2014 FIM World Cross Country Rallies Championship, Round 2
Team HRC and its three-rider lineup – Paulo Goncalves, Jaon Barreda and Helder Rodrigues – are set to continue defending its FIM World Cross Countries Rally this week at Qatar’s Sealine Cross Country Rally.
The first of five stages begin Monday from Qatar’s Losail, which hosts the opening round of MotoGP. The three Honda pilots have their CRF450 Rally motorcycles tuned for the desert race, which will take riders over 1900 kilometers.
This will be the fourth time the Sealine Rally is featured on the World Cross Country Rallies calendar, and includes the largest proportion of timed specials – 90.94 percent of the race will be timed.
Leading the field of riders that includes four-time Dakar winner Marc Coma (Red Bull KTM) is Team HRC’s Paulo Goncalves. He won the opening round of the Cross Country Rallies two weeks ago at Abu Dhabi. Coma finished second, with Barreda taking the final step of the podium.
Speaking ahead of the Sealine Rally, Paulo Goncalves says “We are here in Qatar to prepare the second race of the world championship. I won the first race in Abu Dhabi and I plan to go on doing the same here in Qatar. Everyone in the Team HRC is ready to fight again. We hope to be able to win this race together here.”
