The deserts of Morocco are about to fill up with racers once more. The Rallye du Maroc, generally called the Morocco Rally, sees its prologue stage running today—and it will be an interesting preview of the 2024 Dakar Rally.
The Morocco Rally comes at the end of the FIM World Rally Raid Championship, so if the series title is still up for grabs, it will be decided there. In this year’s case, Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna’s factory rider) is in front of the series with 80 points. Toby Price (KTM) is next with 71 points, and then Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) with 66 points. Given the score-each-stage of the FIM races, we will see some shuffling of the standings as early as the first stage.
Matthias Walkner and Co. are looking to make up for an off-season in the W2RC standings. Photo: KTM
The five-stage rally raid will wrap up on October 18. By then, we should have a good idea as to who’s in top form for the next Dakar Rally. Errr, maybe. A few riders, as always, are sitting out. Kevin Benavides (KTM) is still recovering from a wrist broken in training (and one wonders if he might also be sitting out so he doesn’t play spoiler to brother Luciano?). Price and fellow KTM soldier Matthias Walkner are both racing this weekend, though:
Morocco is always a good challenge – it’s really stony and a lot of things can catch you out, like it did last year. It was a bit of a tough one for me last year, so the goal is just to get across the finish line in one piece and keep myself ready for January. Although the situation in Argentina dampened our championship hopes a bit, we’re still in the game. We’ll see what the last day brings!—Toby Price
Joaquim Rodrigues (Hero) wrecked his shoulder in shakedown testing for Morocco, so he’s out as well.
Bad luck for J-Rod! Hero is still not as strong as the larger factory teams, but its growth over the past couple of years is impressive. Hopefully Rodrigues is back in shape by the time Dakar gets here. Photo: Hero
On the other hand, we are about to see Skyler Howes (who won Morocco last year) in his first race for the Honda factory squad. Last year, the big news ahead of Morocco was Van Beveren’s acquisition, and in 2021, they got Pablo Quintanilla on board. Now, Howes gives Honda its third big-name signing that moves the team forward out of the Bam Bam/Big Kev era. It seems the whole Honda squad is at Morocco (including José Ignacio Cornejo and Ricky Brabec as well.Tosha Schareina, who impressed at the Argentina race, is also at Morocco wearing a Honda/Monster Energy jersey; we have not seen if Joan Barreda is there this year.
