VOL. 52 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 P23
PABLO QUINTANILLA TOPS ATACAMA RALLY
T
he Atacama Rally, of
the FIM Cross-Country
Rallies World Champion-
ship, went to Pablo Quin-
tanilla of the KTM Warsaw
Rally Team. The Chilean
rider celebrated a nar-
row victory on his home
turf over KTM Red Bull
Rally Factory rider Mathias
Walkner; after six days
and five stages of rac-
ing through the Atacama
desert of Chile, Quintanilla
finished less than one
minute ahead of Walkner.
British rider Sam Sun-
derland joined his KTM
Red Bull Rally Factory
teammate on the overall
podium, finishing third.
Walkner actually led
the way by over a minute
heading into the final stage of
the rally, but could not fend off
the advances of Quintanilla.
"In the end, I have to be
satisfied with my second place,"
Walkner said. "Things didn't go
so well for me in the final stage.
The navigation was extremely
difficult and the road book was
not always straightforward to
follow. Then I made a mistake at
about 30km and just decided to
take an all-or-nothing approach
and go for it for the rest of the
stage."
The entire rally was described
by riders as extremely tricky with
very complex navigation. What
made it even trickier were last-
minute changes to the stages.
Due to heavy rain the week
before the rally, some of the
stages were shortened. Heavy
mist and fog in the mornings,
common in Chile during the win-
ter, also caused some delays.
Although the orange teams
dominated the tops spots in the
overall, the KTM Factory team
was, once again, challenged by
the HRC Honda squad. Paulo
Goncalves topped three of the
five special tests, but was not
in the running for the overall
after he struggled with a techni-
cal issue on the opening day.
Goncalves ended the rally with a
win, but was only able to pull off
a sixth-place finish overall.
Australian rally phenom Toby
Price is another rider who would
have been racing for a podium
finish had it not been for one
bad stage. He was dealt a one-
hour, 45-minute penalty on the
second day for speeding.
"I should have backed it off,"
Price said. "The road book was
very inconsistent today. I was
hitting things early and ended
up with 22 speed zone fines.
That's probably some kind of a
record."
Price still managed to rally
back to a top-10 finish.
For full results, visit www.
atacamarally.com. CN
Chilean KTM rider
Pablo Quintanilla
celebrated a
win on his home
turf, topping the
Atacama Rally.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
RALLYZONE
BAUER/BARNI
