2016 Morocco Rally: Aravind KP Finishes 26th, Qualifies For Dakar 2017

The final stage of Oilibya Rally of Morocco of 2016 saw TVS-Sherco rider Aravind KP finish 26th overall in the final standings, climbing two places over Day 4. With the completion of the rally, Aravind now qualifies to ride for the ream at the Dakar Rally 2017 scheduled next January.

Speaking on the completion of the rally, Aravind KP said, "I am thrilled to complete this rally. Every stage was quite challenging, physically and mentally but I managed to use all the training experience especially while navigating to stay in the race. Also the Sherco-TVS engineers ensured my motorcycle didn't face any major issues. This rally was a fantastic learning ground and now Dakar is next."

In the 450cc class, the Indian rider managed to move up to 17th place on the leaderboard after finishing 19th on Day 4. The FIM rank including quad bikes in 19th. The other riders from TVS-Sherco, Juan Pedrero and Adrien Metge had an equally positive run at the Morocco Rally finishing overall 8th and 11th respectively.

Talking about Hero MotoSports, the Indian team had its maiden run in the rally, but had the support and experience of German partner Speedbrain to fall back on. The team's Indian rider CS Santosh finished 30th in the overall standings, a commendable feat considering he started the rally at the end of the grid on Day 4, after facing early retirement on Day 3.

Teammate Joaquim Rodrigues finished 14th overall on the leader-board. Both riders completed the 1300 km rally against the clock and 1900 km together.