Desafío Ruta 40 completed – A. Kanopkinas won four out of five special stages

Friday marked the final day of another World Rally-Raid Championship round in Argentina. After covering nearly 3,000 kilometers, more than one hundred competitors crossed the finish line. Throughout the week, “CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team” rider Antanas Kanopkinas demonstrated exceptional pace and was the fastest rider in the quad category on four of the five racing days.

“Desafío Ruta 40 is over. Another stage victory is in the books. It’s a pity that we had a technical issue on the first day, but we learned from it. We’ll do everything we can to make sure a situation like that never happens again. Despite everything, the final result is solid,” said A. Kanopkinas after the finish. Even after the time penalties caused by the first day’s setback, he secured fourth place out of eight competitors in the quad classification.

The rider admitted that there were no easy days in Argentina and revealed where the team is heading directly from South America: “Today’s stage was very difficult, although there wasn’t a single easy day here. Every stage was extremely demanding. I’m happy to have been in Argentina and happy with what we achieved. A huge thank you to the team and our partners. Now we won’t even have time to unpack our bags — we’re flying straight from Argentina to Austria for the Erzberg Rodeo. We’ll try to do something special there as well.”

The team views its performance in Argentina positively. Despite the technical challenges encountered during the event, it managed to prove its competitiveness at one of the toughest rounds of the World Rally-Raid Championship, and the experience gained will be valuable for future races.

There will be no time to rest after the finish in Argentina. In the coming days, “CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team” will move to Austria for the legendary Erzberg Rodeo. The event is widely regarded as one of the toughest hard enduro challenges in the world, featuring steep rocky climbs, quarry slopes, and highly technical sections. It is also famous for its brutal difficulty, with a very large percentage of competitors failing to reach the finish line.

For the team, it will be a completely different type of challenge compared to their usual competitions, but the objective remains the same: to fight for the best possible results and once again demonstrate their speed, skill, and endurance.