Luciano Benavides clinched the Rally-Raid World Championship title on Wednesday. To achieve this, he finished the Rallye du Maroc in second place, just behind the winner Toby Price (Red Bull KTM), after a fifth stage in which he had to lead the way.
The Argentine rider from Husqvarna reacted to the achievement: ‘It’s a dream come true for me! It’s been a long journey to get to this point from finishing my first rally here in Morocco in 2017. To finish like this against Toby on the last day of the rally while opening the stage is incredible, I can’t thank the team enough for all the hard work and their belief in me!’.
Regarding the final stage in particular, Benavides commented: ‘Today was crazy! The navigation for this stage was tricky, I did get lost at some points, but I managed to get back on track quickly and make up time. I loved opening the stage on the dunes and I knew that I had to get ahead as the others would be catching me up’.
As for winning the title, the South American rider revealed that the wait was challenging to manage: ‘Finally I’ve got my first World Championship! Waiting for confirmation of the championship when I finished was tense, 40 minutes felt like four hours, but I knew I gave my best today as there was no other option. It was really special to start first because I could just look forward and get on with it, and no one caught me so I finished first too’.
Finally, Benavides also said: ‘I want to celebrate and enjoy this feeling for a while because although it is amazing, it’s been a tough season and I have trained hard so I want to rest for a week or two! After that it’s full gas again because I want to keep the same rhythm and pace for Dakar as it’s another dream for me to win’.
