A week before heading to Argentina for the Desafío Ruta 40, Mitch Guthrie finished second to Red Bull team-mate Seth Quintero among UTVs at the Vegas to Reno. Two weeks after that night in Nevada, Guthrie was the one atop a UTV podium.
Trading in his V2R Polaris for his World Rally-Raid Championship MCE-5 T3M, Guthrie scored two stage wins in the Desafío Ruta 40‘s T3 category but his reliability and consistency proved key to the overall victory. With the exception of a seventh in Stage #5 after racing conservatively, he finished on the podium in each of the first four legs and won the first and third, allowing him to retain the overall lead every day.
The win is Guthrie’s second straight after claiming the Sonora Rally in April.
“It was a great rally,” Guthrie stated. “We had our ups and downs for sure, but we kept it together all the way. We’re stoked with the overall win, that’s two in a row now. It was my first time racing here so we were learning a lot as we went.”
Mattias Ekström and Quintero provided the biggest challenges to Guthrie’s reign, the former also winning the Prologue and Stage #2, but were set back by mechanical failures. Ekström was knocked out of overall contention just a day after his stage win with a broken differential, while Quintero’s intercooler failed the following stage. Both still reached the finish, albeit in tenth and eleventh.
Their issues promoted Cristina Gutiérrez to second overall entering the final stage, though she trailed Guthrie by over twenty-two minutes. Gutiérrez was only able to slice six minutes from the margin.
Despite recording a podium finish in third, Austin Jones lost the T3 points lead to Guthrie. After trailing Jones by twenty points entering Argentina, Guthrie is now ahead by three while Quintero falls from second to third with nine points separating him and the new leader. Behind the Americans, Gutiérrez’s runner-up breaks a tie for fourth with Red Bull ally Francisco Lopéz Contardo.
João Ferreira won Stage #4, but was already in a hole after a gearbox problem plagued his Stage #1. A broken clutch ended his race on the last day.
Vehicle trouble also ruined an otherwise impressive T3 début for Nicolás Cavigliasso. The T4 regular and 2019 Dakar Rally quad champion, racing an MCE-5 car like Guthrie, finished second to Ekström in Stage #2 after leading at the final checkpoint only to be overtaken in the closing run. Cavigliasso was also leading Stage #4 before a mechanical issue dropped him to eighth.
T3 overall results
| Finish | Overall Finish | Number | Driver | Co-Driver | Team | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 5 | 302 | Mitch Guthrie | Kellon Walch | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 16:22:31 | Leader |
| 2 | 6 | 303 | Cristina Gutiérrez | Pablo Moreno Huete | Red Bull Can-Am Factory Racing | 16:38:49 | + 16:18 |
| 3 | 7 | 300 | Austin Jones | Gustavo Gugelmin | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 16:50:14 | + 27:43 |
| 4 | 8 | 304 | Francisco Lopéz Contardo | Bruno Jacomy | Red BulL Can-Am Factory Racing | 16:56:18 | + 33:47 |
| 5 | 9 | 312 | Hernán Garcés* | Juan Pablo Latrach | South Racing Can-Am | 17:27:06 | + 1:04:35 |
| 6 | 11 | 310 | Juan Carlos Cerda* | Álvaro León | Terracop Rally | 18:16:50 | + 1:54:19 |
| 7 | 13 | 309 | Nicolás Cavigliasso* | Valeria Pertegarini | Wevers Sport | 19:42:39 | + 3:20:08 |
| 8 | 15 | 305 | João Ferreira | Manuel Porem | X-raid Team | 33:25:49 | + 17:03:18 |
| 9 | 16 | 307 | Claude Fournier | Szymon Gospodarczyk | BBR Motorsport | 35:13:33 | + 18:51:02 |
