Hero MotoSports Team Rally’s trio of Joaquim Rodrigues, Oriol Mena and C S Santosh took the starting line of the Stage 1 of the Desafio Inca Rally today in a show of full strength since the Dakar 2018.
For Hero MotoSports, Oriol Mena was the first one to start today followed by JRod and Santosh. It was a demanding first stage with difficult navigation, offering an advantage to the starters coming behind. JRod, starting in only his second rally of the year, kept it safe and steady to ease into a nice rhythm and bring the bike across the finish line. Mena and Santosh brought the stage home as well but both lost some time in different sections of the stage trying to tackle the complicated navigation. Overall it was a good start for the Hero MotoSports Team Rally as JRod finished in 14th place, Mena in 16th and Santosh in 18th place.
Day 1 of Desafio Inca Rally offered a 90% dunes and navigation challenge on a route of around 350 kms broken into 2 stages of 169 kms in the deserts of the Ica region of Peru. Stage 2 tomorrow will test the competitors for another 350 km stage starting and ending at Ica.
Peru Desafio Inca Rally is an important rally for the competitors as it marks the last race in the run up to the Dakar 2019. Its importance is further accentuated by the fact that the Dakar 2019 is going to be 100% Peru, which means that the participants of this rally gets some flavour of what they might expect at the Dakar.
For Hero MotoSports Team Rally rider JRod Rodrigues, this is only the second rally of the season and he will be looking to get some more kms under his belt and settle into his rhythm before the Dakar. Mena on the other hand will look to further build on the positive momentum he has going for him. While Santosh will look to make the most of this rally to gain valuable practice before moving on to the Dakar.
Joaquim Rodrigues (Comp #11): « Today was a really hard stage with a lot of dunes and really soft tracks. 350 kms in that kind of a sand was really challenging so I am really happy to finish today. The bike was also good, had no problems at all. I got into a nice and easy flow and got that rhythm going. Look forward to the stage tomorrow. »
Oriol Mena (Comp #14): « It was a hard stage today with difficult navigation. I lost some time in finding a tricky waypoint but that’s how the race goes, anything can happen anytime. There is always something new to learn and that is why we are here. Important thing is that I made it to the finish line for the team so let’s see how it goes from here. »
C S Santosh (Comp #24): “First day here in Peru started with a tough stage. The roadbook was really complicated with a lot of notes. I did the first loop quite well but in the second loop lost my way a bit and some time as well. But I am happy to finish today and it’s only going to get better from here.