India's Noah eyes good start in Dakar

Jeddah (Saudi Arabia): India's Harith Noah is all set for a third innings in Dakar 2022 as the toughest and longest cross-country rally in the World acquires a double World Championship status with both FIA and FIM, coming together for a five-round Worlds for both four-wheelers and bikes.

After training abroad for over three months and fine-tuning his road-book and navigational skills in France and Spain, the Kerala star, sponsored by TVS Factory Racing, is looking forward to finishing the Dakar once again astride a brand new Sherco 450 SEF Rally with tuner assistance from Sherco TVS Rally Factory team, which includes his engineer Prakasam.

"It is nimble and lighter and will help me in the super long race beginning with over 600 km of riding including liaison for Prologue on New Year's day," he said from Jeddah.

The Prologue is bang in the middle of two transport sections, the 19-km Special Section sprint on dirt tracks and small dunes will provide the riders a chance to test their bikes, and also the first 15, in each category, will get a chance to choose their starting order for next day. Noah, the 28-year Sports Science graduate, from Shoranur, Kerala, will be flying the Tricolour as a lone privateer from India.