Atacama Rally 2015 Starts

Some surprises to start the Atacama Rally

Chile's Pablo Quintanilla splashes his way to win the short two-lap stage that comprised the first day of racing at the Atacama Rally in Chile, a stage reflecting the damage storms over the past two weeks have wreaked. Four days remain.Photo courtesy of Rally Zone Bauer/Barni

The Atacama Rally in Chile—round five of the six-race FIM Cross-country Rallies World Championship—took on even greater significance for those teams preparing for the 2016 Dakar Rally due to cancellation of a South American championship rally in Peru recently.

And with the surprise retirement last month of rally legend Marc Coma, the potential for a new winner to emerge grew exponentially.

Team HRC Rally’s Paulo Goncalves got the race off to a perfect start by winning the prologue, followed by Red Bull KTM Factory Rally Team’s Mattias Walkner and KTM Australia Factory Rally Team’s Toby Price.

But when the real racing got underway with stage one, electrical gremlins returned to haunt the factory CRF450 Rally bikes of Goncalves and former motocrosser Jeremias Israel of Chile. Recent storms wreaked havoc with the countryside around La Serena (site of the 2007 ISDE) so the first stage was two laps of a 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) loop—not the usual, long, point-to-point stage rallies are known for.

Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla of the satellite KTM Warsaw Rally Team took the win in 40 minutes, 23 seconds. San Sunderland of the Red Bull KTM Factory Rally Team was a minute behind for second with Price a further 1:17 back. Walkner and new teammate Antoine Meo (the enduro star from France) rounded out the top five with times 4:08 and 4:17 back of Quintanilla, respectively). Israel was seventh (7:13 behind) with Goncalves out of the hunt at 1:00:11 back with four days remaining.