Harith Noah successfully completes Rally of Morocco
Zagora, 13 October 2021: Ace Indian rider KN Harith Noah successfully completed the tough Rallye du Maroc after finishing the last stage 23rd, for a creditable overall 20th to brush aside his rustiness and start preparations for Dakar 2022 in right earnest. The Kerala rider, who became the top-Indian finisher in Dakar, is backed by Sherco TVS factory team. Noah clocked 19hours, 05minutes and 31seconds for the overall timing with a 1:52:11sec in the shortened fifth stage, just 12:59sec off the leader P Quintanilla of Monster Energy Honda team.
Meanwhile, despite this last stage being shortened for logistical reasons, it was no stroll in park ! The profile of this final loop resembled that of the first stage with the same start and finishing point. However the route through the Chegaga Erg was all new. Warned rally boss David Castera: “The rally’s not over yet. Save some strength for the end”.
ROAD BOOK
Stage 5
Distances : L1: 142 / SS: 166 / L2 : 143 – Total : 412
ON TRACK
In the bikes, the last 166 kms of the 2021 Rallye du Maroc went more or less as anticipated. Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda) started third on the road this morning to win the special and with it the rally, second time out with his new team. Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory) started 2nd kept his podium position and win the FIM World Championship. And opening the piste this morning Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas Factory) managed to limit the damage to an absolute minimum to finish third on the special and overall. All of course much easier said than done, when you have riders of the calibre of Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) ready to pounce at the slightest opportunity. In Rally2 Bradley Cox (BAS Dakar KTM) confirmed all the promise he has shown this week by winning his first ever rally raid special just 1:20 ahead of fellow rookie Mason Klein (BAS Dakar KTM) who wins the class by a more than comfortable 54:58 ahead of the Italian Paolo Lucci. In Enduro Cup Afriquia the Moroccan Amine Echiguer (KTM OCP) took yet another stage victory to win is class. Fastest Rally2 quad was Manuel Andújar (Team 7240) while in Enduro Cup Afriquia it was Axel Dutrie (Yamaha Drag’on) who takes the honours.
In the cars Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) took his 6th Rallye du Maroc victory and with it the lead in the FIA World Cup Championship. In the T3 class for lightweight prototypes the win went to the Russian Pavel Lebedev (Moscow Rally Team). In T4, contender Michal Goczal (Energylandia) woke up to a surprise this morning, rival Aron Domzala’s CanAm (Monster Energy Can-Am) stripped down to its bare bones. Psychological warfare that appears to have paid off with, Goczal breaking his rear suspension and ‘gifting’ Domzala the class win (7th overall at 2h20:02). In Open Patrick Prot (Revival Aventures) takes the top spot while in the trucks victory goes to Gerrit Zuumond (Man TGA).
RADIO BIVOUAC
The Toyota Auto Body entered the Open class for this edition of the Rallye du Maroc to prepare for the future and carry out tyre tests under race conditions before the next Dakar. This will be the last appearance in Morocco for the two diesel powered Land Cruiser VDJ 200 Auto Body cars. They will race in T2 in Saudi Arabia in a few week’s time before retiring and giving way to the new Land Cruiser 300. Farewell to the V8 diesel.
STAT OF THE DAY : 1506
That’s the number of special stage kilometres that the FIM and FIA drivers covered on this edition of the Rallye du Maroc. In all those kilometres the new Toyota Hilux Gazoo Racing T1+ that was being tested by Erik Van Loon suffered zero puintures! Equipped with new 37-inch wheels, the four future official Toyota Gazoo Racing cars for the next Dakar should spend much less time stopped by the side of the track.
THE RALLY DU MAROC AND ME
Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda)
Where ?
“It was here in Zagora.”
When ?
“2015, my first season with KTM, it was my 5th rally-raid. I was doing all the world championship rounds.”
How ?
“I broke my wrist on the last special. It was my second crash in my rally-raid career, my first in the world championship, Since then I’ve come here every year. My best result up until today was 2nd in 2019.”
QUOTES
Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda) : 1st
“It feels really nice to win. It was a tough race for everybody with difficult navigation. This is my second race with the Monster Energy Honda team and I’d like to thank them for doing a great job. We know we are in a good way for the Dakar in January.”
Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory) : 2nd and FIM World Champion
“Feels amazing to win the world championship. I always liked racing here. The track is good and the organisation is super cool. It is a tough and tricky rally so to finish 2nd here and win the world championship is super cool. As you get old you think more about the danger but you compensate with navigation and I think the key is I really like to be on the bike.”
Mason Klein (BAS Dakar KTM) : 1st overall in Rally2
“Coming out here for my first rally I didn’t have big expectations. That changed a little after day 1 and there was a bit more pressure to do good. It has definitely been hard but I’ve been learning patience, to take your time. Slow and steady wins the race and that’s what I’ve been doing this whole week and its worked out pretty good.”
Bradley Cox (BAS Dakar KTM) : 3rd overall Rally3
“To finish off the week with a stage win on my first rally is just awesome. So excited now for Dakar. I learnt so much. The most important lesson was it doesn’t matter how fast you go if you can’t navigate you lose so much time. Great to have my Dad here. He’s so knowledgeable.”
Amine Echiguer (KTM OCP) : 1st Enduro Cup Afriquia
“It’s thanks to my mental attitude that I made it to the end. From the second stage onwards I thought about quitting. Cyril Despres had warned us, but I didn’t think it would be so hard. Yet I do sport: cycling, swimming, I often go running in the morning before going to work and in the afternoon. What reassures me is that I heard the pro riders also complain about the difficulty of this edition. But despite that, I found myself thinking that now I would like to be a Dakar finisher !”
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) : 1st
“Toyota Gazoo Racing have done an amazing job. We was winning the race since the beginning. Today I enjoy a lot this 166 kms because we take really good time from everybody and now we are the leaders of the championship. This is our last race in the T1. It has been an amazing car and we’ve won a lot of races with it including the 2019 Dakar. Now we’re looking forward to racing the T1+ and I think the team have built us an amazing car.”
