2024 Desafio Ruta 40: Ricardo Ramilo scores SSV overall win, points picture shaken up

The World Rally-Raid Championship‘s SSV title will come down to the season finale in Morocco.

Yasir Seaidan went into the Desafío Ruta 40 hoping to build upon his advantage over Sebastián Guayasamín, Ricardo Ramilo, and Rebecca Busi. However, a mechanical issue on the first stage made him the category’s lone retirement instead while the three rivals occupied the podium to insert themselves into the championship fight.

With Seaidan out, Ramilo won three stages en route to his maiden W2RC outright victory; he was the class’ highest-finishing W2RC driver at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in April, finishing second overall behind non-points driver João Monteiro. The stage wins—which netted fifteen bonus points alongside thirty for the overall triumph—gave him a much needed boost as he whittled the margin to Seaidan from 63 to 20 points.

The remaining trio along with Enrico Gaspari, fifth in points prior to Argentina, were separated by just ten minutes through the first half of the rally. An especially egregious standings shuffle occurred in Stage #2 when the four received speeding penalties, Ramilo’s costing him over three minutes while the others were less than half a minute at most, dropping him to fourth while Gaspari won the leg. Ramilo proceeded to reclaim the lead the next day from Gaspari when a rock punctured the latter’s tyre fifty kilometres from the finish.

Gaspari was taken out of contention following a disastrous Stage #4 that began with another puncture at KM 20 which dropped him and fellow competitors Puck Klaassen, Nazareno López, and Oscar Santos into a metre-deep fesh fesh hole. After helping them out, Gaspari’s wheel came off and destroyed the brakes. He and Cesare Rickler attempted to put together an improvised system but was unable to make the finish in time. They rejoined the race for the last day but finished a distant fifth.

As the contenders narrowed down to three, Busi and Guayasamín trailed Ramilo by 14:51 and 15:41 entering the final stage, respectively. With enough of a cushion, Ramilo was able to take his foot off the gas while Guayasamín beat Gaspari and Busi by less than a minute, edging out the latter for runner-up by five.

Even without the win, Guayasamín is the new points leader with the Rallye du Maroc looming. After going into Argentina trailing by 37, he now leads Seaidan by six while Ramilo is twenty points back and Busi 41.

Claude Fournier never finished higher than fourth throughout the rally, but his conservative approach paid off as he reached the conclusion without major issue.

SSV overall results

SSV stage winners

W2RC SSV standings

For readability, competitors registered for the championship who have not earned points are excluded.

Drivers’ standings

Co-drivers’ standings