Team HRC is rested and ready to race in the Sealine Qatar Rally, which gets underway tomorrow.
Team HRC is ready to capitalize on its fantastic start in the 2014 FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship by putting in a strong effort at round two of the series, the Sealine Cross Country Rally in Qatar. The rally gets underway on Monday.
Team HRC riders, Paulo Gonçalves, Hélder Rodrigues and Joan Barreda are ready to go for the first of the rally’s five stages, which departs from Losail Monday morning. The Honda CRF450 RALLYs are once again fine-tuned and ready to face the performance demands required by the Qatar desert. Stage one will feature a total distance of 230.86 kilometers with a 164.18-kilomter special stage.
Team HRC’s Paulo Gonçalves of Portugal is the defending FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champion, and his win at the series-opening Abu Dhabi Rally sees him as he current points leader in 2014.
“I won the first race in Abu Dhabi and I plan to go on doing the same here in Qatar,” Goncalves said. “Everyone in the Team HRC is ready to fight again. We hope to be able to win this race together here.”
Joan Barreda is in third place in the series, behind fellow Spaniard, Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma, after finishing third in Abu Dhabi. Portuguese rider Hélder Rodrigues, currently occupying seventh place.
Team HRC General Manager Martino Bianchi said that the race is a very important one for the team.
“After winning our first world championship race in Abu Dhabi, we need to defend this fantastic result,” Bianchi said. “The team, riders, bikes, mechanics, are all well prepared and ready to get a result in this race, too. I wish everybody all the best.”
The Sealine Cross Country Rally in Qatar features one of the largest ratios of special test mileage compared to the race’s overall mileage. The course is made up of a total of 1912.95 kilometres, with 90.94% of it run against the clock.
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