VOL. 52 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 6, 2015 P35
the front on the first section and
pushed hard. But on the high-
speed section my front wheel hit
a rock or something and jolted
my handlebars. My shoulder hurt
like hell after it. I tried to shake it
off but the pain never left.
"The Grand Slam would have
been cool, but overall I've had a
great year. I won five races and
in a sport as tough as this, that's
a good record."
Finishing third overall was
young South African Wade
Young, who also mixed it up with
the dominant duo. The KTM
rider came into Sunday's race
with the upper hand, after having
won the Forest Race on Satur-
day. Despite some hang-ups in
the latter part of the race, Young
put in a solid performance to
claim his first Red Bull Sea to
Sky podium.
"I really wanted to deliver a
good result here," said Young.
"Winning the Forest Race gave
me a lot of confidence for the
Mountain Race and I attacked
hard from the start. Jonny
passed me but I didn't let him
get too far away. I had a few
problems during the second half
of the race but other than that, it
was a good run."
Behind the top-three, KTM
riders Paul Bolton and Andreas
Lettenbichler had a battle of their
own, with Bolton edging out
Lettenbicher for fourth.
Jean Turner
BARREDA LEADS OFF AT MOROCCO RALLY
T
he Rally of Morocco – the final round of the
FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champion-
ship – got started over the weekend in Zagora
with HRC Honda's Joan Barreda firing the first
shot. The Spaniard showed the way through a
particularly trying first day in the "Rally OiLibya
du Maroc" which was made even more difficult
by recent downpours in the area. The height-
ened water levels caused race organizers to
shorten the route, and despite the rains, dust
was still an issue, and made passing very dif-
ficult. Passing was key on day one due to an
unorthodox starting order. Rather than being
determined by a prologue, the riders started
the opening stage in the reverse order of rally
championship standings. This meant that all the
top riders had to make their way through the
dust of slower riders.
"I had to be really careful with all the dust,"
Barreda explained. "I went slowly in some of the
early parts of the special; the positive thing is that
I kept calm in areas where I could have attacked.
In the end, in spite of losing a bit of time trying to
get past other riders, we were able to get a good
result. A great start to the rally."
Red Bull KTM Rally Factory rider Toby Price
finished second on the day, less than two minutes
behind the Honda rider. Just over a minute behind
him came the Yamaha of Helder Rodrigues who
rounded out the top-three on the opening day.
Fourth-place finisher Antoine Meo, had a good
start to his rally. Meo only flew in the day before
the start of the rally after wrapping up the E2
World Enduro Championship.
Laia Sanz also flew in straight from the World
Enduro Championship after having claimed the
Women's WEC title, but Sanz unfortunately suf-
fered "technical issues" at CP2 and is likely to
incur a maximum time penalty.
Jean Turner
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
HRC
HONDA
HRC Honda's Joan
Barreda started
the Morocco Rally
on the right foot,
but will he be able
to hold on to the
lead?
