Ricky Brabec picked up where he left off after winning Dakar, heading a Honda sweep of the Desafio Ruta 40 RallyGP in Argentina today. Teammate Tosha Schareina won the stage and cut 1.12 off the American’s lead but Brabec barely won by the narrowest of margins — just 15 seconds separated them after five full days and 3,200 kilometers of racing!
“It’s been a big final week, it’s been stressful but it’s good to be back,” said Top American from the top of the podium. “It was a great day, although it was stressful as I didn’t want to lose all the time I’d made up and Tosha put some time on me today as he’s good at this road-style rallying and I’m not the best at it,” admitted Brabec. “But I tried my best to not lose too much time and in the end everything came out pretty well.”
No time to rest on his laurels, though, as it is on to Morocco for the next RallyGP round. “This has been a really good confidence booster moving forward and so I’ll be happy to get home and do some more testing with the bike and make it another level better. The team rode really well, the mechanics did a good job and so I think we’re in great shape heading to Morocco.”
PROVISIONAL STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 5
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda Team 18:08:37
2 SCHAREINA Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda Team + 00:15
3 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda Team + 05:33
4 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda Team + 12:58
5 BRANCH Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 14:57
6 QUINTANILLA Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team + 23:55