2024 Dakar Rally: Harith Noah becomes first Indian Dakar champion in Rally2

Romain Dumontier had all the momentum entering the 2024 Dakar Rally as the defending Rally2 winner and World Rally-Raid Champion. Harith Noah had other plans.

Dumontier’s quest for a repeat began on a strong note when he won the Prologue before taking the overall lead in Stage #2 and held it until a poor Chrono Stage in which he ran out of fuel on the first day and finished twelfth dropped him down to second. However, Jean-Loup Lepan received a penalty the following day for missing a waypoint that allowed Dumontier to inherit the lead.

When the rally entered its final three days, Dumontier’s advantage only continued to grow into the double digits. Noah, the Stage #8 winner, was third and trailed Dumontier by over eleven minutes after the ninth.

As it turned out, Noah had Dumontier right where he wanted him. A dominant Stage #10 win propelled him past Lepan for second while Dumontier missed the stage podium after breaking a swingarm axle bolt just thirty kilometres from the finish, slicing the gap between each other to 4:31. Noah then finished runner-up to Bradley Cox in Stage #11 while Dumontier struggled to a fifth after a difficult day in which he punctured both tyres at the start of the stage then crashed into rocks in the closing sixty kilometres, forcing him to ride with a broken rib and no brakes. Dumontier finished fifth, losing the lead to Noah.

Entering the final day, Dumontier needed to make up six minutes to beat Noah. Although he finished ahead of Noah with a runner-up effort to Noah’s fifth, Noah—whose Stage #12 time was interestingly identical to Cox’s—was only fifty-six seconds slower than Dumontier and secured the victory. His time was eleventh best among all bikes regardless of category, 5:47 behind the RallyGP bike of Martin Michek.

Noah is the first Indian to win a Dakar Rally overall, while he scored the maiden triumph for Sherco. Although obviously a moment to cherish forever, he admitted he did not expect it to be so successful.

“I had no expectations when I arrived. I wanted to just ride my bike without really looking at the results,” Noah explained. “I started to be very surprised by my position during Stage #10, when I did the fifth best time of the special. I don’t really know what happened during that week, I felt good and the bike ran perfectly. I hope that my victory will convince many young people to join the rally. I didn’t imagine when I was a child that I would come to the Dakar, that I would first finish twentieth, and now eleventh.”

Despite settling for second, Dumontier exits the Dakar as the World Rally-Raid Championship points leader as Noah is not registered for the championship. Noah and tenth-placed Milan Engel are the only riders in the Rally2 top ten who are not racing for points.

“I tried not to give up despite the challenges I faced: a fuel breakdown that cost me almost one hour, minor injuries, and other small mechanical issues that cost me precious minutes here and there. But it’s the Dakar, anything can happen and we know it, and that’s why I never want to reveal my ambitions too much before the start of this race,” commented Dumontier.

Mário Patrão finished seventeenth and clinched the Veteran’s Trophy for riders over the age of forty-five. On the opposite extreme, Konrad Dąbrowski was twelfth to claim the Junior Trophy for those twenty-five and under; Dąbrowski made his Dakar return after missing the 2023 race due to appendicitis. Enduro World Enduro Champion Jane Daniels duelled Yael Kadshai for the Women’s Trophy and won by default as she reached the finish while Kadshai retired after nine stages.

Despite racing without assistance from teams, Tobias Ebster won Stage #5 en route to finishing eighth overall and topping the Original by Motul (also known as Malle Moto) subcategory. His effort earned him Rookie honours. Benjamin Melot and Javi Vega were also solo riders, but were not scored in Original by Motul as they were no longer eligible for the amateur-only division.

Rally2 overall results

Rally2 stage winners

W2RC Rally2 standings