The big news overnight in South Africa was the withdrawal of Tosha Schareina following his crash yesterday. After sustaining a hand injury, the Spaniard was forced to sit out the remainder of the rally to focus on recovery, a tough blow, especially as he was holding second place in the World Rally-Raid Championship standings.
Stage two of the South African Safari Rally proved a massive challenge for the remaining Monster Energy Honda HRC riders, with a demanding 623 km to cover. Departing from Sun City and heading southwest toward the marathon camp, where half of the route featured vast stretches of savannah terrain. Fast, flat and open tracks made navigation critical, adding to the day’s difficulty.
The stage saw an early back-and-forth battle between the front-runners, with Adrien Van Beveren and Ricky Brabec in the thick of the action, as the riders raced from Barberspan to the farming town of Stella.
Ricky Brabec, showing strong form in recent stages, made an early charge in the 356 km special to defend his podium spot in the overall rankings. However, a navigation error after the refueling point led him to the wrong side of a fence line, costing him nearly five minutes. He ended the day third fastest, but the setback dropped him to fourth overall, now 3″05′ behind the leader.
Adrien Van Beveren, coming off a strong second-place finish yesterday, found himself opening the stage after passing lead-out rider Ross Branch just 14 km in. A series of locked gates slowed his progress, but officials later credited him with the lost time. Van Beveren ultimately posted the fourth fastest run and still occupies a place on the overall podium, sitting less than three minutes off the lead.
Skyler Howes also had a more solid performance aboard his Honda CRF450 RALLY, working to correct the navigation issues that had hampered him the past couple of days. He stayed within a few minutes of the front throughout the stage and despite a similar navigation slip with the fence line, finished fifth, six and a half minutes off the lead.
At the windswept marathon camp, Rally GP riders were met with a 30-minute time limit to service their bikes without any assistance from their teams who remained in Sun City. While team mechanics were absent, riders could count on their teammates to help. Under marathon rules, tyre swapping was prohibited too, with penalties awaiting any violations. After a night under the stars at the bivouac, riders will collect their machines from parc fermé in the morning and head into stage three.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
The first day of the marathon stage was good in the end for Monster Energy Honda HRC. Adrien opened really well, he did have some problems with closed gates but the organisers gave him the time back and he finished fourth. That’s a good place to start for the second part of the marathon stage. Skyler had a consistent day, he lost a bit of time at the beginning, but as the stage went on he started to recover that back and finished fifth. Ricky had a solid ride, he started the stage in third and finished third and I think he’s in a good position to aim for the stage victory tomorrow. It will be an important stage tomorrow to recover time, the organisers have told us that it might be the most difficult in terms of navigation, so let’s see if it is.
With regard to Tosha, it was a shame that he could not start this morning after his crash yesterday. He had some checks at the hospital and is OK but it was decided that he not start as he was in some pain.
Ricky Brabec 9
Sage: 3rd Overall: 3rd
The day was good, it started out fast and I tried to do the best I could, but others were riding better than us today. Overall I’m happy with how the day went. The navigation was a bit tricky in the end after refuelling and I had a little bit of a headache today, so it was a bit tough. After refuelling I made a wrong decision and went down the wrong fence line, so lost about a minute and a half. I’m a bit bummed on that, but happy to make it to the marathon camp. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, we will see what happens and we’ll keep pushing.
Skyler Howes 10
Stage: 5th Overall: 6th
Stage two was a much better day for me, I’m really happy with my riding and my navigation was actually quite good today. The last 200 km were really tricky, very tight navigation and a lot of tracks were really hard to see, but I did a really good job through all that. Earlier on in the day I ended up on the wrong side of the fence about three times and so I had to turn around and go back and find the way through the fence and get on the right side, so that was a little bit frustrating. I’m feeling really good on the bike so looking forward to sleeping in a tent tonight, sitting around the camp fire with the boys, find something to eat and then do the second part of the marathon stage tomorrow.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
Stage: 4th Overall: 3rd
Overall I had a good day. I saw Ross Branch had stopped near the beginning, so I had the task then to open the day. Honestly, it’s not easy here because you can’t really see the tracks and there were some closed gates on the route, so it was not easy to manage that as I needed to open them. I gave my best today opening the way and managing the marathon stage, so I’m happy with my riding and the bike.
Rally GP Result – Stage 2
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team 3:40:30
2 Benavides Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 0:32
3 Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 4:46
4 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 4:52
5 Howes Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 6:28
6 Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 13:14
7 Cox Bradley 49 RSA BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM + 17:36
8 Evan Branch Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 1:35:37
Rally GP Provisional Standings After Stage 2
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team 6:34:46
2 Benavides Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 1:11
3 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 2:58
4 Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 3:05
5 Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 18:20
6 Howes Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 21:31
7 Cox Bradley 49 RSA BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM + 40:17
8 Evan Branch Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 1:32:53
