As the cooler, autumn-like weather moved to Europe, a large part of the racers turned towards Morocco - this is where the last stage of this year's World Rally Raid Championship starts. Almost two and a half hundred crews will line up at the starting line of this rally, including the brightest stars of this sport - this stage will decide not only the winners of the world championship, but it is also the last training and technical test before the upcoming Dakar rally. Two pilots of the "CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team" team - Martynas Skudutis and Gaetan Martinez - will also start in Morocco.
In total, the athletes will have to overcome five special stages during the coming week, which will take as much as one and a half thousand kilometers. Along with liaisons, 2,240 km await the participants. The rally marathon starts in Agadir, and the athletes will cross the finish arch in Merzouga.
On Thursday, all teams had to complete the formalities necessary before the start: the teams had to pass technical and administrative checks. After the successful completion of the formalities, Mindaugas Skudutis said that this is his first race of such a scale, so it was interesting to observe all the ongoing processes: "It's the first time for me and Gaetan in a competition of this level. We passed the commission, and the inspection here is long, consistent, and scrupulous. Everything takes place in a huge room with 10 or 12 tables. The action takes place by going to each of them and collecting the necessary checks. We had everything ready in advance, so everything went smoothly, and we got through quickly. The technical commission is the same - you stand in line and wait for the road book, tracking devices, technical parts of the quad bike, clothing, helmets to be checked."
The athlete laughed, recalling that when he pushed the quad bike into the technical inspection area, the inspection specialists greeted him with a surprised look on their faces: "They are used to sports quads that are driven by rear wheels, used to two wheel motorcycles as well. And quad bikes like ours in this race seem like a novelty to them. We laughed, we joked, but we already have all the necessary stickers that mean suitability for the race."
Although all formalities were completed, the team did not have time to calmly wait for tomorrow's start. The tent was visited by representatives of local television, as well as the staff of the Moroccan CFMOTO representative office. Antanas Kanopkinas and Gaetan Martinez, as M. Skudutis laughed, performed the duties of local press representatives in addition to their other duties.
On Friday, the 119-kilometer prologue awaits the participants, where the starting positions of the first speed section will be decided. The athletes will start and finish in the city of Agadir, and already on Saturday, the first sports day of the rally, the rest of the team members will also have to go on the road - they will be traveling to the city of Zagora. As many as ten athletes will start in the quad category and five of them are competing in the World Championship - among them are representatives of the CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team.
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