Atacama, Chile: Mohammad Baloushi of the UAE dropped a few places to finish the fourth leg of the Atacama Rally at the Atacama Desert in the 11th place, but managed to retain his eighth place in the overall rankings.
The fourth day of competition, which constitutes the fifth round of the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship, had a mixture of sandy and rocky terrain together with difficult navigation passages and many very fast areas. “Today was another nice stage and in one of the higher parts I had the fright of the week; my bike’s chain came out while riding at full speed and even though I didn’t fall, I ended up at the very edge of a steep and endless downhill, no more than 15cm away from the edge. I had to take a deep breath and then start thinking how to pick up the bike without both of us rolling down the hill,” he said.
The leg covered 273 km with some sandy passages and areas with harsh terrains and loose rocks but the stage’s signature was its fast pace, which is where the powerful and much faster official factory bikes make big differences with the rest of the competitors. “My biggest obstacle preventing me from being more competitive is without a doubt the capability of the bike I use. We ride a 2014 bike that runs on a carburetor, while the official riders have not only much faster and more performant injected 2015 models, but they also run all the time on the latest evolution of the model.
“This is a big disadvantage for us because it forces us to push harder on the trickier parts to try and make over for the lack of final speed. I hope we’ll have the chance to move into a newer model next season,” he said.
Baloushi once again experienced different mechanical difficulties including a leaking fork (front suspension) and transmission problems that forced him to stop and replace the chain twice.
Stage 5, last day of the race, will take place between Huasco and La Serena-Coquimbo with a total of 249 km out of which 103 will be timed and will define the winners of the Atacama Rally 2015.
