dyton mupawaenda
Collin Matiza-Sports Editor
PARTICIPATION in next year’s Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia is not going to be a piece of cake for Zimbabwean motorbike rider Ashley Thixton.
The 46th edition of the world’s biggest rally raid race will launch off the start line on January 5 as the 2024 Dakar Rally sees nearly 800 racers embark on the toughest 7,891 kilometres across 12 stages plus a Prologue.
According to reports from Saudi Arabia, 146 bikes and quads will challenge the 2024 Dakar Rally in the three FIM categories.
And Zimbabwe’s Thixton, who will be making his debut appearance at this gruelling event, has been placed in the Rally2 class.
One hundred and thirteen (113) bikes comprise the Rally2 class for amateurs and Thixton will be among them as he fights to last the distance in the dunes of Saudi Arabia.
Thixton will be out to emulate Graeme Sharp who became the first Zimbabwean biker to complete the whole course at the Dakar Rally when it first moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020.
Romain Dumontier will seek to defend his Dakar and W2RC titles while Paolo Lucci and Bradley Cox hare among those hoping to prevent a repeat.
Konrad Dąbrowski makes his Dakar return after missing the 2023 race with appendicitis.
The Rally3 class will not appear at Dakar, meaning its 2023 champion Ardit Kurtaj graduates to Rally2.
Thirty of the Rally2 riders are Malle Moto competitors. Formally known as Original by Motul, the class is reserved for amateur riders who compete without support from teams. 2023 Malle Moto winner Charan Moore moved up to Rally2, while runner-up Javi Vega is staying but will not be scored as his top-thirty overall finish means he is no longer eligible for competition in the category.
Luciano Benavides headlines the 23 riders in the top RallyGP class.
As the reigning World Rally-Raid Champion, he has switched from #77 to #1 though the former will remain on his bike in the corner of the number bib.
He is the only Husqvarna factory rider in the class and surrounded by a swarm of marques like six Monster Energy Hondas, which includes Tosha Schareina whose impressive 2023 as a Honda ally has earned him a place on the factory team. Benavides’ brother Kevin will try to go back to back, but he and championship runner-up Toby Price will be without their Red Bull KTM team-mate Matthias Walkner due to injury. Former Honda rider Joan Barreda will make his début with Hero MotoSports. Skyler Howes, Benavides’ old Husqvarna partner, enters his first Dakar with Honda and hopes to rebound after crashing out of his first start at the Rallye du Maroc.
While RallyGP is for factory riders, some are not part of works teams such as 2023 FIM Bajas World Cup winner Mohammed Al-Balooshi and Mason Klein. The latter is a privateer competing for his family team, but has a factory-level partnership with Kove Moto; the manufacturer will run their maiden Dakar in RallyGP, with Klein on the new 2024 Kove 450 Rally EX while the factory riders race the 2023 model in Rally2. After 19 Quads entered the 2023 Dakar Rally, a paltry 10 are on the entry list for 2024 due to tightened eligibility criteria: riders hoping to race on a Quad must have either raced a Dakar in the past five years, signed up for the 2023 or 2024 World Championships, or run at least three W2RC rounds in order to qualify.
Consequently, while faces like world champion Laisvydas Kancius and Dakar winner Alexandre Giroud are taking part again, W2RC vice champion Rodolfo Guillioli and Dakar third-place finisher Pablo Copetti are not.
Despite the significant cap on Quads, the increase in Rally2 bikes offsets it to the point where there are more total riders for 2024 than the 143 in 2023. Thirty-three nationalities are represented, with France unsurprisingly leading the way at 31. Japan’s Yoshio Ikemachi runs his first Dakar since 2010, returning to a bike after last competing on one in 2000, while Oran O’Kelly is the first Irishman to take part in a decade. Mathieu Girard is part of the French contingent, but will be the maiden competitor from French Guiana to race. Ganzorig Chuluun is set for his Dakar début with the goal of becoming the fifth Mongolian rider to complete it. The 2024 Dakar Rally begins on January 5 and runs through January 19.
The Dakar Rally began as the Paris-Dakar Rally, which was first formally run in 1979, with the event switching up to South America in 2009 due to safety concerns and then Saudi Arabia from 2020.
Online Reporter