2024 Rallye du Maroc: Eryk Goczal tops Challenger in Taurus sweep

The 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship was a renaissance campaign for the Taurus T3 Max. After finishing 1–2 at the Dakar Rally in the Challenger category to kick off the year, Tauruses went a whopping 1–2–3–4–5 in class at the Rallye du Maroc to cap off the season.

The newly formed EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team led the way with Eryk Goczał scoring his maiden W2RC Challenger victory ahead of his father and defending winner Marek Goczał. Eryk and his uncle Michał Goczał won all six legs including the Prologue, though the latter was unable to compete for the overall after his onboard fire extinguisher discharged before the start of Stage #4 and could not be replaced in time.

“The goal was to get 1–2–3 Goczal on the podium. Unfortunately, we just barely missed Michał on the podium but I think it’s a good step towards Dakar and we’re going to push more,” Eryk said.

Behind the Goczałs, their fellow Tauruses kept pace in every stage and none of their rivals from Can-Am or OT3 ever cracked the top five. Taurus drivers locked out top six in Stage #1 followed by eight in Stage #2, seven in Stage #3, and five in Stage #4. The MCE-5 Development and Wevers Sport joint project recorded a second 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8 to end the day.

Rui Carneiro‘s G Rally OT3 scored the highest stage finish for a non-Taurus of sixth in Stage #4, narrowly losing out to Khalifa Al-Attiyah by twenty-two seconds. Naturally, Carneiro was also the best performing Challenger driver outside of Taurus overall as he was sixth behind Eryk and Marek Goczał, Dania Akeel, Nicolás Cavigliasso, and Mitch Guthrie.

The back half of the outright top ten was mainly populated by the OT3 save for Emilio Fernández‘s Taurus in ninth. Quad veteran-turned-OT3 driver Alexandre Giroud closed out the order in his Challenger début, while team-mate and 2023 Dakar Original by Motul winner Charan Moore had to bow out due to a crash while navigating for Puck Klaassen.

Despite their usual success in Challenger, Can-Am struggled in Morocco. Oscar Olivas was the highest Maverick finisher in fourteenth, which was even behind the category’s other manufacturers Arcane Racing (Hans Weijs Jr. in twelfth) and X-raid Yamaha (Pál Lónyai, thirteenth). MMP Compétition‘s MMP T3, which is based on the Can-Am, also struggled as Ricardo Porém retired halfway and Francis Balocchi was twenty-seventh.

Despite Cavigliasso’s performance and Can-Am’s outing, the former was unable to pass Rokas Baciuška for the championship. Baciuška entered Morocco on a two-race win streak and a 44-point advantage in the standings, then clinched the title during the third stage. Ironically, he did not finish the Rallye du Maroc after a mechanical failure on the final day. Still, he was the first person to win a W2RC championship in multiple classes after back-to-back SSV crowns in 2022 and 2023.

Although he failed to claim the drivers’ title, his wife Valentina Pertegarini became the first woman to win a World Rally-Raid Championship as she topped the co-drivers’ standings. Baciuška’s navigator Oriol Vidal had missed two rounds including Morocco due to injury, which Pertegarini capitalised upon to pass him.

WRC2 driver Charles Munster was seventeenth in his maiden W2RC start, driving the new Apache APH-03 hybrid car. Moroccan historic rally competitor Louis Baudrand was also entered in an Apache and placed nineteenth. Their entries marked the first time a W2RC event featured cars in the T3.U subcategory for electric and hybrid Challengers.

