Crossing the finish line of the 2019 Dakar Rally today in Lima, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing riders Pablo Quintanilla and Andrew Short have secured hard-earned fourth and fifth place results in the event’s final overall classification.
Entering the closing stage of the event just one-minute behind the provisional race leader, Pablo Quintanilla launched an attack for the overall win. Pushing hard to make up time, the Chilean rally star suffered a heavy fall early in the stage and was forced to battle through pain for the rest of the special stage, as well as the subsequent liaison section into Lima.
Claiming yet another top seven stage result on Thursday, Andrew Short followed Pablo by placing fifth in the overall standings – an outstanding result for the still relatively inexperienced American racer. The second Husqvarna mounted rider inside the top five, Andrew’s impressive result further strengthened Husqvarna’s success at this 41st edition of the Dakar.
Andrew Short: “It’s been a long two weeks and I’m over the moon with my fifth place in the overall standings. I entered this Dakar with more experience and having spent a good amount of time working hard to be better. I am really happy it all worked out well for me this year. I knew what to expect and this made the whole race easier for me. I’m also happy because I managed to make some big improvements during the race and I think this also showed in my results. Making it to the end of this Dakar today has been the most rewarding part of the last two weeks. All the team worked really hard and this top five result is the best reward for all their hard work.”
