2026 Desafio Ruta 40: Gustavo Gallego dominates Open

May 29, 2026

In 2023, Gustavo Gallego won the Desafío Ruta 40 in the T4 (now SSV) class. Three years later, he’s once again a DR 40 winner, this time taking the Open overall victory.

As the name suggests, the Copa Open is for cars that have either not been approved by the FIA or whose homologation ticket expired. Nearly every Open UTV including Gallego’s was a Can-Am Maverick R, which is permitted in the SSV class but took part in Open because of various catches or changes that don’t comply with FIA regulations.

Gallego was the fastest Open driver in four of five stages. The exception was an off-day in Stage 2 in which he was only seventh quickest, even behind the T3 of Emilio Rosselot.

Rosselot’s Maverick X3 was the only T3 car in the race. The Chilean Rally Championship regular was running his first rally raid, setting the seventh top time of the 16 drivers taking part.

“I have never experienced a race this brutal in my life,” Rosselot remarked after Stage 1. “You Argentines are crazy. How can you organize a race like this? It’s absolutely grueling. People always talk about how tough it is, but now that I’ve truly experienced it firsthand, you guys are out of your minds.”

George Anderson “Gar” Robinson, a sports car racer who’s won two IMSA LMP3 championships, ran his maiden W2RC rally raid too. Robinson, who previously made his Mint 400 debut in March and has been racing UTVs in Brazil since 2024, finished tenth in UTV after being set back by hitting a rut in Stage 3.

Fernando Hernandez and Ramón Nuñez were the only T1 cars.

Results

T1

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	9	700	Fernando Hernandez	Laurent Lazard	FH Racing	46:01:02	Leader
2	16	701	Ramón Nuñez	Juan Antonio Cosiansi	Dakar Team	92:24:36	+ 46:23:34

T3

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	7	711	Emilio Rosselot	Diego Marambio	Rosselot Rally Team	27:39:39	Leader

T4

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	757	Gustavo Gallego	Eugenio Arrieta	Ferioli Racing Team	19:34:18	Leader
2	2	760	Raoul Pierre Raymon Fenestraz	Ricardo Torlaschi	Dango Racing	20:50:43	+ 1:16:25
3	3	758	Oscar Santos	Ezequiel Améndola	Santos Racing	22:13:14	+ 2:38:56
4	4	751	Rodrigo Coneglian Bianchini	Fabio dos Anjos Zeller	Dango Racing	22:28:24	+ 2:54:06
5	5	761	John Patrick Donovan	Enio Bozzano Jr.	Dango Racing	22:47:13	+ 3:12:55
6	6	762	Ricardo Silicani	Laureano Acosta	LCR Team	22:58:13	+ 3:23:55
7	8	763	Juan Carlos Cerda Araya	Álvaro Leon Quitanilla	Terracop Rally	36:37:35	+ 17:03:17
8	10	754	Javier Velez	Gastón Mattarucco	GM Motorsport	50:03:13	+ 30:28:55
9	11	752	Leandro Mokfa	Gabriel Dall Agnol	Dango Racing	64:13:04	+ 44:38:46
10	12	774	Gar Robinson	Eduardo Bampi	Dango Racing Ranch 74	70:45:37	+ 51:11:59
11	13	753	Thiago Fraga	Felipe Bianchini de Oliveira	Dango Racing	76:32:17	+ 56:57:59
12	14	755	Alfredo Olmedo	Daniel Lopez	Olmedo Racing	78:08:34	+ 58:34:16
13	15	759	Jorge Martinez	Nicolas Bollero	Caballero Rally Service	80:50:53	+ 61:16:35