the rest of the calendar to accumulate experience for the 2024 Dakar Rally.

“It has been a very tough race, with very fast and beautiful tracks throughout the Sonoran Desert, in which our main approach was to manage to add kilometers and continue preparing for the Dakar 2024,” his team Pons Rallysport stated. “Our pace was progressive, without risking unnecessarily to meet the objective set, managing to be second of T4 until the moment of our retire due to breakdown.

“We are leaving Mexico with a good work plan to continue with the Pons Road to Dakar challenge. There are eight intense months left in which we will continue learning all the secrets of this complex discipline.”

Busi’s runner-up overall class finish is the best for a female W2RC competitor in 2023, trumping Cristina Gutiérrez and Aliyyah Koloc‘s thirds in T3 at the Dakar Rally and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, respectively. The run came in her first start for FN Speed Team, having joined the outfit for the two American rounds in Mexico and Argentina.

“Finally we brought home the first points of this world championship,” wrote Busi. “After a disastrous Dakar and skipping Abu Dhabi, this we really needed this result!”

Umeda notched his second straight third-place run among W2RC drivers.

“After Abu Dhabi, I beat Sébastien Loeb again,” Umeda quipped, referring to the then-W2RC T1 points leader retiring after crashing out and therefore being lower than him in the race results. “By the way, I also beat (Stéphane) Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz in Dakar.”

The quartet of entries are the second fewest for an FIA W2RC class so far in 2023, just two more than the duo in T2 at Dakar. The Quads on the FIM side also boasted two riders at Sonora.

With so few teams racing Sonora, the T4 standings remained relatively the same save for the obvious gains made by those who did take part. Umeda moves from sixth to third in points while Busi finally appears on the board as her retirement from Dakar and absence at Abu Dhabi meant she did not have any prior points.

Baciuška’s points lead increases with over 103 on Eryk Goczał, who won the Dakar Rally but elected to sit out the season to focus on academics. Goczał’s father Marek and uncle Michal, along with Pau Navarro are sandwiched between Umeda and Busi, with the Goczał family typically only racing together while Navarro was unwinding from running the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura in Spain a week before.

T4 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	400	Rokas Baciuška	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	11:51:05	Leader
2	402	Rebecca Busi	Sébastien Delaunay	FN Speed Team	13:50:16	+ 1:59:11
3	401	Shinsuke Umeda	Aku Facundo Jaton	Xtremeplus	15:38:43	+ 3:47:38
4	403	Eduard Pons*	Mónica Plaza	South Racing Can-Am	30:38:14	+ 18:47:09

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T4 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Rokas Baciuška	6:00
Stage #1	Rokas Baciuška	1:44:50
Stage #2	Rokas Baciuška	1:38:32
Stage #3	Rokas Baciuška	3:53:51
Stage #4	Rokas Baciuška	3:06:24
Stage #5	Rokas Baciuška	1:27:28

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	10:29:55
T3	302	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	11:17:24
T4	400	Rokas Baciuška	Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing	11:51:05
RallyGP	18	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing	11:01:09
Rally2	17	Romain Dumontier	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	11:48:21
Rally3	57	Massimo Camurri	Freedom Rally Racing	15:59:16
Quad	162	Laisvydas Kancius	AG Dakar School	15:33:14
National Car/UTV	605	Sara Price*	SP Motorsports	17:14:04
National Enduro	513	Brendan Crow*	Brendan Crow	16:37:36
National Malle Moto	501	Matt Sutherland*	Matt Sutherland	18:24:08

W2RC T4 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Rokas Baciuška	189	Leader
2	Eryk Goczał	86	– 103
3	Shinsuke Umeda	79	– 110
4	Pau Navarro	73	– 116
5	Marek Goczał	67	– 122
6	Michal Goczał	50	– 139
7	Rebecca Busi	45	– 144
8	Yasir Seaidan	35	– 154
9	Bruno Conti de Oliveira	30	– 159
T-10	Sebastián Guayasamin	27	– 162
T-10	Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira	27	– 162
12	Molly Taylor	20	– 169
13	Nicolás Cavigliasso	13	– 176

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.

Rank	Co-Driver	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Oriol Vidal Montijano	Rokas Baciuška	189	Leader
2	Oriol Mena	Eryk Goczał	86	– 103
3	Aku Facundo Jaton	Shinsuke Umeda	79	– 110
4	Maciej Marton	Marek Goczał	67	– 122
5	Szymon Gospodarczyk	Michal Goczał	50	– 139
T-6	François Cazalet	Pau Navarro	45	– 144
T-6	Sébastien Delaunay	Rebecca Busi	45	– 144
8	Alexey Kuzmich	Yasir Seaidan	35	– 154
9	Pedro Bianchi Prata	Bruno Conti de Oliveira	30	– 159
10	Michaël Metge	Pau Navarro	28	– 161
T-11	Ricardo Torlaschi	Sebastián Guayasamin	27	– 162
T-11	Maykel Justo	Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira	27	– 162
13	Andrew Short	Molly Taylor	20	– 169
14	Valentina Peregarini	Nicolás Cavigliasso	13	– 176