Although not part of this year’s world championship, the 2022 Atacama Rally still delivered a huge challenge to all riders with five long days of racing through the arid desert landscape of the Chilean Atacama. Made up of five looped stages, with very little in the way of liaison, the event saw competitors cover a total of 1,258 kilometers against the clock over the course of the rally. The technical navigation and mixture of soft dunes and faster, rocky tracks proved invaluable in terms of real-world testing for the Red Bull KTM team.
Making a solid start to his Atacama Rally campaign on day one, despite a small technical issue costing him some time, Kevin Benavides was immediately in the fight for the top positions, placing third quickest on the 267-kilometer stage.
Benavides’ strong pace continued throughout the event, earning himself two further third-place finishes and two runner-up results on his way to third place overall. Kevin’s consistency through the varied terrain of the event, as well as his excellent navigational skills, stand the former Dakar Rally winner in good stead ahead of the next round of the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship – the Rallye du Maroc in early October.
Happy with his riding and navigation, Benavides, along with his Red Bull KTM team, were also able to make further good progress in the set-up of his KTM 450 RALLY. With the desert landscape of the Atacama being very similar to that seen in both the upcoming Rallye du Maroc and the Dakar Rally early next January, putting in a full race distance on the constantly evolving machine will prove invaluable on the team’s return to world championship competition next month.
Kevin Benavides: “I’m pleased to finish the Atacama Rally – I think it was a really good race and gave us some valuable time on the bike. The goal was always to put a lot of kilometers on the bike for testing and to make some changes as the rally went on. I felt really good with the bike, we completed the rally without any crashes, and we were able to make some improvements also. All-in-all it was a highly positive race. I did make a couple of mistakes – some small navigation areas, and the first day didn’t go too well for me. It has definitely helped to get some racing under my belt before returning to the world championship. It has been quite a big gap since the last round, so it feels really good to be racing again, especially in desert terrain like here in Chile. The organization here at the Atacama has been excellent as well, my only wish was we had more than two minutes separating the riders at the beginning of each day. The small gaps meant the top guys soon ended up riding together, so it was hard to make any advantage. A big thanks to the team for all their hard work in Chile, and now I’m looking forward to heading to Morocco at the end of the month and getting back to the world championship.”
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing will next be in action at the Rallye du Maroc, held in Morocco from October 1.
Provisional Results – 2022 Atacama Rally
1. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI), Honda, 17:35:35
2. Luciano Benavides (ARG), Husqvarna, 17:37:35 +2:00
3. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 17:40:02 +4:27
4. Ignacio Cornejo (CHI), Honda, 17:42:00 +6:25
5. Daniel Nosiglia (BOL), KTM, 19:20:39 +1:45:04
