Indians Harith Noah, Jatin Jain in fray; Hero Motosports’ Ross Branch leads RallyGP
Grandola (Portugal), 3 April 2024: Scrutineering for the inaugural edition of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal wound to a close in Grândola on Tuesday. The 55 vehicles in the W2RC field (out of 148 FIA/FIM vehicles in the race) were cleared to start the race on Wednesday morning.
Among the 27 motorbikes and quads on the FIM start list, will be two Indians, Harith Noah of Sherco, the Rally2 class winner of 2024 Dakar and Jatin Jain, a Kove rider. Besides, the Indian manufacturer, Hero MotoSports, will have the leader of the Rally GP competition, Ross Branch, who will feel the heat from Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda), his closest pursuer at only 26 points back.
Jatin Jain
The popular Indian with the Supercross fraternity is a two-time National 2-wheeler rally champion in 2018 and 2019, and multiple times Supercross champion in different categories. Before this, he completed the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second round of the W2RC on his Kove 450 Rally Pro. The Nagpur rider made his international debut in 2020 in the Hispania rally in Spain with a creditable fifth place in his class, and also took part in the Abu Dhabi Baja in 2023. But despite his best preparations, the privateer could not raise the sponsorship to take part in Dakar 2024.
Among the 28 FIA crews in the W2RC, Carlos Sainz (Mini JCW) holds the championship lead by just 9 points over Nasser Al Attiyah (Nasser Racing by Prodrive) and 12 over Guerlain Chicherit (Overdrive Racing).
Tomorrow, in a historic first for the W2RC, the prologue and stage 1 will be held on the same day, taking the competitors from Grândola to Santiago do Cacém and back. There will be live coverage of the finish.
The list of 169 entrants in the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal includes competitors from 30 different nationalities, a fact that reveals the global nature of the Automóvel Club de Portugal event.
As you might expect, the debut of the World Rally-Raid Championship in Portugal has attracted competitors from all over the world, who will be concentrating next week on Grândola and the trails of the Alentejo, Ribatejo and Spanish Extremadura.
The impressive list of 169 entries for the car, motorcycle and quad races has competitors from 30 different countries: in addition to Portugal, also South Africa, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Czechia, Chile, Ecuador, Slovakia, Spain, United States of America, France, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Seychelles and Switzerland are represented.
The pride of a nation
In motorcycles, World Rally-Raid leader Ross Branch is one of Botswana’s rare representatives in motorsport at the highest level. Branch represents an Indian manufacturer, Hero, and bikers from that Asian giant are also starting to emerge, such as Harith Noah, an official Sherco rider, or Jatin Jain, who rides for a Chinese brand, Kove.
The Sunshine After The Rain
The route of the rally had to be tweaked due to the unseasonal rains that drenched its host regions last week, but its overall character remains very much the same. In the end, the FIM race will stretch for 1,735 km and its FIA counterpart for 1,866 km, with 1,039 km of specials for both. The start will be hectic!
In a historic first for the W2RC, the prologue and stage 1 will be held on the same day. The first competitors will get the prologue going just 15 minutes after the sun peeks over the horizon. After that, they will set out to tame the 100 km special 1 before noon. The entire field will be brought together shortly before the finish line to provide live coverage of the last 3 km. The final sprint will be broadcast for the first time on Sport TV, the broadcaster of the premier sports events held in Portugal. Live footage with expert commentary will also be streamed on W2RC social media for the rest of the world. Tune in tomorrow at 3:25 pm (UTC+1) for the motorbike finish and 5 pm (UTC+1) for the car finish on YouTube W2RC or Facebook W2RC pages.
