CS Santosh & Joaquim Rodrigues Finish 2017 OiLibya Rally On A High

Published October 11, 2017
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The Hero MotoSports riders, CS Santosh and Joaquim, finished at 15th and 7th positions respectively at the OiLibya Rally

The OiLibya Rally of Morocco concluded yesterday, on October 10, 2017 with CS Santosh and Joaquim ‘JRod’ Rodrigues of Hero MotorSports Team Rally finishing on an impressive note. The Indian rider improved on his last year’s performance by finishing 15th overall, whereas his teammate JRod maintained his 7th position throughout the race, despite facing a chin injury.

The earlier stages of the rally were affected due to unexpected riverbed flooding and overall bad weather. However, the later stages of the rally went rather smoothly. Eventually, the final 180km loop near Erfoud area concluded with an impressive result for the team.

Matthias Walkner of KTM finished first with a very remarkable timing of 10:03:49 minutes, followed by Kevin Benavides, of Honda, who finished at +13.42 minutes. The third place was snatched by Ricky Brabec, also of Honda, who finished at +16.58 minutes. CS Santosh and JRod maintained an impressive timing of +1 hour 49:37 minutes and +44.29 minutes respectively, to finish at a notable position.

Speaking on the occasion, CS Santosh said: "Going into this rally we knew it was going to be an important test with the new bike. I was really excited to see the evolution of our rally machine. We got here, did some testing and it was really promising, I absolutely loved it straight away. The overall goal of the event was to complete the five days and to ride as many kilometres as possible. From day one I made good progress and built up every day. I definitely didn´t repeat the mistakes I made last year. I gave a lot of attention to navigation and for sure my speed improved. Happy to go to the Dakar with a feeling like this."

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Reflecting on his injury, Joaquim Rodrigues added: "In the beginning, the stage went well and I rode at a decent pace. But while crossing the dunes I landed in the flat while jumping over a dune and bruised my chest and my chin, and had to take five stitches for the same. Overall though the rally was really good for me. I´m improving and the bike is also much better. Things are looking good for the Dakar and we´re ready.”

Heto MotorSport Team Rally have all the reasons to be upbeat with the performance of the riders and the new bike. However, the team will look to quickly implement the learnings from the OiLibya to improve the new bikes and get them in shape for the upcoming Dakar Rally on January 6, 2017.