Mason Klein, Mitch Guthrie Jr. Give Americans Pair of Wins in Stage 2 of Dakar Rally
Image via Red Bull Content Pool
American racers have established themselves as forces to be reckoned with in two classes of racing in the Dakar Rally in recent years: motorcycles, where Ricky Brabec took the overall victory in 2020, and UTVs, where Casey Currie won in the same year. Today, it was a pair of different names at the top of the stage charts, hinting that 2023 could be more of the same.
In the motorcycle class, last year’s top Dakar newcomer Mason Klein was the big winner on the day, taking not only the Stage 2 victory but also jumping into the overall lead. When Stage 1 winner Daniel Sanders backed off late to avoid starting first tomorrow, Klein backed up a strong run yesterday to earn the stage victory with a time of 5:23:04, even as he took a two minute penalty for speeding. His advantage over Dakar legend Toby Price now sits at 1:41, while fellow Americans Brabec and Skyler Howes remain sixth and seventh overall after Brabec’s stage win yesterday and Howes’ third place finish today.
In the T3 Lightweight Prototype division, Mitch Guthrie Jr. finally earned his long-awaited first career Dakar stage win with a time of 5:38:31. After a sixth place finish yesterday, Guthrie’s margin of victory today was 1:25 over defending class winner and current overall leader Chaleco Lopez.
If things looked good for the Americans on two wheels, they might look even better on four. The Red Bull-backed trio of Guthrie, Seth Quintero, and AJ Jones are all within the top five of the overall rankings through the first two stages, with Quintero leading the group in second. While Quintero hasn’t yet been the dominant force that he was last year, when he won a record 12 of 13 stages but lost any shot of the overall victory with the exception, he’s finished third in both stages so far and was second in the Prologue.
Elsewhere, defending Car class winner Nasser Al-Attiyah took his first stage victory of the event to narrow Carlos Sainz’s overall lead, while SSV’s Marek Goczal and Truck racer Ales Loprais took the overall lead with their own stage wins. Alexandre Giroud completed the timed class winners by scoring his second straight win in the quad class to extend his overall lead on American Pablo Copetti. Coverage of today’s action will debut at 6:30PM ET on Peacock, while the bivouac will travel to Ha’il tomorrow with 447 kilometers of special stage ahead.