Indian bikemaker Hero MotoCorp’s racing branch, Hero MotoSports Team Rally has unveiled its team for the Dakar Rally 2024. The rally will act as the opening race for the third edition of the World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) 2024. Hero’s team will take part in the Rally GP class and will also participate in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in the United Arab Emirates, the BP Ultimate Rally Raid in Portugal, Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina and the Rallye du Maroc in Morocco.
Hero MotoSports Team Rally finished fourth in the W2RC 2023, with rider Ross Branch also securing an overall fourth position. The team has two new partners on board, Monster Energy and AlpineStars. The team will be seen in an updated livery that includes the new partners.
The 2024 campaign consists of four riders – Ross Branch from Botswana, Joaquim Rodrigues from Portugal, Joan Barreda Bort of Spain and Sebastian Buhler from Germany. They will ride the Hero 450 Rally, engineered at the Hero Tech Centre Germany (TCG) near Munich.
820 participants in 455 vehicles will take part in the Dakar Rally 2024 in Saudi Arabia which begins on January 5 and feature a prologue and 12 stages for the next 14 days. It will begin in the ancient city of Al-`Ula and end in Yanbu on the shores of the Red Sea, covering a distance of roughly 8,000km with 60 percent of the territory being new to the Rally.
