Success for the Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain at the opening rounds of the FIM Cross Country Rally World Championship in Abu Dhabi and Qatar

The Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain returns to its headquarter in Stephanskirchen with a double podium and four day wins. Team principal Wolfgang Fischer offers a positive summary of the four-week stint to the Arab Peninsula.



The success story for the Speedbrain duo of Joan Barreda and Paulo Goncalves began in the first week of April during the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. The Spaniard and the Portuguese began the team´s first full world championship season at teamperatures up to 50 degrees celcius in the Emirate with a second and third place overall. "Hurricane" Barreda and "Speedy" Goncalves powered their team-developed Husqvarna TE449 RR by Speedbrain jointly onto the podium, firing a strong warning that the Bavarian-italian team is a factor to be reckoned with in the motorcycle rally raid racing scene.

After a week´s break the second world championship round awaited the squad in Qatar, where the Sealine Cross Country Rally gave its debut. The race had everything to offer: sand, dunes, navigation challenges, high-speed sections and plenty of stones. All in all the course was very hard on the material. Joan and Paulo continued where they left Abu Dhabi. Together they took four out of five possible stage wins - a remarkable achievement in this totally new event for all competitors. The Iberian pair was robbed of another overall podium by a time penalty as well as a crash and tyre induced mechanical problem. After two out of four events, Goncalves sits fourth and Barreda fifth in the world championship.

Team principal Wolfgang Fischer: "Following the Dakar in January we have started our first full world championship campaign. The team and the bikes were perfectly prepared and we expected to be competitive. To be able to set such an exclamation point against fierce opposition is very positive. I´m happy with the team and would like to thank our partners and sponsors, especially Husqvarna, the BMW Group and Monster Energy for their confidence and their support of our programme."

The Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain will conduct several test and training sessions over the next weeks, before travelling to Sardinia. The next round of the FIM Cross Country Rally World Championship will be held on the Mediterranean Island from 23 June.