The T3 class lead of the 2023 Dakar rally went from one Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team driver to the next on Wednesday, as Mitch Guthrie Jr. took the helm of the event with his second stage win in three days. After two withdrawals in his first two attempts and an illness-related DNS last year, Guthrie’s advantage in the Lightweight Prototype class sits at 1:29 over Guillaume De Mevius through Stage 4, with last year’s T4 class winner AJ Jones in third.
Unfortunately, Guthrie’s ascent came at the expense of Seth Quintero, whose rotten Dakar luck reared its ugly head once more to the tune of nearly 90 minutes of on-course delays. Unlike last year’s event, the young Californian isn’t completely out of the running just yet; he still sits fourth overall, well ahead of Cristina Gutierrez and defending winner Chaleco Lopez in fifth and sixth, but with more than an hour to make up on the current podium.
The spread isn’t quite so drastic across the T4 SSV division, where the top seven remain split by under 45 minutes and the top 12 are spread by just two hours. Rodrigo Luppi took over the top spot from Marek Goczal today with a fourth place finish on stage, as Goczal’s son Eryk took his second stage win of the rally by 3:29 over last year’s T4 runner-up Gerard Farres.
All three Goczal family members remain in the top six of the overall rankings, with Eryk second to Luppi, Marek fourth, and Marek’s brother Michal sixth after a third place finish in class. Rokas Baciuska, who took a 15-minute penalty at the start of the event, now sits third overall, while Farres ranks fifth.
2023 Dakar Rally Stage 4 winners were as follows:
- Lightweight Prototype: Mitch Guthrie Jr., 5:01:55
- SSV: Eryk Goczal, 5:18:41
2023 Dakar Rally class leaders are as follows:
- Lightweight Prototype: Mitch Guthrie Jr., 18:59:47
- SSV: Rodrigo Luppi, 20:05:55
Coverage of today’s Dakar Rally action will debut on Peacock at 6:30PM ET. Tomorrow’s Stage 5 is the second Ha’il loop stage in a two-day span, this one covering 373 kilometers and featuring plenty of dunes.
