Adrien Van Beveren and Skyler Howes battle to stage four podium in South Africa
Adrien Van Beveren and Skyler Howes delivered impressive performances across rocky terrain to secure podium finishes on stage four of the South African Safari Rally.
It was another chilly morning at the Sun City bivouac as the Monster Energy Honda HRC riders prepared for the longest stage of the week. The penultimate day of racing featured a demanding 470 km liaison and 224 km of timed special, pushing riders into unfamiliar territory near the Botswanan border, an area defined by fast, open tracks intertwined with bush-laden trails.
Competition was fierce throughout the stage with the Honda trio of Howes, Van Beveren and Ricky Brabec fighting to grab the top spot from the eventual winner Daniel Sanders.
Van Beveren launched a fierce counter-attack across the rugged South African terrain and came agonisingly close, finishing just 50 seconds behind Sanders to take second place. The Frenchman now sets his sights on a final stage victory tomorrow and a podium place. His advantage is slim, with Brabec just 25 seconds behind.
Howes also delivered a standout performance staying within 30 seconds of the leader for much of the stage. Although he dropped a bit of time in the final kilometres, he crossed the line 1’49” off the lead. It was a strong comeback for the American who overcame the navigation challenges that had plagued his earlier efforts.
Ricky Brabec, looking to rebound from exhaust issues on the previous stage, started strong and set the early pace. However, two small crashes cost him valuable time and he ultimately finished fourth. Still, Brabec remains in a battle for the overall podium.
With only one day remaining in this inaugural South African Safari Rally, the Monster Energy Honda HRC riders are gearing up for an all-out attack on tomorrow’s final 118 km special loop from Sun City.
Ruben Faria
It was quite a good stage four for us today. Although Ricky had two small crashes, he luckily walked away uninjured and with no damage to his bike. He lost a bit of confidence, however, he came away with a good result. Not used to this sort of terrain, Skyler did a great job to get to grips with it and the navigation to finish third. Ending the day in second, Adrien also did a really good stage despite some problems with one note on the road book which lost him a little bit of time. Tomorrow is the last day, it is still possible to take victory although Daniel has been really strong at this rally. We will do our best until the end.
Ricky Brabec 9
I’m really happy to have made it to the end of stage four. With one day left to go things are looking pretty good but times are tight. We’re going to focus on tomorrow and try to make a good push. Overall the day was good, a little bit different to the first three days. The morning was really fun, I had two crashes though, which was unfortunate. It is what it is, the bike is still in good shape, but lost a little bit of time picking myself up. Today, we saw a lot more rocks and a bit of open desert. Overall I’m happy, tomorrow we have to make a good push and get to the end of this rally.
Skyler Howes 10
700 km down today, however, it was definitely the best day of the rally for me. There were a lot of turns, it was really twisty, kind of like ISDE 6 Days style, with tricky navigation thrown in there too, but today I finally put it all together and had a good day. It’s still not 100% perfect, however, a positive day so I’m happy with that and looking forward to the final day tomorrow.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
I had a good day and really enjoyed my riding. There was a confusing note around 24 km, the road book was showing a t-junction where we had to go right close to a tree and a fence, but when I arrived there were two pistes and one was missing from the road book. We will explain that to the organisers. It’s never easy to organise such a race as there are tracks everywhere, but they cut the grass and did a really good job to prepare a good path for us. The rest of the day was good, I could push and ride well and I feel happy about my navigation and pace. Let’s try to push again tomorrow.
Rally GP Result - Stage 4
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanders Daniel | AUS | KTM Factory Racing Team | KTM | 02:22:13 | |
| 2 | Van Beveren Adrien | 42 | FRA | Monster Energy Honda HRC | Honda | + 00:53 |
| 3 | Howes Skyler | 10 | USA | Monster Energy Honda HRC | Honda | + 01:49 |
| 4 | Brabec Ricky | 9 | USA | Monster Energy Honda HRC | Honda | + 02:23 |
| 5 | Evan Branch Ross | 16 | BWA | Hero Motorsports Team Rally | Hero | + 03:23 |
| 6 | Benavides Luciano | 1 | ARG | KTM Factory Racing Team | KTM | + 04:13 |
| 7 | Cox Bradley | 49 | RSA | BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM | KTM | + 05:27 |
| 8 | Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio | 11 | CHI | Hero Motorsports Team Rally | Hero | + 08:26 |
Rally GP Provisional Standings After Stage 4
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanders Daniel | AUS | KTM Factory Racing Team | KTM | 12:03:45 | |
| 2 | Benavides Luciano | 1 | ARG | KTM Factory Racing Team | KTM | + 07:01 |
| 3 | Van Beveren Adrien | 42 | FRA | Monster Energy Honda HRC | Honda | + 10:17 |
| 4 | Brabec Ricky | 9 | USA | Monster Energy Honda HRC | Honda | + 10:42 |
| 5 | Howes Skyler | 10 | USA | Monster Energy Honda HRC | Honda | + 31:21 |
| 6 | Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio | 11 | CHI | Hero Motorsports Team Rally | Hero | + 40:38 |
| 7 | Cox Bradley | 49 | RSA | BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM | KTM | + 56:56 |
| 8 | Evan Branch Ross | 16 | BWA | Hero Motorsports Team Rally | Hero | + 01:53:55 |
Location Information
Sun City, South Africa - View in Google Maps
