Emirati Mohammed Balooshi finished the Atacama Rally inside the top 10 to wrap up the fifth round of the FIM Cross Country Rally World Championships in Chile.
The final leg from Huasco to La Serena – featuring a timed section for 103km and two road sections to complete 250km – was once again delayed for nearly three hours due to poor visibility caused by thick fog, which was compounded later with rain.
End of Atacama Rally #Chile and we finished in 8th overall amongst the top bikes. I’m proud of being able to… http://t.co/xAJw5ZmxWl
— Mohammed Balooshi (@balooshi_7) September 6, 2015
Balooshi, however, managed to overcome the less-than-ideal conditions to cross the finish line in 11th with a time of 1:44.50 on his 2014 carbureted KTM Rally Replica.
Despite his lowest result in any leg in Chile, Balooshi still held on to his top 10 overall standing to place among the official factory riders, many of whom are Chilean and displayed comfort on their home soil.
“It was a tough week and finishing mixed with the factory riders is a great feeling,” Balooshi said.
“Their bikes are much more powerful than mine and they reach more than 20km/h more top speed than my old bike which has even done all season without changing the engine.
“Me and my team work very hard all year long to achieve results and being able to compete with the top teams and fight for positions with them like we do here is a great satisfaction, it makes us really proud.”
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Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla captured first overall in the Atacama Rally, followed by Austria’s Matthias Walkner in second and Great Britain’s Sam Sunderland in third.
With his performance, Walkner leaps from third to overtake Poland’s Jakub Piatek, while Balooshi falls from fourth to fifth.
The OiLibya Rally in Morocco is the final stage of this year’s World Championships and takes place from October 3-9, but isn’t on Balooshi’s programme.
The Emirati was not even expecting to compete in Chile, but his string of strong finishes leading up to the event opened up an opportunity to continue racing.
