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2009 Transiberico Rally – FIA World Cup title for BMW X-raid

Memin Pinguin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:43:21 +0000

Press release Team x-raid: Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner noticeably eased their pace over the final leg of the 2009 Transiberico Rally between Beja and Estoril in Portugal, but did enough to clinch outright victory in the final round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. The result also confirmed the FIA World Cup title for the Frenchman and his BMW X-raid team. It was the second successive FIA World Cup success for the Trebur-based X-raid team – Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah won the title in his BMW X3 CC in 2008 – and the third in total for Sven Quandt’s ever-improving team.
Chicherit inherited the overall lead in the fifth stage, when team-mate Filipe Campos hit a tree stump and damaged his X-raid BMW X3 CC’s wheel and suspension. The Frenchman then settled into a measured pace to conserve the car and secure the FIA World Cup title. “It’s a wonderful feeling to win the FIA World Cup with this team,” said Chicherit. “This year, since the Dakar, I have now done three events and the extra time in competition has been wonderful for my confidence. I hope to do more events during the season. The aim is to be fully-prepared for the Dakar next time, but I will enjoy this triumph for now. Tina and I worked superbly together in the car and the team rallied round to make this a great result for everyone.”
To cap an excellent week of cross-country rallying for the X-raid team, Portugal’s Bernardo Moniz da Maia and Joana Sotto-Mayor finished a superb third overall in their X-raid BMW X3 CC.
“It’s a great achievement for our team to win the FIA World Cup for a second successive year” said team director Sven Quandt. “Guerlain drove very well and we had the bonus of a podium finish for Bernardo. ‘Nani’ had a useful first test with the team for the first time and Filipe proved that he has the pace to be competitive at the highest level.”

2009 Transiberico Rally – positions after leg 4:

1. Guerlain Chicherit (F)/Tina Thörner BMW X3 CC 15h 11m 08s

2. Helder Oliveira (P)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) Nissan Pathfinder 16h 27m 35s

3. Bernardo Moniz da Maia (P)/Joana Sotto-Mayor (P) BMW X3 CC 16h 43m 22s

4. Rodolphe Deveaux (P)/Luis Ramalho (P) Mitsubishi Pajero 17h 01m 16s

5. José Dinas Lucas (P)/Luis Tirano (P) Mitsubishi Pajero 17h 32m 55s

6. Lino Carapeta (P)/Rui Antonio (P) QT Wildcat 17h 35m 42s

25. Filipe Campos (P)/Jaime Baptista (P) BMW X3 CC 109h 53m 07s

30. Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (E)/Michel Perin (F) BMW X3 CC 123h 44m 07s

Puro Off-Road is a accredited team x-raid news user.

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Baja Racing News Photos – almost like live!!

Memin Pinguin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:49:00 +0000

La Paz, Baja Sur – Coyote 300 desert Race images are ready to be viewed at the gallery. We will post the next few hours several sets of images from today’s Coyote 300 race in Baja California Sur with the start in Centenario outside of La Paz. The Carballo Bros. and Memin, the desert penguin got all together about 2500 images as I can see now PLUS I also have 40 minutes of video footage. Our first stop was at Carambullo – for the people familiar with the area, roughly about a 15 minutes drive in the direction of Loreto, just past the military check point and then another 10 minutes to the left on a rancher’s property. Great to see those folks make a few pesos entry fee to let you go on their property.We could not confirm 11 trophy trucks passing by at that location not far from the start. The Abaroa TT – Abaroa Racing got stuck on the uphill for several minutes. I would say he lost about 15 minutes in total. As you will see at the Racing Live from Baja Sur image gallery, that short piece of the course is a hot spot and it proved challenging for several of the passing vehicles.

We will post the images here on Puro Off Road as well as on the Coyote 300 website – our contribution for the La Paz Offroad Club – to distribute the load to different servers. Unfortunately the spanish website from the organizing body, ProBaja , is at the moment not available – we are not connected to those folks but hope that they get that sorted out soon. We can only help the English speaking race fans – and we see the elevated demand on the racing images. So check the Coyote 300 site also for images.

There are also more pics from yesterday evening at the Malecon in La Paz – sorry if some doubles, we will sort that later….

More loading as the saying is >>>>>>>>>> – we’re cropping and re-sizing….

