The PONS Rallysport team (Pons-Betriu) are heading to Argentina to compete in the Desafío Ruta 40
The team from Lleida will compete in the fourth and penultimate round of the World Rally-Raid Championship with the aim of continuing to gain pace for the 2024 edition of the well-known Dakar Rally
After overcoming a demanding Baja España-Aragón with a great result, achieving the podium in the T4 World Cup and second place in the Spanish Championship in the same category, the driver from Lleida Eduard Pons and his navigator Jaume Betriu will continue their adaptation to cross-country events by competing in the Desafío Ruta 40, which will take place between August 27 and September 1 in the Argentinian province of La Rioja.
At the wheel of the South Racing team's Can-Am Maverick XRS, once again in T4 category specifications, the Catalans will have to overcome more than 1500 kilometers of competition spread over five long stages in an event that has not been held since 2018 but which has returned with a bang this year. The South American event is part of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) calendar, organized by the FIA, which this season features a total of five events.
At 3:00 PM local time (8:00 PM in Europe) on Sunday, August 27, the action will kick off with the Prologue stage, key to determining the starting order. The following Monday, the first of the five stages of the Desafío Ruta 40 will begin. This will be a long loop starting and ending in La Rioja, made up of hard, very broken dirt tracks, making for a tough start due to the high demands on the vehicles' mechanics.
The second stage will move the participants northwards on Tuesday, the 29th, towards the city of Belén, passing through more open spaces with a greater presence of sand. It is worth noting that it will be in this stage that Pons-Betriu will face the first dunes and areas with a lot of navigation. After only the first two days, more than 670 timed kilometers will have been completed, making it vital to find a compromise between speed and reliability.
The third day will be shorter, with 268 km against the clock, but despite having fewer kilometers, it will be one of the most challenging of the Argentinian event according to comments from drivers who have competed in the area. It is a loop starting and ending in the city of Belén, as will be the penultimate stage, in which the percentage of dune areas and open desert will greatly increase.
The last day of competition will feature 257 km off-road very similar to those of the first stage, and the teams will head north to finish in Salta, where the arrival ceremony and trophy presentation will take place on the first day of September.
Eduard Pons sees the Desafío Ruta 40 as a good opportunity to continue preparing for the next Dakar: "In this rally-raid, we will have to know how to pace ourselves, constantly working with the compromise between competition and physical and vehicle wear, as these are very tough stages for practically a week of racing. It will be the first time we can work on navigation with Jaume and discover our capacity for understanding in long stages with navigation; this will be very useful for the upcoming challenges."