LUCIANO BENAVIDES ALL SET TO CONTEST ANDALUCIA RALLY.
FOURTH AND FINAL ROUND OF FIM WORLD RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONSHIP TO BRING 2022 TO A CLOSE FOR HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING.
Luciano Benavides will return to competition this week as he takes on the Andalucia Rally in Spain. Fresh from his runner-up finish at the Rallye du Maroc less than two weeks ago, the FR 450 Rally rider will be aiming to complete his season strongly before looking ahead to the biggest event on the calendar – the Dakar Rally – next January.
Rounding out a Husqvarna Factory Racing one-two at round three of the world championship where he placed second behind teammate Skyler Howes, Benavides will be looking to continue his strong run of form at the fourth round of the series and once again take the fight to the best in the world as he battles for victory in Spain.
A five-day event, the Andalucia Rally opens with a short prologue stage to decide the start order for the first of four full days of rally competition held in the Andalucia region in the south of the country. Riders will cover a total of 1,952 kilometres over the course of the race, including over 1,000 kilometres raced against the clock. There are no dunes to navigate through on the rally, instead, competitors will face fast tracks that demand absolute focus and super-accurate road book skills.
Benavides’ teammate Skyler Howes will not be present in Spain. Instead, the Husqvarna Factory Racing star, and winner of the Rallye du Maroc, will be competing in the Sonora Rally in Mexico this week. Howes will be aiming to go one better than the runner-up result he claimed during the 2021 event.
Luciano Benavides:“Honestly, my goal in Morocco was to do the absolute best I could and master the terrain due to its similarity to Dakar. Although it would have been nice to take the win, I think I did a really good job, and the result moved me up to fourth in the world championship standings. My performance also gave me a lot of confidence in myself, but also in how well the bike performs over that sort of terrain. I’m really looking forward to Dakar now. Of course, I want to finish my year strong, with a good result in Andalucia, so my main goal for this race is the same as Morocco – just take it day-by-day and keep working on the development of the new bike. Andalucia is a little different to most of the races we do, it’s more enduro style with more pistes and tracks, but these conditions normally suit me. I’ll try my best as always and hopefully come out of it with another good result.”
Text/Bild: Husqvarna