Paulo Gonçalves e Jeremias Israel preparados para o Atacama Rally

Team HRC kick off the fifth date of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship today at Chile’s Atacama Rally. The team lines up Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves alongside local boy Jeremias Israel.

 Monday sees the official start of the Atacama Rally with a short curtain-raising prologue. Prior to this, technical and administrative checks have to be overcome. It will be the seaside location of Viña del Mar, close to Valparaíso, which hosts the start of the fifth edition of the rally, the penultimate date of the six events featured in this year’s FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

 For Team HRC, participation in the Chilean race forms an integral part of the squad’s rally schedule and will be spearheaded by Paulo Gonçalves and Jeremias Israel. The Portuguese rider currently holds fifth overall place in the World Championship with 39 points and will be challenging to keep his potential title hopes open. Jeremias, meanwhile, makes his second round outing this season, having recovered from an injury picked up in Qatar in April.

 The rally will be disputed over some 2,000 kilometres, for the most part in the area of Copiapo, the capital of the Atacama region. Riders will be faced with tough navigation, desert zones, dunes, sandy track, off road and even some mountain routes. The spectacle gets underway today with a ceremonial start followed by a prologue that will dictate the start-order of the first full-length stage which takes place on September 1.