Challenger overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	307	Eryk Goczał	Álex Haro	EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team	T3.1	15:14:11	Leader
2	308	Marek Goczał	Maciej Marton	EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team	T3.1	15:24:02	+ 9:51
3	303	Dania Akeel	Stéphane Duple	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	15:41:32	+ 27:21
4	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Valentina Pertegarini	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	15:43:55	+ 29:44
5	304	Mitch Guthrie	Kellon Walch	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	T3.1	15:55:43	+ 41:32
6	312	Rui Carneiro*	Ola Fløene	G Rally Team	T3.1	16:11:31	+ 57:20
7	310	João Dias*	João Miranda	Santag Racing	T3.1	16:36:49	+ 1:22:38
8	311	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	G Rally Team	T3.1	16:41:25	+ 1:27:14
9	314	Emilio Fernández*	Álvaro Leon	RaceSeven	T3.1	16:57:56	+ 1:43:45
10	319	Alexandre Giroud*	Jeremy Jacomelli	G Rally Team	T3.1	17:14:23	+ 2:00:12
11	332	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari*	Nasser Al-Kuwari	QMMF Team	T3.1	18:38:15	+ 3:24:04
12	330	Hans Weijs Jr.*	Dennis Murphy	Arcane Racing	T3.1	18:43:15	+ 3:29:04
13	329	Pál Lónyai*	Aleksei Kuzmich	X-raid Yamaha Supported Team	T3.1	19:12:42	+ 3:58:31
14	334	Oscar Olivas*	Luis Barrios	BE Racing	T3.1	19:55:38	+ 4:41:27
15	320	Richard Aczel*	Wouter Rosegaar	Arcane Racing	T3.1	20:19:47	+ 5:05:36
16	336	Joan Piferrer*	Joan Rubi	Buggy Masters	T3.1	20:24:41	+ 5:10:30
17	323	Charles Munster*	Loïc Dumont	Bernard Munster Autosport	T3.U	20:41;48	+ 5:27:37
18	327	Riné Streppel*	Lisette Bakker	Arcane Racing	T3.1	21:51:20	+ 6:37:09
19	338	Louis Baudrand*	Rémi Boulanger	Bernard Munster Autosport	T3.U	21:57:32	+ 6:43:21
20	325	Craig Lumsden*	Jamie Lambert	South Racing Can-Am	T3.1	24:12:58	+ 8:58:47
21	342	Jawhara Bennani*	El Amine Guessous	Africa Rallye Team	T3.1	27:49:14	+ 12:35:03
22	322	Michał Goczał	Diego Ortega	EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team	T3.1	32:58:18	+ 17:44:07
23	302	Marcelo Gastaldi	Carlos Sachs	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	34:23:44	+ 19:09:33
24	333	Lex Peters*	Mark Salomons	Arcane Racing	T3.1	35:28:57	+ 20:14:46
25	340	Khalifa Al-Attiyah*	Enio Bozzano	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	36:34:11	+ 21:20:00
26	316	Adam Kuś*	Dmytro Tsyro	AKPOL	T3.1	37:57:30	+ 22:43:19
27	339	Francis Balocchi*	Anthony Pes	MMP Compétition	T3.1	38:03:40	+ 22:49:29
28	318	Zach Lumsden*	Shannon Moham	South Racing Can-Am	T3.1	38:25:31	+ 23:11:20
29	315	Lawrence Janesky*	Bruno Jacomy	South Racing Can-Am	T3.1	39:04:01	+ 23:49:50
30	341	Aurélien Bouchet*	Elisa Huguenin	ABConcept / BTR	T3.1	40:10:07	+ 24:55:56
31	324	Ahmed Alkuwari*	Augusto Sanz	Nasser Racing	T3.1	57:21:44	+ 42:07:33
DNF	300	Rokas Baciuška	Fausto Mota	Can-Am Factory Team	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	305	Ricardo Porém	Nuno Sousa	MMP Compétition	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	306	Mário Franco	Rui Franco	Franco Sport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	317	Puck Klaassen*	Charan Moore	G Rally Team	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	321	Pedro Gonçalves*	Luis Engeitado	Franco Sport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	326	Maria Gameiro*	José Marques	Franco Sport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	328	Oscar Ral*	Xavier Blanco	Buggy Masters	T3.1	DNF	N/A

Challenger stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Eryk Goczał	17:53
Stage #1	Michał Goczał	2:20:16
Stage #2	Michał Goczał	3:17:42
Stage #3	Eryk Goczał	3:30:57
Stage #4	Eryk Goczał	3:18:44
Stage #5	Michał Goczał	2:37:18

* – Not competing for World Rally-Raid Championship points

W2RC Challenger standings

For readability, competitors registered for the championship but did not earn points are excluded.

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Rokas Baciuška	209	Leader
2	Nicolás Cavigliasso	187	– 22
3	Marcelo Gastaldi	143	– 66
4	Austin Jones	126	– 83
5	Dania Akeel	124	– 85
6	Mitch Guthrie	112	– 97
7	Ricardo Porém	64	– 145
8	Eryk Goczał	48	– 161
9	Mário Franco	47	– 162
10	David Zille	40	– 169
11	Marek Goczał	39	– 170
12	Michał Goczał	27	– 182
13	Lionel Baud	13	– 196

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Points	Margin
1	Valentina Pertegarini	187	Leader
2	Oriol Vidal	160	– 27
3	Carlos Sachs	143	– 44
4	Stéphane Duplé	124	– 63
5	Kellon Walch	112	– 75
6	Oriol Mena	78	– 109
7	Sébastien Delaunay	49	– 138
T-8	Gustavo Gugelmin	48	– 139
T-8	Álex Haro	48	– 139
10	Sebastian Cesana	40	– 147
11	Maciej Marton	39	– 148
T-12	Luís Marques	32	– 155
T-12	Augusto Sanz	32	– 155
T-14	João Serôdio	27	– 160
T-14	Daniel Ortega	27	– 160
16	Daniel Jordão	20	– 167
17	Lucie Baud	13	– 174