Sam Sunderland – Dubai’s desert racer
Date: 12-Sep-2011
Sam Sunderland is a young talented rider who is fast making a big name for himself and will be doing his best to continue his string of firsts when he makes his Australasian Safari debut in two weeks’ time.
Sam competed in the 2010 UAE Desert X Off road Championship against some of the world’s fastest riders, and despite it being his first time, he claimed overall victory.
Sam continued to impress in his first cross country rally in the 2011 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge by claiming two stage wins ahead of the world’s rally elite including multiple world rally and Dakar champion Marc Coma.
Sam said he was looking forward to competing in the Australasian Safari and felt navigation might be his biggest challenge.
“I’m really looking forward to the 2011 Australasian Safari, I have a great team behind me which is very important in a race like this, as a rider you already have so much going on with navigation, terrain, competition, fatigue and so on that you really need to have trust in your team to have everything else set to go.
“I am a bit anxious about the navigation as it’s different to the races I have done before, relying solely on road book navigation with no GPS back up, but I’m sure I will get used to it and everybody has the same roadbook so its what you do with it that’s important.
“I’m really looking forward to the different terrains and landscapes as I have been in the desert for some time now where it is sand, sand and more sand.
Despite trying a new navigation system and unknown terrain, Sam is still hoping for a strong finish.“I hope to pick up the navigation quickly and a feel for how the guys laying the route were thinking.
“I’m sure that if I can get the nav dialled quickly I will have a strong finish, of course I want to win as I would want to in any race I enter but as I have learnt this is like a high speed game of chess with big consequences so I must stay focused.“I know there are a lot of fast riders in Australia. I came out in 2010 to race some motocross but I was in Melbourne and it rained the whole time and I ended up surfing more than riding because the tracks were flooded.
“There is some good competition from abroad also entered, but I have been up against big names and teams my whole life and the way I see it is they only have two arms and two legs the same as anyone else, of course experience is a huge part of these races but I am happy there are good riders to race.
Riding with the Husaberg Rallye Racing team on a 2011 Husaberg FE570 Sam is aiming for an outright placing in the Super-Production category.
Some of Sam’s recent results include:- 1st overall MX1 UAE Motocross Championship 2010/2011
- 1st overall MX2 UAE Motocross Championship 2010/2011
- Many British / Middle East titles and currently qualified for the main Lorreta Lynn MX event in the USA (biggest Amateur MX event in the world )
For more on Sam visit www.samsunderland.com
A full competitor list and more information is available hereUpdates are available on our Facebook Page and on Twitter at @austsafari. Also check out last year’s event on our YouTube channel – AustralasianSafari.
