2023 Sonora Rally: Brendan Crow wins National Enduro

Brendan Crow wasn’t planning to run the Sonora Rally at first but changed his mind in early April just weeks before the race. That turned out to be one of the best choices he could have ever made as he won the National Enduro class and was the best finishing bike in general of the National entries.

While the decision to take part came on short notice, leaving him with just three weeks to prepare compared to the roughly seven months in 2022, Crow played a masterful performance as he won by nearly an hour and twenty minutes over Francisco Alvarez. He also minimised errors to just ten minutes of penalties for speeding.

Crow scored the most stage wins with three, taking the Prologue and Stages #1 and #4, while Alvarez claimed the last. Ashley Thixton, the only other multi-time victor, placed fifth overall after having to overcome penalties and a Stage #4 crash.

“Funny that it was completely different from last year even though it was only 6 months ago,” wrote Crow. “Learned even more this year and lookin forward for more!”

Although not winning, Alvarez still claimed the Road to Dakar to receive free registration for the 2024 Dakar Rally. Crow had won Sonora’s RtD in 2022 by finishing third overall; while he did not redeem the spot to race at Dakar 2023, he is ineligible to repeat as a former winner.

Matt Sutherland joined Crow and Alvarez on the overall podium and was the only other rider to finish within two hours of the winner. Sutherland competed in the Malle Moto class for riders without assistance from teams. He and Alvarez were among seventeen Road to Dakar riders.

When limited to strictly Enduro competitors, third place is held by Mike Johnson who overcame an early clutch issue and having to race with stock suspension due to the original tuned setup being seized by customs. Johnson, the owner of Rally Comp which supplied metering devices for bikes at Sonora, raced for Chinese manufacturer Kove Moto in just their second World Rally-Raid Championship start; his team-mates Neels Theric and Sunier rode in the W2RC-sanctioned Rally2 division, the former also finishing fourth overall in his class.

Ben Howard, the only adventure bike rider in the sea of enduro bikes, placed thirtieth overall. Adventure bikes like his Yamaha Ténéré 700 are lager and heavier than their enduro counterparts.

National Enduro overall results

National Enduro stage winners

Overall winners