| 10 | 18 | 306 | Mattias Ekström | Emil Bergkvist | South Racing Can-Am | 36:54:44 | + 20:32:13 |
| 11 | 19 | 301 | Seth Quintero | Dennis Zenz | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 37:43:18 | + 21:20:47 |
| 12 | 20 | 308 | David Zille | Sebastian Cesana | South Racing Can-Am | 37:49:24 | + 21:26:53 |
| 13 | 22 | 313 | Oscar Santos Peralta* | Loutival Roldan | Santos Racing | 39:49:09 | + 23:26:38 |
| 14 | 24 | 311 | Gabriel Rodríguez* | Santiago de la Vega | Wevers Sport | 43:30:58 | + 27:08:27 |
T3 stage winners
| Stage | Driver | Time |
| Prologue | Mattias Ekström | 6:54 |
| Stage #1 | Mitch Guthrie | 3:12:31 |
| Stage #2 | Mattias Ekström | 3:45:39 |
| Stage #3 | Mitch Guthrie | 3:13:12 |
| Stage #4 | João Ferreira | 3:12:23 |
| Stage #5 | Mattias Ekström | 2:42:21 |
Overall winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| T1 | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 15:10:03 |
| T3 | 302 | Mitch Guthrie | Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team | 16:22:31 |
| T4 | 403 | Gustavo Gallego* | South Racing Can-Am | 18:34:37 |
| RallyGP | 68 | Tosha Schareina* | Honda Team | 15:58:46 |
| Rally2 | 21 | Bradley Cox | BAS World KTM Racing Team | 17:01:01 |
| Rally3 | 122 | Ardit Kurtaj | Xraids Experience | 23:15:45 |
| Quad | 152 | Manuel Andújar | 7240 Team | 19:24:30 |
| Open Auto | 650 | Blas Zapag* | Copetrol Rally | 23:06:34 |
| Open T3 | 670 | Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli* | Ferioli Racing Team | 17:34:31 |
| Open T4 | 678 | Juan Jose Semino* | Xcorpion Rally Racing | 20:59:00 |
| Open Moto | 608 | Rodrigo de Abreu Sallum* | MED Racing Team | 22:36:24 |
| Open Quad | 623 | Santiago Rostan* | Pampa Rental Rally Team | 25:28:33 |
W2RC T3 standings
Drivers’ standings
| Rank | Driver | Points | Margin |
| 1 | Mitch Guthrie | 174 | Leader |
| 2 | Austin Jones | 171 | – 3 |
| 3 | Seth Quintero | 165 | – 9 |
| 4 | Cristina Gutiérrez | 110 | – 64 |
| 5 | Francisco Lopéz Contardo | 104 | – 70 |
| 6 | João Ferreira | 97 | – 77 |
| 7 | Mattias Ekström | 77 | – 97 |
| 8 | Claude Fournier | 55 | – 119 |
| 9 | David Zille | 54 | – 120 |
| 10 | Jean-Luc Ceccaldi | 41 | – 133 |
| 11 | Aliyyah Koloc | 34 | – 140 |
| 12 | Hélder Rogrigues | 22 | – 152 |
| 13 | Annett Quandt | 20 | – 154 |
| 14 | Dania Akeel | 15 | – 159 |
| 15 | Erik van Loon | 13 | – 161 |
| Fernando Alvarez | 0 | – 174 |
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 | Kellon Walch | Mitch Guthrie | 174 | Leader |
| 2 | Gustavo Gugelmin | Austin Jones | 171 | – 3 |
| 3 | Dennis Zenz | Seth Quintero | 165 | – 9 |
| 4 | Pablo Moreno Huete | Cristina Gutiérrez | 110 | – 64 |
| 5 | Juan Pablo Latrach | Francisco López Contardo | 78 | – 96 |
| 6 | Emil Bergkvist | Mattias Ekström | 77 | – 97 |
| 7 | Filipe Palmeiro | João Ferreira | 74 | – 100 |
| 8 | Sebastian Cesana | David Zille | 54 | – 120 |
| 9 | Cédric Duplé | Jean-Luc Ceccaldi | 50 | – 124 |
| 10 | Szymon Gospodarczyk | Claude Fournier | 35 | – 139 |
| 11 | Stéphane Duple | Aliyyah Koloc | 34 | – 140 |
| 12 | Bruno Jacomy | Hernán Garcés | 26 | – 148 |
| 13 | Manuel Porem | João Ferreira | 23 | – 151 |
| 14 | Gonçalo Reis | Hélder Rodrigues | 22 | – 152 |
| 15 | Arnold Brucy | Claude Fournier | 20 | – 154 |
| 16 | Sergio Lafuente | Dania Akeel, Diego Martinez | 15 | – 159 |
| 17 | Sébastien Delaunay | Erik van Loon | 13 | – 161 |
| 18 | Annie Seel | Annett Quandt | 11 | – 163 |
| 19 | Lisette Bakker | Annett Quandt | 9 | – 165 |
| Xavier Panseri | Fernando Álvarez Castellano | 0 | – 174 |
