Indian rally-raid rider Ashish Raorane 17th overall after Stage 5: Africa Eco Race
Smara, 11 Jan 2020: The 38-year old professionial Indian rally-raid rider, Ashish Raorane finished 14th in the fifth stage to improve his overall ranking to 17th in the 12th edition of the annual Africa Eco Race on Saturday. The rally runs in the original route of Dakar when it was run in Africa. The Africa Eco Race runs over 6,500km, with 12 stages across Morocco, the Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal. Seven more stages are left in the rally which runs till Jan 19.
It was a long stage of 474 km today. “The stage was super fast and I got lost about 40km before refuel. Had complicated bits thrown in and navigation was extremely tricky but fortunately spotted some vehicle dust which I could follow and recovered in time. Good day of racing, after 210 km of liaison, we are at the Dakhla beach for a well-deserved rest day,’’ said Ashish, the marine engineer from Pune.
You can watch the video clip on Ashish’s Instagram here.
Riding a KTM 450, he improved his ranking from Friday’s 23rd. He began with a 33rd after the first stage for an overall ranking of 33 but has been steadily improving his riding. After second stage, he managed to climb to 23rd and further improved two places after Stage 3. But a 27th place finish on Thursday saw him slide back to 23rd on Friday but today was a good day in office as he finished 14th improving his overall ranking to 17th
Ashish took part in the Indian National Rally Championship in Nashik in 2015 and also made his debut in the Raid-De-Himalaya astride a Triumph Tiger 800. Later, he took part in the Desert Storm (Yamaha 250) in 2016 and 2017 and also participated in the Pan Africa Rally in 2018, before the FIM Baja Word Championship in 2019, where he finished an overall 12th following his 7th place finish in the concluding Hungarian Baja as a privateer astride a KTM 450. After the Eco race this year, Ashish dreams to take part in the Dakar, the mother of all Rallies. Last year, the rally-raid rider attracted attention with his good performances to get sponsored by Swiss watch brand Luminox.
The Stage 5 drive towards the great Moroccan south was done at express speed on good tracks traced in the heart of rather monotonous desert landscapes. After an extremely vigilant run today, in terms of navigation with many parallel tracks, the participants conclude the first week of racing before tackling the now traditional well-deserved rest day, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Dakhla.
