2017 Merzouga Rally: Strong Showing From Indian Teams

The 2017 Afriquia Merzouga Rally ended in Erfoud, Morocco and saw solid performances from both the Indian teams i.e. Sherco TVS and Hero MotoSports. The riders from Hero MotoSports, Joaquim Rodrigues and India's CS Santosh had a great outing with Rodrigues (J. Rod) finishing the rally in 9th position while Santosh finished the rally in a commendable 17th position. Sitting out of the 2017 Desert Storm due to a spine injury, this was the first rally that Santosh was participating in after the 2017 Dakar and he put in solid shifts and did well to finish in top 20.

(Sherco TVS Merzouga Rally)

"What a great end to a fantastic 6 days of racing here in Morocco. It has been a year since my journey with Hero began and I have definitely made a lot of progress from the way I rode last year to this year. I came here with the target to gain experience and finish the Rally with a decent result. I'm happy to have achieved both. Overall, an exciting and purposeful Rally for the whole team," said CS Santosh.

(Merzouga Rally participants from Indian teams)

The Sherco TVS Team too had a great outing with Joan Pedrero, displaying great riding skills, finishing at the 4th position while India's Aravind KP finished the Merzouga Rally in the 21st position. Abdul Wahid Tanveer who was the winner of the Dakar Challenge in India did really well to finish 27th at the Merzouga rally. This was the first time he was participating in an international rally-raid. The final participant from Sherco TVS, Adrien Metge, had a few technical problems earlier in the rally which affected his overall standings. He finished the rally in 53rd position.

The participants rode for a total of 1,200 km through the deserts of Morocco in order to complete the rally. The very last stage of the rally was a single loop of 50 km which the participants had to negotiate, in typical motocross style.