Carlos Tatay relishes in “very cool” cross-country rally debut

While probably not a discipline he envisioned himself in one year ago, Carlos Tatay is officially back in action.

Less than a year after a severe spinal cord injury forced him out of pavement motorcycle racing, he made his rally raid début at last weekend’s Baja Lorca – Ciudad del Sol, the fourth round of the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship (CERTT). Driving a Polaris RZR Pro R for TH-Trucks Team with owner Alberto Herrero as his navigator, Tatay finished eleventh and last in the T4 category following a transmission failure during the first stage.

After a fifth in class in the Prologue, Tatay was running as high as third in SS1 until a spring in the transmission’s variator broke off. This relegated him to the bottom of the order and out of contention for the overall, but as it was his first rally, he intended on using the second and final leg to simply gain more experience in the side-by-side vehicle. He finished fifth again in Stage #2 to close out the rally.

“We came here with the plan of doing as many kilometres in competition, which is what matters the most and what I need right now in terms of training. It has gone quite well,” said Tatay at the finish. “I was too nervous the Prologue stage; it was my first start, I was too tense even though the times were not bad. The first and second stages were incredible, they were very good. If it wasn’t for that mechanical, we would have enjoyed it a little more and it would have taken us less time, but it was still very cool.”

He originally planned his début for the Baja España Aragón in late July, but pushed it up by two months after successful testing. His ailment, which requires him to use a wheelchair, would have allowed him to enter the non-competition ParaBaja Step by Step category for those with reduced mobility though he opted to run the main rally instead.

Tatay suffered an incomplete spinal injury in July 2023 during the Moto2 European Championship round at Portimão when he fell off his bike and slid into the tyre barrier, ending a burgeoning Grand Prix motorcycle career that included winning the 2019 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and racing in Moto3. The Spaniard announced a switch to rally raid in April with the goal of competing at the Dakar Rally.

Founded by Herrero, TH-Trucks Team is a Spanish outfit boasting Dakar and World Rally-Raid Championship experience. At the latest Dakar in January, TH-Trucks fielded a truck for Herrero along with three Polaris RZRs in the SSV class (T4) for Enrico Gaspari, Daniel Gonzalez Reina, and Domingo Román. Herrero described Tatay after the Baja Lorca as “very good. The way he learns is incredible.”

The Baja Aragón will be his next race. Scheduled for 26–28 July, it is the sixth and penultimate race of the 2024 CERTT season.