Broadlink KTM’s Riaan van Niekerk finished the six day long rally of Maroc in a credible 11th place overall. The result is significant as he was up against all the top Dakar contenders and this was a FIM World championship event. This was also Riaan’s first rally since the 2013 Dakar in January and he is up against factory teams that have raced the entire world series. Riaan will try to improve on his fantastic 13th overall at the 2013 Dakar rally which was his first, he also won the rookie challenge and the Elf trophy challenge. The rally of Maroc has proven to be a great final test due to the rough nature of Marocco, we have been managed to secure factory suspension for Dakar and have ironed out some small issues on the bike, rather now than at Dakar 2014!
The battle for the World rally championship was decided between Factory Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma (5 time world champion) and Honda’s Paulo Gonzalves, with Gonzalves taking the overall win of the Rally of Maroc as well as the World Rally championship. This win will surely boost Honda’s confidence going to Dakar, they have their guns blazing and will try to topple KTM’s Dakar dominence. Although the World championship was at stake, KTM’s focus has been on the final testing and further development of their new rally bike and the most important thing is that Coma and Caselli both finished without any mechanical issues.
We will continue with our roadbook training in South Africa and Namibia, there are just two months to go. Thanks to our title