Harith Noah’s Dakar 2025 journey has come to a premature end after the Indian fractured his wrist in the prologue stage. This was his sixth Dakar Rally attempt.
- Ross Branch 2nd in prologue for Hero
- Ashish Raorane, Jatin Jain through to Stage 1
The TVS-backed racer scripted Dakar history last year with his Rally 2 victory. However, a crash on the opening day ended his hopes of repeating this feat. Despite crashing a few kilometres into the prologue, Noah did manage to complete the stage. But medical checks revealed that he suffered a wrist fracture, for which he will require surgery, taking him out of contention.
The rest of the Indian contingent has safely made it through the prologue. Reigning World Rally Raid Champion Ross Branch finished second. “There were 130 riders out in front of me, so there was not much navigation, some little tricky places that caught me out once or twice, but I’m excited for the race and we’ve got a good start position for tomorrow, I think we can attack,” he said.
His Hero MotoSports teammates Sebastian Buhler and Jose ‘Nacho’ Cornejo finished 11th and 36th, respectively. Both Ashish Raorane and Jatin Jain (who makes his Dakar debut this year) also completed the prologue.
The real action kicks off tomorrow (January 4), with Stage 1 featuring a 413km timed special. Barring sand, this stage will see competitors race on all sorts of different surfaces, requiring them to adjust their speed on a regular basis.
Dipan Sur
