2024 Abu Dhabi Desert Chalenge: Aaron Mare rejoins Hero

Aaron Marè was originally supposed to race the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on a KTM 450 Rally Replica, but will instead be on a Hero 450 Rally in a reunion with Hero MotoSports.

Marè previously raced for Hero at the 2022 Dakar Rally, filling in for the injured Franco Caimi. He finished fifteenth overall in his second career Dakar, two years after crashing out of his début as a member of Monster Energy Honda Rally Team. The start was his latest in the World Rally-Raid Championship as he did not take part 2023. Since then, he has mainly overseen and done rally training in his hometown of Dubai.

He finished fourth in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, then a round on the W2RC’s predecessor FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. Ironically, he narrowly lost to Hero’s Joaquim Rodrigues in the battle for the final podium spot.

“Looking forward to Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge,” Marè commented. “It’s going to be a great honour and really happy to be alongside fellow African Ross Branch. Stay tuned for the rest of the week. Hopefully looking forward to a good race and thanks to Waffi (Wolfgang Fischer, Hero manager) for this opportunity.”

Hailing from South Africa, Marè began his career in motocross and competed in the FIM World Junior Motocross Championship before starting a career in rally.

Hero is coming off a runner-up finish at the Dakar Rally with Branch, who scored two stage wins en route to the team’s best ever performance in a W2RC round. His effort was a bright spot for the team as their other riders Rodrigues, Joan Barreda, and Sebastian Bühler were forced to retire. Bühler was going to race at Abu Dhabi but fractured two of his vertebrae in a Stage #3 crash.

Since Marè was already in Abu Dhabi, originally entered on a KTM for SRG Motorsports, Bühler’s absence means there are only three riders including Marè in the top RallyGP class. The race begins Monday with a Prologue stage, with Marè the first in his category to start the leg ahead of Mohamed Al-Balooshi and Branch. With just three of them, they are each guaranteed to stand on the class podium as long as they reach the finish, while Rally2 riders hope to play spoiler for the outright top three.