t’s South America up next on the 2024 calendar and the Monster Energy Honda Team riders will be eager for a strong performance as the full line up returns.
Tosha Schareina heads into the 12th edition of the Desafio Ruta 40 as the favourite after a dominant victory on the Argentine event in 2023. Fresh from Team HRC E-Xplorer duties in Norway, the Spaniard will be on the hunt for a second consecutive World Rally-Raid Championship victory after his success in Portugal last time out.
This year’s Dakar winner Ricky Brabec, makes a return to action after a busy few months of Honda duties. After missing the two previous rounds he’ll be looking to rack up some points in the World Rally-Raid Championship standings and move up from the third position he currently occupies.
Adrien Van Beveren heads to Argentina from the Honda Adventure Roads trip in Morocco and although he’s been on the podium at Dakar and Portugal, he’s also hunting the top honours so he can keep the pressure on to the championship leader, Ross Branch.
It’s a local-ish race for Chilean rider Pablo Quintanilla who will be counting on support from friends during the six day rally following a packed schedule of motocross and fitness training since Portugal to ensure strong form to tackle the gravel roads of the South American country.
Skyler Howes is used to the terrain they’ll be facing as they’re similar to what he grew up around in Nevada, so although it’s his first time visiting Argentina his experience and recent Silver State 300 win, the fourth of his career, should give him the boost to get himself in the podium positions at the Desafio Ruta 40.
With 3,057 kilometres of Rally-Raid action including 1,792 kilometres of special stages across the provinces of Córdoba, San Juan and La Rioja, the Monster Energy Honda Team riders will get the action started on Sunday 2nd June with the 17 kilometre Prologue.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
We are already in Argentina preparing for the race but the temperature is much cooler than last year. In 2023 it was an amazing rally with different types of terrain and so we were already looking forward to getting underway in South America.
The team is very motivated to start and despite not going to the Abu Dhabi rally we’re only three points behind the leader in the manufacturer standings, so we’ll be looking to close that gap. The Dakar obviously went very well for us as well as Portugal and so we want to continue that success in Argentina.
It’s very important to have a positive prologue to get a good feeling and then go day by day because it is going to be a very hard and long rally.
Pablo Quintanilla 7
I’m super excited for the Argentina race as it’s the only rally in South America as part of the World Rally-Raid Championship, so it almost feels like home as I’ll have friends there so it’s a special event for me.
Argentina is always a tough rally, we’ll have long stages, the weather I think will be cold, so this combination will make it quite tough on the bike, but I’m super excited for this event.
Ricky Brabec 9
My feelings and thoughts of the up coming rally in Argentina are good. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a rally so I’m really excited to get back to it and be with the team.
It’s been a busy year doing some media stuff and travelling to events for Honda and that’s been super fun to be part of, but now it’s time to buckle up and get serious. Thank you to everybody for the support and I look forward to shaking the rust off at the Ruta!
Skyler Howes 10
I’m excited for this new opportunity to go to a new country and to race at the next World Rally-Raid Championship round.
Argentina has some really amazing fans and I’m looking forward to that a lot as that was one of the really nice things about Portugal, there were a lot of fans and people out on the stages cheering us on. I’ve been putting in a lot of physical training and riding, so I’m going to do my best and try and get a positive result at this one and keep the momentum going after the Silver State win, so bring it on!
Adrien Van Beveren 42
I’m super happy to be back with the team after not having a very good result in Portugal, even though it was a podium. Argentina is a country with which I have a lot of connection because I really like its culture and gastronomy and we are going to find all kinds of terrains that in principle I like a lot, I am eager to get on my bike to give my best performance.
Tosha Schareina 68
I’m very confident going into this round, I was there last year and the crowd was amazing at cheering us all on.
I have very good memories of Desafio Ruta 40 as it was my first victory in a World Rally Championship and even though I couldn’t score points it was a turning point for me.
Now we are moving to the province of Córdoba and so I’m looking forward to meeting the whole team again and to bring back the best possible result.
