Tag: Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

Abu Dhabi, 3 March 2023: Ace Indian star Ashish Raorane completed the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge successfully finishing the final day’s Stage 5 at Overall P20 for a creditable Rally2 class ranking of 11^th, here on Friday.

Ashish Raorane of Xraids Experience, astride a 450 Rally Factory Replica, clocked a total time of 25:09.05 for his Overall P20 and P11 in Rally2.

“Stage 5 is done and dusted with some painkiller help and with that the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is in the bag. We finished at P11 in Rally2 category, I am happy with the result and more importantly gained a lot of meaningful experience each day. Thank you for following along and all the messages over the past week, it really helps to keep going. Thank you to all partners for the support!” said Ashish Raorane on his Instagram handle. He is supported by Rynox Gears, Dosmoto Design, Lazyass Bikers.

The Indian began well but went through harrowing time but with great determination he came back strongly to complete the daunting cross country rally raid competition successfully. He suffered the fuel-range anxiety with a lost front fuel tank in Stage 1 at around 204-km mark and also saw the air bag deployed during the hard landing and ended the day’s competitive section withn fumes in the rear fuel tank.

The next day in Stage 2, it was another big challenge spotting the drop-offs around noon time and as everything looked flat the Indian was caught out coming off a dune crest and “the earth below disappeared”. Later that day he said: “Lost about 15 mins getting myself unstuck in one of the dunes in this section, thanks to Justin Gerlach for stopping to save (me). Later I too, got an opportunity to pay it forward just 10Km ahead helping another rider upright his downed machine.”

The worst was on Stage 3 on March 1, but the brave Pune mariner successfully completed one more day despite a fall as he recovered admirably and rode with a ruptured bicep muscle and an extremely painful arm for about 160Km. After close to five and a half hours of racing, completed the timed special with grit and determination.

Then yesterday, the pain reduced a bit and he was cruising before another obstacle hit the rider. He lost his road book and had to manually do it. After sometime, with a straight path in front, he rode on but was taken back by a speed zone and was penalized 9 minutes.

Nevertheless, the Indian came out with flying colours and the finish was as sweet as any for the Rynox Gears supported athlete.

Adrein Van Beveren wins ADDC: Moto

Adrien Van Beveren seized the lead of the ADDC in stage 2 and held onto the top spot until the end of the high-stakes finale. Following his late-season triumph in Andalusia last year, the Frenchman’s victory in Abu Dhabi makes it two wins out of four since he moved to Honda. He also added his name to the list of winners of the ADDC after finishing as runner-up in 2021. Much like VBA, Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) defended his second place until the end. Toby Price unleashed a barrage of attacks over more than 200 km to secure third stage overall.

The absence of the reigning world champion, Sam Sunderland, and the victor of the fist round, Kevin Benavides, both of whom were injured in the week before the ADDC, paved the way for Toby Price to surge to the top of the championship standings, now with 46 points. VBA brought his tally to 42 —the lucky number he sports in every race! Kevin Benavides is still on the podium thanks to the 38-point haul from his victorious Dakar campaign. His brother, Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing), is fourth with 35 points after bagging two specials this week. The red bikes prevailed in this round of the manufacturer championship, courtesy of VBA’s triumph and Nacho Cornejo’s fourth place, but KTM held onto the overall lead with 84 points to Honda’s 74. Husqvarna is third with 69.

In the Rally2 category, Tobias Ebster (SRG Motorsports), the nephew of Heinz Kinigadner, a legendary rider for KTM who took the inaugural edition of the ADDC motorbike race back in 1995, made a strong impression and seems poised to light up the remaining legs of the championship, although he was not eligible for the classification. The Austrian, an entrant in the Road to Dakar challenge held in every round of the W2RC, earned a ticket to the 2024 Dakar. In the W2RC, Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) took home the trophy ahead of Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing), who led the ADDC until a crash in stage 4. Toni Mulec, the Italian’s teammate, came in third. Lucci remains in command of the ranking with 50 points to Lepan’s 45. Romain Dumontier (HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing), who came out of the Dakar in the overall lead, is now third with 38 points. Mulec is fourth with 30.

The Emirati Abdulaziz Ahli (Abu Dhabi Team) claimed his third win in a row in the quad race after firing a blank in the Dakar. He proved stronger than Laisvydas Kancius (AG Dakar School), who only managed to snatch one stage from the local hero. The Lithuanian rose to the top of the championship standings with 44 points to Copetti’s 38 and Varga’s 30. Ahli scaled up to fourth with 25 points. Two other Lithuanians, Gančierius (16 points) and Kanopkinas (11 points), opened their account, as did Rodolfo Guillioli (13 points), one of the sensations of the previous season.

AL Rajhi prevails as Loeb tightens his grip

Yazeed Al Rajhi took his maiden victory in the ADDC, becoming the first Saudi winner of the race to boot. It was also his first ever W2RC triumph and the second consecutive win for a Hilux this season, following Al Attiyah’s success in the Dakar.

