Heartbreak in Dakar Final Stage: Ricky Brabec Loses Overall Win to KTM’s Luciano Benevides by 2 Seconds
Check out RacerXOnline social media for the next two weeks for daily reports from the Dakar Rally, as we get inside access to the Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally Team. This is a team running three Americans in the event, Ricky Brabec (two-time winner), Skyler Howes (former podium finisher) and rookie Preston Campbell.
Here's the Stage 13 recap, penned by Pat Schutte.
Heartbreak in Dakar as Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally’s Brabec loses the win to KTM’s Benevides by 2 seconds
They raced for nearly 50 hours over two weeks in/around the Saudi Arabia desert and, due to a brief navigational error, Brabec’s third Dakar title slips away
YANBU, Saudi Arabia – What was supposed to be a parade lap stage leading into the celebration of his third Dakar title turned into a throat lump for American Ricky Brabec and the Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally team.
Brabec was the first bike out on today’s final Stage 13 at Dakar. Having won Stage 12 and taken a seemingly insurmountable 3:20 lead over then second place Luciano Benevides (KTM) into the short, 141 km Stage 13, Brabec came to a fork in the road at the 98.6 km point. The Californian made a decision, based on the information on his Honda CRF450 Rally’s navigation screen, and took off down a road towards the next waypoint. A decision several of the racers behind him would make as well – before the remaining racers saw those riders circling back to take a different road.
But for Brabec, the lone racer out front, the time he lost would be stunning. And in the end he’d gift the closest finish in the history of Dakar over to Benevides, 49:00:41 to 49:00:43. 2 seconds deciding some 50 hours of racing through two weeks at Dakar.
“I gave it my best the whole thirteen stages and just came up short by two seconds,” said Brabec. “And that’s a hard one to realize. But I’m happy with my overall riding over these last thirteen days. So many kilometers and mixed terrain. My Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally bike worked great and, as always, I would like to thank the whole team for the amazing support – especially my mechanic, Carlos Santos.
“My goal now is to return for Portugal and go for the World Rally-Raid Championship’s overall title.”
Not to be lost in the understandable heartbreak for Brabec and the team was the stellar performance of fellow American Preston Campbell (Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally). The Californian, racing his first ever Dakar Rally, stepped up and rode/carried himself like a champion the entire two weeks in Saudi Arabia, placing 2nd in the Rally2 class to veteran Dakar racer Toni Mulec (KTM) and, for his efforts, was named “Rookie of the Rally” by Dakar officials.
“Oh, yeah, this was an amazing experience with the Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally team,” said Campbell, who led the majority of the rally. “It was super fun. Really long, difficult. Really tough. Every day was just a new challenge. Every kilometer something changes. You have to stay focused. I’m super excited on how I did… felt I learned a lot throughout the two weeks.
“I look forward to more Dakar Rallies in the future and I’m super stoked.”
Also putting up a solid effort at Dakar was American Skyler Howes (Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally). The RallyGP class racer scored his first Dakar stage win earlier in the week when he captured Stage 11, enroute to a top five (4th) place overall class finish.
Said Howes: “For my race, I had a hole in my tire on the first Marathon Stage. And you can chalk that up to my fault. I could have wasted four minutes on the first day to save 20 minutes on the next day – just by going a bit slower. Hard to make those calls. And yesterday I had an oil leak, slowed things down to try and keep the engine cool, and lost 24 minutes on the day. But the technicians said if I hadn’t have done that it’d have been a different outcome. So I’m really happy with my decision making. It led me to the finish and a fourth place, along with a stage win, which was really cool. And this was a huge improvement for me with the team over last year (6th place).”
Rounding out the ’26 Dakar scoring for the Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally team were podium finishes from Tosha Schareina, 3rd in RallyGP, and Martim Ventura, 3rd in Rally2. Monster/Honda’s Adrien Van Beveren would place 6th, and won a stage along the way (Stage 10). And on the Hero Motosports, powered by Monster Energy, bikes, Jose “Nacho” Cornejo would take 7th place and Ross Branch would place 8th.
Noteworthy: Howes probably put it best when he summed up Brabec’s two-second loss to Benevides, over 50 hours of racing, by saying: “That’s like the difference between taking the outside of a corner and the inside of a corner. And when you race for fifty hours, and a race is decided by two seconds, that’s just unbelievable. That said, Luciano deserves the win. He rode great, just like Ricky did. That’s just how racing goes.”
2026 Dakar Rally Stage 13 FINAL Results
Place/Name/Team
RallyGP
3rd – Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)
00:49:50 (+ 00:47)
5th – Howes (Monster Energy/Honda)
00:50:49 (+ 01:46)
8th – Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda)
00:52:31 (+ 03:28)
Rally2
2nd – Ventura (Monster Energy/Honda)
00:52:21 (+ 02:28)
3rd – Campbell (Monster Energy/Honda)
00:52:56 (+ 03:03
2026 Dakar Overall Standings (through Stage 13 of 13)
RallyGP
2nd – Brabec (49:00:43, + 00:00:02)
4th – Howes (49:57:22, + 00:56:21)
Rally2
2nd – Campbell (52:0236, + 00:04:37)
