Kevin Benavides can finally call himself a winner on both two wheels and four.

The two-time Dakar Rally bike winner, coming off his first Dakar stage victory in January, entered this past week’s South American Rally Race in a Can-Am Maverick. He won Stages 2, 7, and 8 and never finished worse than third to comfortably secure the UTV overall victory. Nazareno López was second and over half an hour back.

“The SARR surprised me a lot,” Benavides told Somos Dakar. “We’re racing through the best parts of Argentina, and I honestly love racing in Argentina. We have a lot of variety in terrain, and that really appeals to me as a driver because I like adapting to each track type.

“I think it also comes from my experience with motorcycles and how they demand power and riding on all types of terrain, so I translated that to cars.”

The SARR began on February 28 in La Rioja before heading to Tinogasta, San Juan, and San Rafael. The final stage was on March 7. It is the first round of the 2026 FIM Latin America’s cross-country rally championship and the national CaNav Rally Raid series.

Benavides wasn’t the race’s only bike rider to make the switch to four wheels. Gustavo Milutín competed in a Maverick as well, though he only did the last two stages.

Moto

Finish	Number	Rider	Manufacturer	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	1	Joaquín Debeljuh	RVM	M1	34:58:44	Leader
2	2	Guido Krahn	Kove	M1	37:56:03	+ 2:57:19
3	8	Andres March	KTM	M1	41:14:45	+ 6:16:01
4	41	John Medina	KTM	M3	42:21:43	+ 7:22:59
5	23	Benjamin Lieber	KTM	M2	44:11:47	+ 9:13:03
6	25	Giuliano Laspina	Kove	M2	45:01:42	+ 10:02:58
7	9	Giorgio Carboni	KTM	M1	50:44:43	+ 15:45:59
8	22	Sebastián Elices	Beta	M2	51:02:44	+ 16:03:59
9	24	Alejandro Maubert	Yamaha	M2	56:40:03	+ 21:41:18
10	42	Leonardo Weibel	AJP	M3	58:58:22	+ 23:59:38
11	46	David Fariña	KTM	M3	69:18:10	+ 34:19:26
12	43	Jorge Villegas	AJP	M3	72:32:59	+ 37:34:15
13	26	Carlos Alberto Paez de la Vega	Kawasaki	M2	77:49:53	+ 42:51:09

Quad

Finish	Number	Rider	Manufacturer	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	53	Luis Verri	Yamaha	Q1	51:29:23	Leader

Auto

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Manufacturer	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	101	Lélio Jr.	Weberth Moreira	Audi	T1.1	33:26:04	Leader
2	102	Francisco Castro		Chevrolet	T1.1	41:35:46	+ 8:09:42
3	103	Ramiro Corvalan		Toyota	T1.1	47:48:50	+ 14:22:46
4	121	José Antonio Martinez Baron	Juan Carlos Pereira	Toyota	T2.1	51:55:00	+ 18:28:56
5	111	Alberto Tornatore	Analía Álvarez	Volkswagen	T1.2	63:38:38*	N/A

UTV

Finish	Number	Driver	Navigator	Manufacturer	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	247	Kevin Benavides	Lisandro Sisterna	Can-Am	T4.1	30:03:59	Leader
2	204	Nazareno López	Augusto Sanz	Can-Am	T4.1	30:34:16	+ 30:17
3	201	Gustavo Gallego	Eugenio Arrieta	Can-Am	T4.1	30:56:39	+ 52:40
4	222	Pablo Macua	Daniel López	Can-Am	T3.1	33:19:27	+ 3:15:28
5	220	Jorge Martínez	Eduardo Rodríguez Quintanilla	Can-Am	T3.1	34:24:05	+ 4:20:06
6	223	Raoul Fenestraz	Ricardo Torlaschi	Can-Am	T3.1	35:39:46	+ 5:35:47
7	251	Rodrigo Bianchini	Fabio Zeller	Can-Am	T4.2	36:24:26	+ 6:20:26
8	221	Omar Gandara	Adriani di Battista	Can-Am	T3.1	36:36:39	+ 6:32:39
9	214	Federico Alt	Nelson Sierra	Can-Am	T4.1	38:06:27	+ 8:02:28
10	211	Leandro Mokfa	Gabriel Dall Agnol	Can-Am	T4.1	39:38:34	+ 9:34:34
11	253	Rodrigo Vilhena	Humberto Ribeiro	Can-Am	T4.2	41:10:55	+ 11:06:56
12	227	Cristian Bertona	Emiliano Bertona	Can-Am	T3.1	41:22:08	+ 11:18:09
13	228	Manuel Alvarez	Daniel Sposito	Can-Am	T4.2	42:32:11	+ 12:28:12
14	208	Bruno Conti	Jhonatan Ardigo	Can-Am	T4.1	47:32:59	+ 17:29:00
15	203	Rodrigo Luppi	Maykel Justo	Can-Am	T4.1	56:51:32	+ 26:47:33
16	209	Ricardo Silicani	Laureano Acosta	Can-Am	T4.1	47:29:47*	N/A
17	212	Thiago Fraga	Felipe Bianchini	Can-Am	T4.1	57:12:16*	N/A
18	226	Walter Hugo Menes	Sergio Alvarez	Can-Am	T3.1	41:38:16*	N/A
19	254	Gustavo Milutín	Sofía Robazza	Can-Am	T4.2	7:20:16*	N/A

Featured image credit: via Kevin Benavides