The physical demands of this stage spared the sturdiest but also the calmest of the bikers, including Kevin Benavides who let his experience do the talking to triumph. On a day of surprises, Lucas Moraes also proved to be worthy of the challenge between dunes and canyons to pick up his first success on the Dakar.
Eryk Goczał made his emergence on the radar of the rally-raid discipline via the Dakar last year, like a shooting star through the SSV category, racing by at the speed of sound. With a win at the tender age of 18 years, the Polish driver became the youngest winner in the event’s history before disappearing to devote himself to his studies.
He has returned for his 2nd Dakar in the Challenger class, in which he is aiming for another title before the world crown in the W2RC. It is a challenge worthy of the kid with the eternal smile, around whom the Goczał galaxy revolves. His father Marek and uncle Michał have followed in his footsteps and the impact is already being felt by the established names in the former T3 category, who, having got rid of the other prodigy, Seth Quintero, had hoped to have a tilt at the title in peace.
“I think it was fantastic. For sure I can’t explain why it looks easy because it very much isn’t especially the middle part today where I’ve never seen dunes like that; they were the size of skyscrapers. We were really challenged to get past them. But I think that’s the part where we gained the most time, which I’m very happy and proud of.
Just at the end, we lost a little bit of time with the waypoints, but we turned back, we passed everything, so no penalties and that’s good. I’ll be honest, I’m not a good strategist, so I’ll just do what I do and have fun in the car. We keep the car safe. Every day everything is how it’s supposed to be. That’s how I want to continue, and maybe have a good race with my family.
Compared to the car I drove last year, there’s no comparison, because this one feels like a real rally car. It has the sequential gearbox which is a step closer to the T1 cars, which I really also want to learn to drive, which I dream of and I think the durability of it after three stages like this is incredible. With the T4, maybe we would have it in pieces”.
– Eryk Goczał
Mitch Guthrie has already suffered the domination of the Poles but is showing himself to be up to the challenge. With a win today, Mitch Junior brought Eryk’s series of three consecutive victories since the start in AlUla to a close. This evening, drifting off to sleep under the stars over the bivouac, the youngest of the Goczał clan still boasts a lead of 15’47’’ over his father and 15’58’’ over the American.
The configuration of this third stage made another cull of the competitors likely. It was as severe as had been announced for a number of leading riders who proved to be in too much of a hurry. In the order of disappearance from the rankings, Sam Sunderland went first, betrayed by his machine’s mechanical problems after 11 kilometres of the special, followed by Sebastian Bühler, who fell severely after 360 km.
In the meantime, a duo of openers came together at the forefront of the stage to lay down the tracks. Pablo Quintanilla and Nacho Cornejo, both team-mates with Monster Energy Honda, seemed set to make the day a Chilean festival. However, the victory that seemed promised to Quintanilla slipped from his grasp following the race stewards’ announcement of a series of speeding penalties.
Due to going much too fast through a zone restricted to 30 kmph, Pablo received a 6-minute penalty. However, Kevin Benavides was much more law abiding and kept up a high pace over the whole distance without ever losing his way, ending the day as the talk of the town, at last for a positive reason. Injured virtually throughout 2023, the Argentinean had not tasted the thrill of victory since his success on the last stage of the Dakar, the one which sealed his triumph. He is not back to that level yet, because he occupies 6th place in the general rankings, 20’32’’ behind leader Ross Branch, but maybe he can start thinking about overall success again.
The horizon of outright victory is just as far off in the car category, in which the beneficiaries on the previous stage experienced very contrasting days.
Nasser Al Attiyah drove his Hunter like a boss, until a series of punctures calmed him down, forcing him to even complete the last thirty kilometres on a wheel rim from which the rear left tyre had been ripped off. The outcome was even more severe for Sébastien Loeb, who lost 23 minutes in the sharp stones. In this race requiring as much skill as speed, Lucas Moraes proved to be the most delicate with his tyres and won his first stage on the Dakar (see Performance of the day). He has put himself in a position ready to pounce, at the foot of the podium dominated for the first time by Yazeed Al Rajhi, followed 29 seconds behind by Carlos Sainz and then Mattias Ekström, 8’26’’ behind.
On this challenging stage to Al Salamiya, two surprising outsiders managed to invite themselves among the elite: Romain Dumas (5th) and Mathieu Serradori (7th). Eryk Goczał’s series of wins, taking in the prologue and first two stages, was halted in Al Salamiya by one of his many expected rivals, Mitch Guthrie, by a 1’09’’ margin. The young Polish driver reached the bivouac with the frustration of seeing his uncle Michał relegated to 1 hour 40 minutes from the lead, but still remains in control of the general rankings.
In the SSV category, Yasir Seaidan completed a fine day for Saudi Arabia by beating João Ferreira, but without disrupting the calm progress of Gerard Farrés at the top of the rankings. On the other hand, the battle is taking shape in the truck race, with Aleš Loprais dethroning Janus van Kasteren from the leader’s position thanks to his first victory of the year.
