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2024 Rallye du Maroc: Antanas Kanopkinas scores maiden W2RC Quad win for CFMOTO
In a class generally dominated by the Yamaha Raptor, CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team closed out their maiden World Rally-Raid Championship season with a Quad victory at the Rallye du Maroc courtesy of Antanas Kanopkinas.
Kanopkinas, the only non-Yamaha rider, battled with Kamil Wiśniewski throughout the race. The former set the early pace by winning the Prologue, but a string of odd problems struck his CFORCE 1000 the next day: the power steering went out shortly before he started the stage, then the lambda sensor—which is used to measure the amount of oxygen inside the exhaust’s gas—also malfunctioned.
“In order to understand what this means, I suggest to those who have a quad bike, pull out the fuse responsible for this system and try to drive a short course somewhere in a gravel pit,” Kanopkinas explained about the power steering loss. Although he lost twenty-nine minutes to Wiśniewski as a result, he was perhaps lucky that the stage was shortened due to flooding, mitigating some of the damage.
Once the mechanical gremlins were dealt with, Kanopkinas got to work on erasing his deficit with back-to-back stage wins ahead of Wiśniewski. This came even after another misadventure in Stage #2 when he yelped tow another rider who ran out of fuel, only for the cable to snap and get stuck in the CFORCE’s half-axle. A dominant third day, where he beat Wiśniewski by thirty-four minutes, propelled Kanopkinas into the overall lead.
The two spoke after Stage #3, where Wiśniewski revealed to Kanopkinas that his strategy had been to follow him and other riders. This strategy ultimately blew up when “several bike riders squeezed in between us.”
Wiśniewski rebounded by winning Stage #4 while Kanopkinas got lost, stopped to dump sand on a bike that had caught fire, then coasted to the finish on a flat tyre. The tumultuous day dropped the latter back to second, trailing by 8:08 entering the last day.
Unfortunately for Wiśniewski, technical issues of his own occurred at the worst possible time. Kanopkinas quietly took advantage and won Stage #5 to leapfrog him yet again for the outright victory, while Wiśniewski finished the stage third.
CFMOTO is the first Chinese manufacturer to win a W2RC round, capping off a year that began with Kanopkinas finishing fifth in his Dakar Rally début. The team then skipped the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, where they had entered their first W2RC event the year prior, due to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea that disrupted shipping, before returning with Kanopkinas and Gaëtan Martinez placing third behind Wiśniewski at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid.
The win moved Kanopkinas up to third in the final Quad standings behind Manuel Andújar, who clinched the title at the Desafío Ruta 40, and Wiśniewski. Hani Al-Noumesi, who was third in Morocco, finished two points back of Kanopkinas.
Ayelén Bogado, the only rider of the four in Morocco who was not registered for points, retired from Stage #2 after rolling in the dunes. She salvaged her race with a runner-up in Stage #5.
2024 is the final W2RC season to have Quads at all five rounds. Although a trophy will still be awarded in 2025, the class will not be featured at the Dakar Rally next year.
Quad overall results
| Finish | Number | Rider | Team | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 182 | Antanas Kanopkinas | CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team | 22:44:50 | Leader |
| 2 | 180 | Kamil Wiśniewski | ORLEN Team | 23:25:43 | + 40:53 |
| 3 | 181 | Hani Al-Noumesi | Hani Al-Noumesi | 28:19:36 | + 5:34:46 |
| 4 | 183 | Ayelén Bogado* | MEC Team | 81:27:18 | + 58:42:28 |
Quad stage winners
| Stage | Rider | Time |
| Prologue | Antanas Kanopkinas | 22:33.1 |
| Stage #1 | Kamil Wiśniewski | 3:23:41 |
| Stage #2 | Antanas Kanopkinas | 4:58:59 |
| Stage #3 | Antanas Kanopkinas | 5:01:21 |
| Stage #4 | Kamil Wiśniewski | 4:51:01 |
| Stage #5 | Antanas Kanopkinas | 3:17:58 |
W2RC Quad standings
For readability, competitors registered for the championship but did not earn points are excluded.
| Rank | Rider | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Manuel Andújar | 76 | Leader |
| 2 | Kamil Wiśniewski | 65 | – 11 |
| 3 | Antanas Kanopkinas | 62 | – 14 |
| 4 | Hani Al-Noumesi | 60 | – 16 |
| 5 | Alexandre Giroud | 30 | – 46 |
| 6 | Abdulaziz Ahli | 25 | – 51 |
| 7 | Juraj Varga | 24 | – 52 |
| 8 | Laisvydas Kancius | 20 | – 56 |
| T-9 | Gaëtan Martinez | 16 | – 60 |
| T-9 | Suany Martinez | 16 | – 60 |
| 11 | Samuel Desbuisson | 15 | – 61 |
| 12 | Leonardo Martinez Saucedo | 13 | – 63 |
| T-13 | Wilson Fabian Cerón Ochoa | 11 | – 65 |
| T-13 | Marcin Wilkołek | 11 | – 65 |
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