The World Championship Begins: New Quad Bikes, the Same Strong Team

On March 17, the “BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal” will begin in Portugal – the first round of the World Rally-Raid Championship for quad competitors. Last year’s champions, CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team, will also line up at the start, having already completed plenty of behind-the-scenes work during the off-season.

“We’ll be racing with updated quad bikes that feature many different improvements. We’re very happy that even after so many years we can still talk about developing and improving our machinery. For this season we have new shock absorber manufacturers, and we’ve also produced new, lighter plastics. Overall, the quads have gone on a bit of a diet and have shed quite a bit of weight,” said team rider Antanas Kanopkinas, adding that he hopes all these upgrades will help them gain additional speed on the stages.

Meanwhile, in races held in Poland last week, the team’s other rider, Adomas Gančierius, already tested the new FRT shock absorbers and returned with encouraging results – finishing in the top ten among 130 competitors.

“This year we plan to compete in the entire World Championship and, of course, we hope that the tensions in the Middle East will subside and that the next round scheduled in Abu Dhabi will take place, although it’s still difficult to predict anything for now. At the moment, our main focus is on the upcoming race in Portugal,” A. Kanopkinas said while speaking about the start of the season and the team’s plans.

In Portugal, the team faces five days of racing and a whole range of challenges: competitors will tackle a wide variety of roads stretching across central and southern Portugal, and one of the bivouacs as well as a special stage will even take all participants into Spain.

In total, 117 crews will line up at the start of the “BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal”, including some of the biggest names in rally raid: Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Daniel Sanders, Ricky Brabec and others.