For the very first time in the history of the FIM, Chile is hosting a round of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship with the Atacama Rally.
The quality is here with Gonçalves et Israel for Honda and Viladoms, Walkner, Price, Quintanilla, Meo and Sunderland for KTM. In quad, Rafal Sonik is here to defend his World Championship title and will be up against Ignacio Casale and Mauro Almeida. “Casale and I have differing objectives”, observed the Polish champion. “He’s here to regain confidence and win the race and I’m here to score points.
Chile is special for me as, back in 2009, when I rode in the desert for the first time in Copiapò, I had a revelation at the top of a dune… My life changed at that moment because I realised that I could finish the Dakar!” In the motorcycle class, with the retirement of Marc Coma ― who has 70 points ! ―, the race for the Championship is wide open between Walkner, who has scored 44 points, followed by Balooshi with 41, Gonçalvez with 39, Quintanilla with 37 and Sunderland with 36. The fifteen motorcyclists and three quads have undergone the administrative verifications at the Casino Enjoy de Viña del Mar while the technical verifications were performed 3 km away on the Los Cañones beach.
Chile is just emerging from Winter but El Niño has gifted us a magnificent blue sky and sunshine that has driven the mercury up towards summerlike temperatures. Today, the competitors will attend a briefing at 11h00 before riding a short prologue of just 1.5 km to Sausalito at 15h00.
This little special around the lagoon will give the riders the chance to choose their starting positions in the very first Special, two 15 km loops through the Ritoque dunes. The second Special of the first leg was been cancelled on account of torrential rains that destroyed the track these past few days. The competitors will be able to load their bikes into the trucks to cover the 450 km to La Serena.