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Pueblo Magico 300

Memin Pinguin — Mon, 25 May 2009 04:24:18 +0000

21:39 – we’re working on it… we got about 600 photos and will just post about 200 for today from the Pueblo Magico 300 race in Southern Baja California from San Jose del Cabo to La Paz. Stay tuned for some great pics. Thanks to Rafa “The Man” Carballo. Give the man some kudos and visit his site via the link. If you need a excellent photographer in La Paz or BCS – who on top, is an ex-baja- and desert racer and knows where to go and what to look for – get in touch with him. We appreciate his effort and advice.
00:29 – Calling it for today, no more burning midnight-oil….The race report from the Pueblo Magico 300 desert race from San Jose del Cabo to La Paz with participation of trophy trucks, class 1 racers, motorcycle class and other offroad classes of course will be published tomorrow. We have here in the sideshow a few racing pics and at the gallery another 200. We had no time to select and edit much. More baja racing – almost live so to say – tomorrow here at Puro Off Road, your source for Baja racing reports.

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More images to view from todays race at the Pueblo Magico 300 Gallery here…

For our “regulars” as well new visitors we’d like to announce that from the coming weekend on maybe some down-times occur for a few hours. We’re going ballistic!! No, not racing self, those times are long past – spending 15 years racing on 2 wheels off road was a cool time yet Feb. 23. ’93 Mickey Thompson Off Road show Jack Murphy Stadium (yep, that was when stadiums still had “real” names) was just the end of that flag pole to climb up, was a killer time. But when one realizes ” hey men, you take a dive and break where in former times you would just bounce…” it’s time to call it quits and what better place as a stadium with 35000+ spectators could one choose for this moment.

So, we go ballistic yet not racing but getting a super-trooper high performance quad core CPU server what enables us to get better, more interactive content on the site. We will change the layout and functions a little on the site and add some optical “pep” and then we are ready for the upcoming races. Make sure you check all announcements, there will be some well known racers with phone interviews (like B.J. Baldwin, Mark Miller or Martin Christensen last year after the 1000, just more… ) and some killer apps to be real interactive. So stay tuned!!

SCORE Baja 500 Draw Results

Memin Pinguin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:52:06 +0000

SCORE Press Release: Prominent Central California developer, general contractor and rookie desert racer Greg Nunley along with Randy Wilson, Ryan Penhall and Santos Perez all drew pole positions in their respective divisions during Saturday’s computerized drawing for starting positions in the upcoming 41st Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500. Round 3 of the five-race 2009 SCORE Desert Series, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series, will feature over 250 entries, competing in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, will be held June 4-7 in Ensenada, Mexico.Traditionally one of the most popular events on the SCORE schedule, over 150,000 spectators are expected to enjoy the world’s best desert racers in action at this year’s 41st anniversary of the Tecate SCORE Baja 500. With late entries excepted up to race morning, over 250 entries are expected from 25 U.S. States, and 10 countries. The green flag will drop for the race at 6 a.m. on Saturday (June 6) for the motorcycle and ATV classes in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, followed by the car and truck classes three hours after the last ATV at approximately 10 a.m. The elapsed-time race will start and finish in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center on Boulevard Costero in the heart of Ensenada, leaving and returning into the city through the spectator-laden Arroyo Wash.
While late entries will be accepted up to race morning, as of the Start draw, the Pro 4-Wheel vehicles classes with the most entries are: SCORE Trophy-Truck (24), Class 1 (16) and Class 1-2/1600 (14). Leading the Motorcycle classes in entries so far are Class 22 (14) and Class 21 and Class 30 (with 10 each). Class 24 leads the ATV classes with seven entries to date. Among the Sportsman classes, SPT Motorcycles over 250cc has 17 entries and SPT Motorcycles under 250cc has 14. In addition to season point class point championships, drivers in the Pro car and truck classes are also racing to earn prestigious SCORE Toyota Milestone Awards given to all drivers who complete every required mile of the five-race season. Being presented by Toyota Motorsports for the 24th consecutive year, a total of 32 drivers remain eligible after Round 2 of the 2009 SCORE Desert Series.
41st Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500
June 4-7, 2009–Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Total Entries: 210 (as of 4/26/09)
(23 States; Mexico, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal)
Pro Cars & Trucks

11 Greg Nunley
3 Mark Post
1 B.J. Baldwin
12 Brian Collins
19 Tim Herbst
77 Robby Gordon
24 Adam Householder
35 Robbie Pierce
13 Ed Stout
4 Gus Vildosola Jr.
2 Pete Sohren
84 Nick Vanderwey
8 Roger Norman
39 Ron Whitton
22 Damen Jefferies
38 Garron Cadiente
16 Cameron Steele
71 Rick D. Johnson
96 Bobby Baldwin
28 Alan Pflueger
47 James Bult
53 Jason Voss
51 Kory Scheeler
74 Rob Bruce

Class 1

101 Randy Wilson
102 Armin Schwarz
103 Ronny Wilson
104 Julio Herrera
105 Richard Boyle
106 Troy Herbst
107 Josh Rigsby
108 Dale Lenk
109 Jerry Penhall
110 Armin Kremer
111 Todd Romano
112 Rob Bruce
113 Josh Daniel
114 Harley Letner
115 Brian Parkhouse
116 Mike Voyles

