The Malacara Race is the next ARWS Qualifier for 2024 and the venue is the city of São Francisco de Paula in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the far South of Brazil.

After last year’s Demonstration Race, and hosting the ARWS South American Championship, the experienced Malacara organising team have prepared a 500km expedition course in a region well known for its nature and adventure tourism.

São Francisco de Paula is situated about 100 kilometers from the state capital, Porto Alegre and is bordered by protected environmental areas, such as the Caracol State Park and the Aparados da Serra National Park. The landscape is defined by hills, valleys and araucaria forests and Race Director Benito Brocca says teams will experience the many waterfalls the area is renowned for, on a course which will traverse the surrounding hills and canyons.

The region is known as resort destination for colder conditions, and has harsh winters and mild summers. Teams may experience cold temperatures, perhaps dropping to 1 or 2 degrees centigrade in the mountains. Daytime temperatures will be between 10-20C and the cerração mists and windy conditions could make navigation and packrafting difficult. (All teams in the race are provided with Malacara Packrafts.)

Brocca added, “It is a beautiful region and the course will explore rivers and forests, and include a lot of hills, with about 12,000m of elevation. The route is faster than last year, and perhaps less physically demanding, but with some technically challenging navigation, strenuous trekking and a packraft stage with many route options. It’s a course I am looking forward to presenting to the teams.”

The race is set on the plateau of the Serra Gaúcha mountains, where some towns have European cultural influences and teams will visit small settlements of traditional Gaúcha farming communities.

Many of the strongest Brazilian teams are racing and 2 time winners of Malacara, Team Aksa, will be favourites once again. This time they are racing as Team Aksa/Expenature.Fr as they are joined by Romy Viale of France, one of the most experienced racers in the world. The full team line up is Viale, Mariana Pontes, Guillaume Habouzit and Daniel Franquin.

They will face strong competition from Lagartixa, BOA – Brasil Outdoor Adventure and from Terra Santa Cruz, who recently won the first Brazil ARWS Series race in Maceio.

The full team list is available on https://www.malacararace.com.br/ and there will be live tracking on https://tracktherace.com/malacara-expedition-race with regular race coverage on the https://www.instagram.com/malacararace/ and @arworldseries.