Today and tomorrow: administrative and technical scrutineering for the last round of the W2RC. 21 FIM motorcycle / quad riders and 20 FIA crews are expected. Tomorrow afternoon, the event will start with the qualifying stage. This will be followed by four days of racing to wrap up the season.For this first season of W2RC, 5 FIM and FIA World Rally-Raid Champion titles are at stake, 8 FIA Rally-Raid Champion titles, 3 FIM Rally-Raid World Cup titles as well as 4 FIM Rally-Raid Trophy titles.
The challengers
Among the professional RallyGP competitors, the FIM is expecting 11 riders to pass through scrutineering. Four are missing: Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), the reigning World Champion who was absent from Round 3, is still recovering from injury. His teammate Toby Price, who crashed on the Rallye du Maroc, will not be at the start of the final race either. Daniel Sanders (GasGas Factory Racing) is in the same position as Walkner since his crash on the Dakar. Pablo Quintanilla, currently second in the overall standings, is also out at the last minute. The Monster Energy Honda rider injured his shoulder during the Rallye du Maroc, which he finished with gritted teeth. In Rally2, there are 7 entries, including Mason Klein (BAS World KTM Racing), the 20-year-old American who has already won the Rally2 World Cup and the Rally2 Junior Trophy on round 3. In the quads, three riders are expected. The leader in the overall standings and winner of the Dakar, Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha SMX Drag'on), Jurav Varga (Varga Motorsport Team) 2nd in the overall standings and Kamil Wisnieswski (Orlen Team) 5th in the provisional standings.
The FIA have 7 cars entered in the final, with three drivers mathematically still in the title fight: Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) with 144 points, Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) with 122 points and Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) with 100 points. With 8 lightweight prototypes in T3, the situation is identical. Lopez (Can-Am Factory South Racing) with 182 points, Gutierrez (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team) with 154 points and his teammate Quintero with 144 points are all still in the race. And it's a similar story in T4, the closest fought category by far: Marek Goczal (Cobant-Energylandia) with 152 points, Baciuska (South Racing Can-Am) with 151 points and Jones (Can-Am Factory South Racing) with 150 points are all in the hunt.
The titles at stake
Next Sunday, the FIM will award two World Championship titles. Firstly, the rider's title, for which Sunderland (GasGas Factory Racing) is currently the best placed with 74 points against 50 points for his closest rival, Brabec (Monster Energy Honda), now that Quintanilla is not taking the start. The second is the manufacturer's title, where HRC enjoys a comfortable lead. The ‘reds’ have accumulated 112 points against 74 points for GasGas and 70 points for KTM. The latter two brands will only line up one representative each and are therefore threatened by the return of Husqvarna. With 67 points and the two fastest riders on the Rallye du Maroc, Husqvarna could well finish runner-up. In the Rally2 category, the World Cup title has already been won by Klein. The quad World Cup winner's title remains to be decided and Giroud would very much like to conclude the season opened with his victory in Jeddah as the winner. Three trophies out of four are still to be won: the Women's Trophy, the Veterans Trophy where the 66 year old Franco Picco (Fantic) is favourite and finally the Rally3 trophy for modified enduro bikes that made its debut on the Rallye du Maroc. The Rally2 Rookie of the Year award should go to Mason Klein, the third award to this revelation of the year in the motorcycle category. On four wheels, the FIA will award three World Championship titles: for driver, co-driver and manufacturer. Among the drivers, the three contenders are well known. Among their navigators, the battle is between Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Gazoo Racing) with 144 points and Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) with 122 points. Among the manufacturers, Toyota Gazoo Racing has the advantage with 140 points against 120 points for BRX. Toyota has benefited from the consistency of Al Attiyah and Al Rahji, although the Prodrives of Loeb and Terranova pulled back on the Rallye du Maroc by taking 55 points against 37 points for the Japanese brand. 5 FIA Rally-Raid Championship titles are up for grabs: T3 driver, T3 co-driver, T4 driver, T4 co-driver and T4 manufacturer. The 3 T5 titles of driver, co-driver and constructor were already awarded to the Iveco of Kees Koolen's Project 2030 team two weeks ago, as the trucks will not be taking part in the Andalusian round due to the small size of the tracks used.
Rendez-vous Sunday evening for the prize-giving!
The program
Tomorrow morning the last administrative and technical checks will be held at the Gran Hipódromo de Andalucía and the final list of starters will be published. The qualifying stage (stage 1A) will take place between 14:00 and 17:00 on October 19th. The caravan of the W2RC will set out on Thursday, October 20 for four loops around Dos Hermanas. In total, 2078 kilometres, of which 1176 kilometres will be special stage are on the menu.