Pro Motorcycles

2x Ryan Penhall
3x Chuck Neugebauer
4x Kendall Norman
5x Connor Penhall
6x Steve Hengeveld
7x Terence Montelongo
8x Cameron Corfman
9x Guy Larocque
10x Chris Parker
11x Adam Thissen
12x Adrian Butler
13x Gabriel Williams
14x Tony Navarro
15x Colton Udall

Find all 2009 Baja 500 classes here…

Robby Gordon 3th. at stage 5

Memin Pinguin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:15:34 +0000

The streets of San Rafael were lined again with thousands and thousands of fans waiting for the arrival of the Dakar Rally to their town. It was miles and miles of screaming fans cheering and yelling with excitement. The Bivouac is north of town and is situated in a large grass and dirt field. For the first time in rally we beat the Hummers to the bivouac. We have always arrived later in the evening due to the odd assistance and press roads that we are mandated to take. If we do not follow the route that is given, the team can be fined severely and time can be penalized on the over all time of the race vehicle. We have tracking devises on the Hummer H1’s that keep track of our movements. We also have very strict restrictions on speed limits on the open highways and especially on small villages.

Stage 5 started out great for Team Dakar USA when we got word that at Kilometer 31 Robby was leading the race. The special turned out to be a no holds bar match. The lead changed several times for the next 300 km. Robby suffered a broken wheel and that put him down for three minutes. They changed the tire but suddenly were stuck in the very soft terrain, the car just sunk in the sand. Robby was stuck for about 4 more minutes. They finally made it out and quickly gained their pace. Soon after the tire that was changed came loose from the rear spare mount and the inflation system cable got tangled in one of the engine belts. They stopped to install a new belt setting them back again. The Hummer easily lost 11 minutes in the stage, which could have been a win for the team. At one point of the race, Robby was down 11 minutes from the lead pace. He rallied back, 8 minutes behind, 5 minutes behind and finally ended up finishing 3rd with a time of 5 hours 51 minutes and 55 seconds. Only 4 minutes and 32 seconds behind the stage winner De Villiers. Robby now sits 7th overall and is 41 minutes and 48 seconds behind the Over all leader Al Attiyah. Eric Vigouroux finished 28th for the day and now sits in 31st over all.

Content credits to the Team Toyo Tires Members Blog.

Nasser Al-Attiyah maintains second place

Memin Pinguin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:14:22 +0000

NEUQUÉN (Argentina): X-raid’s Sails Capital Racing Team maintained the pressure on the leading Spaniard Carlos Sainz, by setting the second, seventh and ninth fastest times on a shorter, but nonetheless, demanding special stage between Ingeniero Jacobacci and Neuquén through a region renowned for its palaeontology in western Patagonia on Tuesday. Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner were the first crew into the stage and held an advantage early on, before slipping behind eventual stage winner Sainz. The Spaniard only extended his overall lead by six seconds to 3m 46s after a spirited late surge by Al-Attiyah in his latest-specification Trebur-built BMW X3 CC. Al-Attiyah duly set the second fastest time to maintain second overall while team mates Orlando Terranova and Alain Guehennec were seventh quickest, although the Argentinean had been second fastest into the opening passage control, before losing time late on. Today’s relatively short special stage was shortened even further by 79km at the request of a local landowner, although it retained its tricky and varied nature. Fifty-six cars, bikes and trucks had retired from the race this morning, out of the original 531 starters. Dutchman Peter van Merksteijn and Belgian co-driver Eddy Chevallier set the 14th fastest time in their BMW X3 CC Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit and co-driver Matthieu Baumel had climbed to 93rd position at the start of the day’s stage and eventually claimed the ninth fastest time to continue their gradual assault on the middle reaches of the leader board.
X-raid Russia’s Leonid Novitskiy and co-driver Oleg Tyupenkin lost their place in the top 12 on the stage into Ingeniero Jacobacci on Monday afternoon. The Russian hit a rock and the impact damaged his BMW X3 CC’s front suspension. He eventually completed the stage in 120th position and slipped to 40th in the overall standings after losing over four hours making repairs.

The Russian was reseeded in 21st position for safety reasons, held 11th through PC1 and eventually finished the stage in 13th place. Tomorrow (Wednesday) the route continues its steady climb north from the harsh hinterlands of Patagonia into less hostile and more sandy terrain en route to San Rafaël close to the Argentinean foothills of the mighty Andes mountain range.
The day begins with a 173km liaison section through Barda del Medilo to the start of a 506km special stage, which has an opening passage control near Tres Chorros and a second checkpoint after a run through the mountaineous Sierra del Nevado. A short 84km liaison takes team to the overnight halt, which is a city on the Diamante River in the southern region of the Mendoza Province, 650 metres above sea level.