SUNDERLAND WINS ABU DHABI RALLY
G
reat Britain's Sam Sunder-
land followed up his Dakar
Rally victory earlier this year with
another win, this time at the Abu
Dhabi Desert Challenge, the
opening round of the 2017 FIM
Cross Country Rallies World
Championship. The race was
completed on Thursday, April 6.
After five stages, the Red
Bull KTM Factory Team racer
finished the rally with three
stage wins and an overall time
of 18:14.32, which was a little
over six minutes ahead of the
next-best rider, Rockstar Energy
Husqvarna's Pablo Quintanilla of
Chile. Sunderland's teammate
Matthias Walkner of Austria was
third overall.
"I had been waiting for this
win for a very long time and it's
an amazing feeling to win on
home ground, as I live in Dubai,"
Sunderland said. "I had a good
start to the race, winning the
prologue, which was important,
but this morning I knew I would
have to attack hard in the first
part of the course.
"I'm happy to take the win, of
course," Sunderland continued.
"It's always good, and that's the
objective. The team was good all
week, and I'm pleased to get the
job done. It's almost like a home
race for me. I've been close to
winning it many times before but
to get it done this year feels very
cool."
"I'm very happy with this re-
sult, and about the race and my
feeling with the bike," the run-
ner-up, Quintanilla said. "It was
very good for my confidence
to feel strong again, and that's
important. It's also important to
start the world championship in
a positive way, and I think we did
this. I feel a lot of support from
everybody, and the atmosphere
IN
THE
WIND
P28
Sam Sunderland waits
to start a special test at
the Abu Dhabi Desert
Challenge Rally. He won
three stages en route to
the overall win.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/MARCIN
KIN
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/MARCIN
KIN
