DIRT NEWS
SANDERS WINS SONORA RALLY
GasGas rider Daniel Sanders has shown plenty of pace in rallies past , and now finally the Aussie battler has added a rally win to his resume . After some rough luck seeing him miss out on overall victory in previous events , Sanders entered the final day of competition at the Sonora Rally with a seven minute buffer . Without the added pressure of opening the stage , the final day of competition at the Sonora Rally went exactly to plan for Sanders . Hitting the front by the kilometre 35 mark , Sanders kept on pushing to the finish , picking up the day win and with his first-ever world rally-raid victory . Despite missing round two of the rally-raid series , victory in Mexico lifts Sanders to fifth in the championship standings . “ It ’ s great to get my first rally win !”, Sanders exclaimed . “ It feels like it ’ s been a long time coming – obviously after a year off it ’ s great to be back where I want to be . Dakar ’ s the big one , but getting wins in the world championship is also super important . I ’ ve had some bad
14 KIWI RIDER luck with speed penalties and things like that in some events , so to finally get a world championship win means a lot to me . Also , I feel like I ’ ve ridden well this event , leading out on several days , and generally having a good run through the event . Yeah , after a year out and then getting sick at Dakar , it ’ s all heading in the right direction . I ’ m improving still , and thanks to the team who always give me a great bike , I feel like things are really coming together now .” Sanders ’ teammate , Sam Sunderland , continued his run of terrible luck this season and crashed out of the event on day two . Sunderland will head to the UK for checkups before , all being well , returning to training . Running in second place at Sonora was Spanish rider Tosha Schareina , who outrode the heavy hitters of Monster Energy Honda Team to be the first Honda home . Leading the Monster Energy Honda Team home was Ricky Brabec in 4th on Stage 5 , with a 3:02 minute gap to the leader . The American finished the Sonora Rally in 8th overall .