Dubai // Sam Sunderland makes his season debut in the Emirates Desert Championship this weekend expecting a challenging time in the national Baja-style rally series.
Sunderland, a member of the Red Bull KTM Factory Rally Team, missed the first round of the Desert Championship while finishing as runner-up in the recent final round of the 2014 FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship in Morocco.
Beaten in Morocco only by teammate and new world champion Marc Coma, the Dubai-based British rider is fully focussed on the Emirates Desert Championship, which continues with the second of six short-course rallies in the Dubai desert on Friday morning.
“This Baja championship is awesome,” Sunderland said. “For me, there are a few fast guys to race against and the events are very strategic because the guy in front is doing all the work.
“The guy behind can follow, read his body language and see if there is any danger, so it’s always fun and competitive.
“It’s good to race in the desert anytime I get the chance and it’s good to get me thinking.
“This time I have my friend, Jake Shipton, over from the UK. He’s fast and was leading the last round before a flat tyre took him out, so it will be good to race him.”
Sunderland finished as runner-up in the inaugural Emirates Desert Championship last season behind Sean Gaugain, who has not begun the defence of his bikes title because of injury.
Planning to contest three more rounds of the 2014/15 series, Sunderland will miss only Round 4 on January 16 when he will be chasing victory in the Dakar Rally.
Polish bikes star Marek Dabrowski – a familiar face in the UAE – will make his series debut on four wheels.
He has been a regular competitor in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge over the years, as well as in the Dakar Rally, where he drove to seventh place overall in January after switching from bikes to cars.
His transition from two to four wheels came after he drove a recovery vehicle as a member of the sweep team during last year’s Desert Challenge.
He arrives in the Desert Championship to compete in the national buggies class and will head straight for the final round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies in Portugal.
The second round begins at 9am tomorrow with the bikes and quads running on one loop, and the cars and buggies competing on another at the same time. All are aiming to complete as many laps as quickly as possible over two hours.
The Emirati trio of Ahmad Al Fahim (cars), Mohammed Al Balooshi (bikes) and Humaid Al Mashghouni (quads) lead the standings after the first round.
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