Martin Prokop repeated his performance from last year to finish second in his Ford Ranger. In another echo of 2022, a Red Bull Off-Road Jr Team USA T3 claimed third place. After “Chaleco” López last year, this time round it was Seth Quintero who came out on top in his South Racing / Can-Am. The top three drivers in the championship following the Dakar all ran into big trouble in the ADDC, but Guerlain Chicherit (GCK Motorsports) and Al Attiyah, second and third going into the second leg of the season, paid a heftier price than the leader.

They went home from the race empty-handed, whereas Loeb padded his lead by 14 points thanks to a series of strong performances in the last three stages. the Frenchman now has 101 points to Al Attiyah’s 85. Prokop gained one position and is now third with 64 points. Al Rajhi was the biggest winner, leaping from tenth to fourth with 63 points. Jan Cruz Yacoponi (Overdrive Racing), fifth, and Chicherit, sixth, have 49 points apiece. Sebastián Halpern (X-raid Mini JCW) is seventh with 43. The setbacks experienced by the three former leaders of the ranking allowed their pursuers to narrow the gap. In the manufacturer ranking, Toyota Gazoo Racing benefited from Al Rajhi’s victory and Yacopini’s fourth place to increase its lead to 120 points to BRX’s 79.

In the T3 category, Seth Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Jr Team USA) clinched the race ahead of Austin Jones (Red Bull Can-Am Factory) after a series of exciting duels with Mattias Ekström, who had two off days. His teammate Cristina Gutiérrez was also unlucky, paving the way for the other woman in the field, Aliyyah Koloc (Buggyra ZM Racing), to finish third in the W2RC standings for this leg. The championship ranking is singing a full-throated rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, with Quintero in the top spot with 127 points to Jones’s 121 and Guthrie Jr.’s 81.

Meanwhile, Rokas Baciuška (Red Bull Can-Am Factory) dominated Pau Navarro (FN Speed) in the T4 race. The reigning world champion wrapped up the ADDC in the lead with 134 points to his name. The Dakar champion, Eryk Goczał (Energylandia Rally Team), has 86. Navarro is third with 73. Shinuke Umeda and his Polaris, another big attraction of the week, gained ground and is now sixth with 44 points.

Liwa City (Abu Dhabi), 1 March 2023: Ace Indian Rally-raid rider Ashish Raorane of Xraids Experience, astride a KTM 450 Factory Rally Replica successfully completed one more day despite a fall as he recovered admirably and rode with a ruptured bicep muscle and an extremely painful arm for about 160Km in the Stage 3 of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge here on Wednesday. After close to five and a half hours of racing, Raorane, the marine engineer from Pune, completed the timed special with grit and determination taking an overall 29^th place among 45 riders that started the stage, including World Championship riders, and overall 12th among 29 riders in his class, the Rally2 category.

“The day witnessed flowy tracks with soft & technical dunes. I missed a double caution on a fast section and took a bad tumble. I hurt my arm but managed to recover and ride the remaining 160Km, although the pain in the techincal dunes was excruciating. The bicep muscle is ruptured so let’s see how we go tomorrow.” said Ashish Raorane on Social Media after finishing Stage 3.

Later, as the doctors cleared him for the further stages, the Pune rider will start the stage tomorrow, which is the longest and toughest of the rally, a 306-km of dunes in a tough zone, an ‘empty-quarter’. Two more Stages are left in the Cross-country rally raid that also serves as a qualifier for the Dakar 2024 and is the second round of the World Rally Raid Championship. The #34 biker is in Rally2 category.

Ashish Raorane’s time 05hours 31minutes and 37seconds, on another toughest day, riding over the loop around Liwa City, for a 266-kilometer timed special was physically demanding and one of the toughest days of the event so far. He could not have completed it but for his strong will. The terrain was rougher and more technical than the previous days and it was a daunting task even for the experienced and fit, but the Indian managed to navigate and finish much of the route before the fall and later in deep pain.

The rider supported by Rynox Gears, who finished Stage 2 yesterday in Overall 25th and P8 in his Rally2 class, slipped to 29^th overall, but it was a creditable performance on the tricky soft and technical terrain that challenged the best of the riders and finishing the task for an Indian who does not have much of seat time on the bike is such a terrain and despite the bothering arm, is a significant achievement.

Earlier in the morning, the opening teams have noted many broken dunes and the competitors were warned of, by the race officials in the briefing. The 403 km stage ran a loop around Liwa City. After a short liaison of 2 km, synonymous with sleeping in, to get out of the bivouac, the competitors started the 266-km special stage composed of 52% of dunes and 48% of soft sandy tracks. The 35-km liaison then allowed them to return to the bivouac.  

Day’s Winners – for the record

The day saw Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Toby Price claim victory, securing his first stage win of the event with just 16-second lead. The Australian now lies third overall, just under three minutes down with two days left to race. Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) won the Rally2 category once again. He is ahead of Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) by 6’37”and Tobias Ebster (SGR Motorsports) by 8’37”. Toni Mulec, the winner’s teammate, is 4th at almost 11 minutes behind.