Peru Desafio Inca Rally 2018 came to a close today at the city of Ica in the Pisco province of Peru. The 3 day rally proved to be an important learning ground for all the teams, providing them with valuable insights into the tough Peruvian terrains as the focus now shifts to the Dakar 2019.
All the 3 riders of Hero MotoSports Team Rally started the final stage today with an aim to get the last 200 odd kms under their belt. Riding with caution and safety, the trio finished the stage to bring the rally home for the team. JRod finished the stage in 18th place, and CS in 17th place. Unfortunately, Oriol developed a technical snag in the bike due to which he could not finish the stage, landing him into 33rd position in the stage. Overall, as the rankings stood, Santosh finished on 14th place, his first top 15 finish of the season, while JRod finished at 28th place and Mena in the 30th place.
The team is extremely happy with the proceedings of this rally and the season so far. JRod continues to impress with his encouraging comeback into the rally world with many positives to take home. Oriol Mena is putting in the hard work and learning the sport very fast, gaining in skills and experience with every rally. While C S Santosh has delivered some solid performances showing great promise and improvements over the season.
Now it’s time for the Dakar 2019 to take the centre stage as the team assesses its performance through the season and moves into the last stretch of training and preparations to get ready for their third outing at the most gruelling rally race on the planet.
Wolfgang Fischer (Team Manager): “We are happy to finish healthy and arrive safely at the finish line of the Desafio Inca Rally. It was a very important test and very good training for the team as many of the Dakar days will be conducted in the same region. Unfortunately Mena could not finish the last stage due to a technical snag which we need to investigate and fix but overall a valuable experience for the team. From now on we build up in the right direction in these last couple of months to be 100% prepared for the Dakar.