Monster Energy Honda Ready for Atacama Rally

Monster Energy Honda riders Paulo Goncalves and Kevin Benavides will contest the Atacama Rally while Joan Barreda and Ricky Brabec tackle Vegas-to-Reno.

Press Release

The following is from the Monster Energy Honda rally team regarding its plans for the upcoming Atacama Rally, round three of the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship:

Atacama
Paulo Goncalves (left) and teammate Kevin Benavides will be gunning to give Monster Energy Honda a win in the 2017 Atacama Rally.

After the successes of the recent Baja Aragón, where the Monster Energy Honda Team clinched a noteworthy victory, the team now takes to the Chilean desert to tackle the third round of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, the Atacama Rally.

AtacamaThe Monster Energy Honda Team’s next world championship adventure will take place in the north of Chile from 12th to 18th August. The campaign will be spearheaded by the duo of Paulo Gonçalves (Portugal) and Kevin Benavides (Argentina) who participated in the two previous world championship events in Abu Dhabi and Qatar in April.

Benavides, from Salta, Argentina, now fully-recovered from the injury that forced him to sit out the Dakar 2017, will be looking to regain the pace required for top-level rally competition in the build-up to the season’s main event, the 2018 Dakar Rally. Last year Benavides made it onto the podium in the Chilean race and aims to improve on this result in this year’s edition.

For Portuguese rider Gonçalves the objective will be to put in a satisfactory performance in the Chilean desert that could earn precious points towards the championship title. Likewise, the rally should prove to be invaluable training ahead of the Dakar, the season’s biggest challenge for the Monster Energy Honda Team.

Atacama
While Goncalves (right) takes on the Atacama Rally, teammate Joan Barreda (left) will return to America to race as the defending champion of the Best in the Desert Vegas-to-Reno race.

The Atacama Rally kicks off in Copiapó with a 15-kilometer prologue and finishes in Iquique, in the north of the country, after having disputed a total distance of 1960 kilometres, featuring 1430 kilometers of special stage.

2017 Atacama Rally Schedule
Date-Action-Place-Liaison 1-Special-Liaison 2
August 12-Scrutineering-Copiapó
August 13-Prologue-Copiapó-23.4km-14.03km-22.89km
August 14-Stage 1 Copiapó-Copiapó-23.4km-226.18km-22.89km
August 15=Stage 2 Copiapó-Tal Tal-25.0km-308.0km-49.63km
August 16-Stage 3 Tal Tal-Mejillones-21.87km-349.0km-116.4km
August 17-Stage 4 Mejillones-Iquique-151.67km-375km-20.66km
August 18-Stage 5 Iquique-Iquique-31.17km-158.27km-20.66km

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