Motorcycles news

The Sertões International rally is the largest off-road race of Latin America and one of the largest of the world in number of participants. Drivers and riders of cars, motorcycles, trucks and four-wheeler classes cover the Brazilian countryside in regularity races and overcome more than 4000 km passing through the most difficult and challenging trails and roads of the country. The 2005 edition of the Sertões started and finished in Goiânia, the capitol of the Goiás state, a new situation for the event which usually starts and finishes in two different cities. During 11 days the drivers and riders of 228 vehicles participating of all classes fought hard for positions overcoming many different types of terrain. In 2006 the race will start from Goiânia again and will finish in the shores of Bahia state.

One of the best news of the 2005 Sertões, it’s 13th edition, was the inclusion of the motorcycle class race in the calendar of the All-Terrain Rally World Championship. In 2004 the event was observed by a FIM official (International Motorcycle Federation), who came from Europe to be part of the race. He analyzed the organization of the event in order to homologate it to be part of the World Championship calendar. The inclusion of the Sertões in the World Championship is the result of a very serious and professional work done by Dunas Race, a company directed by Marcos Ermírio de Moraes and Simone Palladino. In 2006, the Sertões will again be part of the World Championship.

The safety of participants and spectators is one of the largest preoccupations of the Sertões International Rally and because of this the organizing committee did not measure any effort to guarantee that the 2005 edition would not have any problem. A speed limit was established and set at 150 km/h by the organizing committee and the control of this limit was done through an electronic system, called the Spy, adapted in all the participating vehicles. The devices monitor every second and meter of each participant and at the end of each round it is possible to verify who exceed the speed limit established by the organization. The result could not have better: no serious accident was registered.

International participants

Even before it became part of the World Championship calendar, the Sertões International Rally already had the participation of some of the best and most important Rally motorcycle riders of the world, among them the Spaniard Jordi Arcarons, the Portuguese Jorge Guerreiro, Paulo Marques and Miguel Farrajota, the Chilean Carlo de Gavardo, the Austrian Heinz Kinigardner and for the first time in 2005, the Spaniard and Paris-Dakar Rally winner Marc Coma.
Brazil does not fall behind. To race the Sertões rally is today the main objective of drivers and riders that compete in the country, like Reinaldo Varela, Édio Füchter, Klever Kolberg, Guilherme Spinelli, Ingo Hoffmann, André Azevedo, Juca Bala, Jean Azevedo, Tiago Fantozzi, José Hélio, Edu Piano, Alfredo Yahn, Luciano Cunha, Paulo Nobre, among others. To win the competition became the goal of participants and official factory and satellite teams, small or large, that see a victory as a strong argument to conquer consumers in the time of sale. After all we are talking about a race that tests man and machine to the limit.

July 27th, 2006 1st round – Goiânia (GO) – Minaçu (GO) 
July 28th, 2006 2nd round РMina̤u (GO) РPalmas (TO)
July 29th, 2006 3rd round – Palmas (TO) – Alto Parnaíba (MA)
July 30th, 2006 4th round – Alto Parnaíba (MA) – Corrente (PI)
July 31st, 2006 5th round  - Corrente (PI) – Barra (BA)
August 1st, 2006 6th round – Barra (BA) ­ Seabra (BA)
August 2nd, 2006 7th round – Seabra (BA) ­ Brumado (BA)
August 3rd, 2006 8th round – Brumado (BA) ­ Cândido Sales (BA)
August 4th, 2006 9th round Cândido Sales (BA) ­ Porto Seguro (BA)

450cc Class: up to 450cc mono or multi-cylindrical
Open Class: starting from 450cc until 700c.c. mono or bi-cylindrical

Current World Championship standing