Kevin Benavides and Ricky Brabec were today able to confirm that the great difficulties of the Afriquia Merzouga Rally lie in the hugely-demanding navigation. In the first stage of the rally, the Team HRC duo posted top-five finishes.
Team HRC entered into the thick of things in the Afriquia Merzouga Rally, clocking up just over two hundred kilometres in a tough first stage. Today saw the first dosage of dunes in the Erg Chebbi and, more significantly, some demanding navigation during the 165 kilometres of special stage. The team’s two young hopefuls got the chance to put a lot of the accumulated theory into practice today.
Kevin Benavides set the best time yesterday in the short three-kilometre prologue and set out in today’s special from fifteen starting position hoping to make up time on the adversaries ahead. Nevertheless, the Argentine’s roadbook jammed up very early on and he was forced to move the sheet manually. This caused the rider to lose control of the bike on several occasions whilst riding the dunes with one hand. The result was a slight loss of time and an eventual fifth final position.
Ricky Brabec, third in yesterday’s prologue, who seemed at ease attacking the dunes aboard the Honda CRF450 RALLY, also ran into some trouble with the roadbook and had to settle for a fourth place on the day and the corresponding fourth position overall.
Tomorrow the riders can expect a second stage with two very different specials. The first part will feature 31 kilometres of dunes in Merzouga followed by a neutralization section. Next comes the second special stage, a speedier 150 km stretch – total of 341 kilometres on the day.
