MOTOR SPORT
X-RAID TEAM NEWS
Rally of Morocco, October 17th-22nd, 2011
For immediate release
Monday, September 26th, 2011
MONSTER ENERGY X-RAID TEAM TO TAKE FOUR CARS TO MOROCCO
· Three MINI All4 Racing and one BMW X3 CC bound for North Africa
· Six days of traditional Dakar preparation in Morocco
TREBUR (Germany): The Monster Energy X-raid team’s preparations for January’s Dakar Rally across Argentina, Chile and Peru begin to heat up next month, when four cars will take part in the OiLibya Rally of Morocco from October 17-22.
Three crews will make their first appearance at the wheel of the MINI All4 Racing. Following on from their outing in the Rally of Tunisia, Spaniard Joan Roma and French co-driver Michel Périn will line up in a MINI All4 Racing for the first time.
The Portuguese duo of Ricardo Leal Dos Santos and Paulo Fuiza will also take part in a MINI All4 Racing for the first time and Russian Leonid Novitskiy – who is the current leader of the 2011 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies – and his German co-driver Andreas Schulz will switch from a BMW X3 CC to the MINI All4 Racing in Morocco.
Chile’s Boris Garafulic and French co-driver Gilles Picard complete the Monster Energy X-raid team line-up in the BMW Vision Advisors X3 CC.
Over six days of competition, crews will tackle a route of 2,120km, of which 1,520km will be against the clock. The event starts on October 17th and will run from Ouarzazate in a big loop through the south of Morocco. The first stage takes place over mountainous terrain near the provincial capital and then the route passes through sandy areas, over stony ground and across dunes before the final stage guides crews back to Ouarzazate foe the finish on October 22.
"The rally in Morocco provides us with good preparation for our drivers and vehicles," said Monster Energy X-raid team boss Sven Quandt. "Here we find terrain that we will come across on the Dakar Rally in South America. In addition, the timing of the event allows us to have enough space in the calendar to enjoy the experience and carry out the tests."
The Monster Energy X-raid team will, therefore, not compete in the Pharaohs Rally in Egypt from October 3-8, the Trebur-based team preferring to focus on building the vehicles for the Dakar Rally in January.
Ends
Further information and photos are available at www.x-raid.de or contact Stefanie Szlapka or Thomas Quandt at X-raid GmbH, Tel: + 49 (0) 6147 204 670, E-mail: s.szlapka@x-raid.de or t.quandt@x-raid.de.