Joan Barreda, Paulo Gonçalves, Michael Metge and Kevin Benavides will contest the 2016 Desafío Ruta 40 Rally; no Ricky Brabec this time.
Team HRC Rally is headed to the the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina. The event is scheduled to take place from June 19-23.
Four Team HRC riders, Joan Barreda, Paulo Gonçalves and Michael Metge and Kevin Benavides will contest the event. Benavides is from Argentina, so he will benefit from both local knowledge and the support of his countrymen. Still on a high from his win at the 2016 Merzouga Rally, he has arguably been the hottest rider on the team of late. American Team HRC rider Ricky Brabec is not schedule to compete. Brabec contested the Merzouga Rally where he finished sixth.
The Desafio Ruta 40 will be the first competitive outing for Barreda, Gonçalves and Metge since the 2016 Dakar Rally last January. Team HRC General Manager Martino Bianchi said that the Desafio Ruta 40 Rally allows the team to gather more data under actual race conditions.
“The Desafío Ruta 40 forms a part of the race calendar for Team HRC Rally in preparation for the Dakar for various different reasons: the month of June is a particularly important one to test out all the latest changes that have been incorporated into our Honda CRF450 RALLY; but also because some of the track used in the Ruta 40 is likely to form part of the route in the Dakar 2017,” Bianchi said. “Finally, it will be a great opportunity to test out our riders, as we have practically the whole team assembled for the Ruta 40. This will be an important test for HRC and we shall be giving it very special attention.”
Team HRC Rally Manager Roberto Boasso added that the team has arrived in Argentina on schedule and is ready to race.
“Everyone is here: the riders, the mechanics, and the technical crew; the bikes are prepared and the logistics, together with MEC Team, who we wish to thank for their great hospitality,” Boasso said. “This rally will serve to find some new solutions for the bikes, but also for testing too. The team is working very well, especially the mechanics, who have been working really hard to have the machines all ready with the changes that we want to try out. We can’t wait for the race to get started.”
The 2016 Desafío Ruta 40 Rally gets underway in San Rafael with scrutineering on June 17 followed by the Prologue (qualifying to set the starting order for the field) on June 19. The rally route will cover about 2887 kilometers, 1748 of which will be timed special stages.
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