Rokas Baciuška solidifed his World Rally-Raid Championship T4 points lead after a perfect outing at the Sonora Rally as he won all six stages including the Prologue.
Baciuška is one of three class winners to sweep the rally’s five main stages alongside Romain Dumontier in Rally2 and Massimo Camurri of Rally3. He and Camurri are the only ones to take it a step further as they also claimed the Prologue, whose shorter distance typically results in more parity as teams try to understand the environment. The win is the reigning champion’s second in a row after the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
“There was no shortage of sports or everyday adrenaline in Mexico, but it was nice to get to know another new culture, impressive nature,” said Baciuška. “Five days in a strict racing mode and here we are, already very close to the world champions title for the second year in a row.”
Eduard Pons provided the closest competition throughout the first half of the rally by finishing second across the first three stages, with the slimmest gap being just six and a half minutes in Stage #2, though Baciuška maintained distance thanks to Pons receiving penalties for speeding. However, Pons’ race was upended when his car broke down in the penultimate stage.
With Pons out of the picture, the only other two entries in T4, Rebecca Busi and Shinsuke Umeda, were assured rally podium finishes. They were already guaranteed such finishes in just the championship as they declared for points while Pons did not, though the latter plans to run the rest of the calendar to accumulate experience for the 2024 Dakar Rally.
“It has been a very tough race, with very fast and beautiful tracks throughout the Sonoran Desert, in which our main approach was to manage to add kilometers and continue preparing for the Dakar 2024,” his team Pons Rallysport stated. “Our pace was progressive, without risking unnecessarily to meet the objective set, managing to be second of T4 until the moment of our retire due to breakdown.
“We are leaving Mexico with a good work plan to continue with the Pons Road to Dakar challenge. There are eight intense months left in which we will continue learning all the secrets of this complex discipline.”
Busi’s runner-up overall class finish is the best for a female W2RC competitor in 2023, trumping Cristina Gutiérrez and Aliyyah Koloc‘s thirds in T3 at the Dakar Rally and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, respectively. The run came in her first start for FN Speed Team, having joined the outfit for the two American rounds in Mexico and Argentina.
“Finally we brought home the first points of this world championship,” wrote Busi. “After a disastrous Dakar and skipping Abu Dhabi, this we really needed this result!”
Umeda notched his second straight third-place run among W2RC drivers.
“After Abu Dhabi, I beat Sébastien Loeb again,” Umeda quipped, referring to the then-W2RC T1 points leader retiring after crashing out and therefore being lower than him in the race results. “By the way, I also beat (Stéphane) Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz in Dakar.”
The quartet of entries are the second fewest for an FIA W2RC class so far in 2023, just two more than the duo in T2 at Dakar. The Quads on the FIM side also boasted two riders at Sonora.
With so few teams racing Sonora, the T4 standings remained relatively the same save for the obvious gains made by those who did take part. Umeda moves from sixth to third in points while Busi finally appears on the board as her retirement from Dakar and absence at Abu Dhabi meant she did not have any prior points.
Baciuška’s points lead increases with over 103 on Eryk Goczał, who won the Dakar Rally but elected to sit out the season to focus on academics. Goczał’s father Marek and uncle Michal, along with Pau Navarro are sandwiched between Umeda and Busi, with the Goczał family typically only racing together while Navarro was unwinding from running the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura in Spain a week before.
T4 overall results
| Finish | Number | Driver | Co-Driver | Team | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 400 | Rokas Baciuška | Oriol Vidal Montijano | Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing | 11:51:05 | Leader |
| 2 | 402 | Rebecca Busi | Sébastien Delaunay | FN Speed Team | 13:50:16 | + 1:59:11 |
| 3 | 401 | Shinsuke Umeda | Aku Facundo Jaton | Xtremeplus | 15:38:43 | + 3:47:38 |
| 4 | 403 | Eduard Pons* | Mónica Plaza | South Racing Can-Am | 30:38:14 | + 18:47:09 |
T4 stage winners
| Stage | Driver | Time |
| Prologue | Rokas Baciuška | 6:00 |
| Stage #1 | Rokas Baciuška | 1:44:50 |
| Stage #2 | Rokas Baciuška | 1:38:32 |
| Stage #3 | Rokas Baciuška | 3:53:51 |
| Stage #4 | Rokas Baciuška | 3:06:24 |
| Stage #5 | Rokas Baciuška | 1:27:28 |
Overall winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| T1 | 201 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 10:29:55 |
| T3 | 302 | Mitch Guthrie | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 11:17:24 |
| T4 | 400 | Rokas Baciuška | Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing | 11:51:05 |
| RallyGP | 18 | Daniel Sanders | Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing | 11:01:09 |
| Rally2 | 17 | Romain Dumontier | HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing | 11:48:21 |
| Rally3 | 57 | Massimo Camurri | Freedom Rally Racing | 15:59:16 |
| Quad | 162 | Laisvydas Kancius | AG Dakar School | 15:33:14 |
| National Car/UTV | 605 | Sara Price* | SP Motorsports | 17:14:04 |
| National Enduro | 513 | Brendan Crow* | Brendan Crow | 16:37:36 |
| National Malle Moto | 501 | Matt Sutherland* | Matt Sutherland | 18:24:08 |
W2RC T4 standings
Drivers’ standings
| Rank | Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Rokas Baciuška | 189 | Leader |
| 2 | Eryk Goczał | 86 | – 103 |
| 3 | Shinsuke Umeda | 79 | – 110 |
| 4 | Pau Navarro | 73 | – 116 |
| 5 | Marek Goczał | 67 | – 122 |
| 6 | Michal Goczał | 50 | – 139 |
| 7 | Rebecca Busi | 45 | – 144 |
| 8 | Yasir Seaidan | 35 | – 154 |
| 9 | Bruno Conti de Oliveira | 30 | – 159 |
| T-10 | Sebastián Guayasamin | 27 | – 162 |
| T-10 | Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira | 27 | – 162 |
| 12 | Molly Taylor | 20 | – 169 |
| 13 | Nicolás Cavigliasso | 13 | – 176 |
Co-drivers’ standings
Some co-drivers have worked with drivers in other categories. Those do not count for this championship nor are they mentioned below.
| Rank | Co-Driver | Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Oriol Vidal Montijano | Rokas Baciuška | 189 | Leader |
| 2 | Oriol Mena | Eryk Goczał | 86 | – 103 |
| 3 | Aku Facundo Jaton | Shinsuke Umeda | 79 | – 110 |
| 4 | Maciej Marton | Marek Goczał | 67 | – 122 |
| 5 | Szymon Gospodarczyk | Michal Goczał | 50 | – 139 |
| T-6 | François Cazalet | Pau Navarro | 45 | – 144 |
| T-6 | Sébastien Delaunay | Rebecca Busi | 45 | – 144 |
| 8 | Alexey Kuzmich | Yasir Seaidan | 35 | – 154 |
| 9 | Pedro Bianchi Prata | Bruno Conti de Oliveira | 30 | – 159 |
| 10 | Michaël Metge | Pau Navarro | 28 | – 161 |
| T-11 | Ricardo Torlaschi | Sebastián Guayasamin | 27 | – 162 |
| T-11 | Maykel Justo | Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira | 27 | – 162 |
| 13 | Andrew Short | Molly Taylor | 20 | – 169 |
| 14 | Valentina Peregarini | Nicolás Cavigliasso | 13 | – 176 |
