IN
THE
WIND
P34
VICTORY IN MOROCCO FOR SUNDERLAND,
TITLE FOR WALKNER
A
t the OiLibya Morocco Rally, the final round
of the 2015 FIM Cross Country Rallies World
Championship, Factory KTM's Sam Sunderland
emerged the winner, and Matthias Walkner was
crowned the 2015 champion after the final day.
The final stage win of the race went to HRC's
Paulo Goncalves, but after another trying event for
the red team, his win only yielded him third overall.
Following the mid-season retirement of Marc
Coma, Walkner inherited the championship lead,
and the young Austrian rider came into the event
with only two points separating him and his team-
mate Pablo Quintanilla, but due to a crash in the fi-
nal stage of the Morocco Rally, Quintanilla yielded
the overall win to Sunderland, and the champion-
ship to Walkner.
The final stage win in Morocco went to HRC
Honda's Paulo Goncalves. The veteran rally racer
saw his chances of overall victory go up in smoke
the day before after a rock damaged his fuel tank
and fuel pump, causing him to lose too much
time. But the Portuguese rider showed true grit
and pushed on to a strong finish—enough to card
third overall in the event, and third in the 2015
championship.
"We have finished the final race of the world
championship, the final test before Dakar," said
Goncalves. "The final evaluation isn't a very satis-
fying one for me, but third place in the 2015 world
championship is great, as is the final podium
place in Morocco. Team HRC has done a really
good job and in this final race things have im-
proved a lot."
At the end of the day, there was no denying it
was all KTM celebrations as Walkner and Sunder-
land collected the top-two positions in the 2015
FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champoinship.
"This was a great way to wrap up our season with
Sam Sunderland taking the victory in Morocco
and above all, with Matthias Walkner wrapping
up the world title in his first full year of competi-
tion with the team," said KTM Enduro and Rally
Division Manager Alex
Doringer. "Matthias
did a fantastic job and
improved dramatically
in a very short time. As
team, manufacturer and
company, we can be
very proud to now have
an Austrian Rally World
Champion." CN
Sam Sunderland
(center) topped the
Morocco Rally ahead
of his Factory KTM
teammate Matthias
Walkner (right) and
HRC Honda's Paulo
Goncalves.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
RALLYZONE
BAUER/BARNI
