Ricky Brabec, two-time Dakar motorcycle champion

Ricky Brabec became a two-time Dakar champion this Friday in a big way: he won the Dakar 2024, also winning the final stage. There was no slowing down and managing his comfortable lead of 10 minutes and 22 seconds as he began stage 12 of the Dakar against the second classified, Hero rider Ross Branch. The American still came out to attack to win like the great champions, imposing his speed also in the final special. The American (April 21, 1991, San Bernardino, California) from the Monster Energy Honda Team thus achieved his second Dakar title after the one achieved in 2020, the year in which he ended KTM’s 18-year dominance in the toughest race in the world. and where he ended the streak of bad luck that followed the golden wing firm in Dakar.

This time, this Dakar victory was very different from the one in 2020. In that time, he made his personal revenge in this event. A year after seeing how his engine broke down and left him without a victory when he was in the lead with only a few days to go. Instead of sinking, he saw in that problem in 2019 an opportunity to win the game against the cruelty of this event and, with his great optimism, he achieved his goal in 2020 by continuing to prevail, without giving the his rivals of options or wants to exchange no one in the leadership. A solid leader who has thus shown making a definite step up in quality to place himself among the favorites year after year.

Four years later, after always being among the best and being 2nd in 2021, 7th in 2022 and having to abandon stage 3 in 2023, when he achieved stage victory, Brabec took revenge again in Dakar to there. abandonment and won his second title in Dakar 2024. This time, he again showed great perseverance, but he did it in a good duel with the other great opponent of this edition, Ross Branch. That battle ended with two more Hondas, Van Beveren and Cornejo, who tried with all their might, becoming more aggressive in the second week, although they were unable to chase down their California teammate.

Branch started the Dakar in style, putting at least 11 minutes on Ricky in stage 1. But he found a Ricky that did not disappoint. He was 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 7th and 3rd in the following stages, without major mistakes, warning regularly which led him to the overall lead in stage 6 with 51 seconds to over the Botswana driver. A great duel began with Hero, with maximum pressure. Both have to give their all and whoever fails has no crown. There, Brabec, with his calmness and confidence, made the difference. In stage 7, the distance between them is 1 second. After stage 8, that margin increased to 42 seconds in favor of Ricky. On stage 9 he gave an important blow that allowed him to catch his breath, becoming 2nd on the stage after his teammate Van Beveren who would lead by 7 minutes with respect to Branch he combined- bad and increased to 10 minutes in stage 10 with a big success of the special. He has to manage his margin by opening the runway. He took the risk of wanting to start a very difficult day, with a lot of stones, but Brabec did well thanks to the bonuses at the opening of the track and only gave up 32 seconds. The Dakar is his and he took it this Friday as he, fully accelerated to win the last stage.

And if Ricky has anything, it’s tremendous speed. The hardest raw material to find in a pilot. And they worked hard to polish it. Ricky has been amazed by the Bajas in the deserts of the United States and has caught the attention of Johnny Campbell, Bajas record holder. He, along with former Dakarian Jimmy Lewis, decided to polish his skills and train him to navigate. He has the most important thing, the speed of a demon. But he needs to understand the Dakar strategy, perfect his navigational technique, understand the tricks of the world’s toughest race and mature as a driver. Many times he had to do exercises that he didn’t like. But the ‘Cow Boy’ from San Bernardino earned a place on the official Honda team for the 2016 Dakar.

He debuted with a good 9th place warning of his talent. And in its second edition, in 2017, came its first success. But since he completed his first Dakar in 2016, he has not crossed the finish line until the 2020 season, as champion. He had taken “the definitive leap”, said Joan Barreda, Brabec’s colleague at the time, that year. Four years later, he won his second title. Brabec gave a recital.