Marc Coma for an eighth title

There are 45 motorcycles and 8 quads undergoing the administrative and technical controls for this 25th edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge at the Yas Marina circuit. It is a high quality field and this year’s curtain-raiser for the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship looks set to be a thriller.  

As was the case last year, two factory teams, KTM and Honda, will be going head to head. Reigning World Champion Marc Coma from Catalonia, back after his fifth Dakar win and determined to clinch an 8th FIM title, is riding for KTM with, at his side,  Ruben Faria, Sam Sunderland and new boy Matthias Walkner, who has already won a leg in the Dakar.  

Defying this dream team is the no less professional Honda HRC with Paulo Goncalves, Juan Barreda and an American rookie Ricky Brabec. 

The great surprise of this year 2015 is the absence of Helder Rodrigues, who is no longer racing with  Team HRC.

But the big guns of the discipline will not be resting on their laurels as there are some dangerous outsiders ready to take them on like the revelation of this year’s Dakar, Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla, riding for the KTM Warsawa Rally Team alongside last year’s Rookie of the year Jakub Piatek, or Mohammed Al Ballooshi who knows the Abu Dhabi desert like the back of his hand, not to mention Colombia’s Juan Salvatierra or CS Santosh from India.

In quad, Rafal Sonik is in fine fettle after his FIM World Championship title and his win in the Dakar, but he can expect to get a run for his money from  Mohammed Abu Issa, who will be in it to win it, as well as Kees Koolen, Nelson Augusto and Sonik’s fellow Pole Kamil Wisniewski. 

There is just one woman in the race this year, Russian motorcyclist Anastasiya Nifontova on a Husqvarna as Camélia Liparoti chose to lend out her Quad and join the technical assistance crew.