On the eve of this weekend’s 2010 SCORE Desert Series season opener in Laughlin, Nevada, SCORE International has announced that prominent Southern California manufacturing company MasterCraft Safety has signed a three-year contract to be the co-title sponsor of the popular MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 desert race. The event will be held this year on March 12-14 in San Felipe, the picturesque fishing village located along the Sea of Cortez on the Northeastern side of Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula. With the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series launching its 37th season at this weekend’s 16th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge in Laughlin, Nev., SCORE CEO/President Sal Fish in association with MasterCraft Safety owner and SCORE racer Robbie Pierce used the Southern Nevada race as the backdrop to make Thursday’s announcement regarding the new SCORE sponsorship. Read More→
Stéphane Peterhansel and Guerlain Chicherit shadowed Carlos Sainz and Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah to the finish of 14th and final stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally between Santa Rosa de la Pampa and Buenos Aires in Argentina on Saturday. The result meant that Peterhansel and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret – who finished the last stage in fourth – confirmed fourth in the overall standings and Chicherit and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner finished in fifth overall after setting the third quickest time in the second BMW X3 CC. “It was a hard and very enjoyable Dakar for me, Jean-Paul and the team,” said Peterhansel. “I led the way at the start today and pushed a little, but not too hard, because I knew that Nasser (Al-Attiyah) was behind. Except for the problems on the fifth day it has been a great success for us. We claimed four stage wins. That one problem cost us at least a podium and maybe something even better. Now we can go away and look ahead to the next time with optimism.” Read More→
Team X-raid Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret claimed the fastest time on the 13th and penultimate stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally between San Rafael and Santa Rosa de la Pampa in Argentina on Friday. Peterhansel’s 55th career Dakar stage win and his 22nd in a car was also his fourth of this Dakar and the sixth out of 13 for Sven Quandt’s Trebur-based BMW X-raid team this year, following single stage wins for both Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and Guerlain Chicherit. Chicherit and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner started the stage from 15th on the road and performed superbly to record the third fastest time behind Peterhansel and Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, but they finished in front of overall leader Carlos Sainz. Read More→
Team X-raid Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret lost a few crucial minutes on the closing kilometers of the 12th stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally between San Juan and San Rafael in Argentina on Thursday. But the French duo still set the fourth fastest time in their BMW X3 CC to consolidate a similar position in the overall classification. “We definitely had no chance on this stage,” admitted Peterhansel. “It was in the program in last year’s Dakar, run in reverse, and that was where we retired. About 30km from the end of the special we had a minor engine problem and had to finish the stage at around 30km/h. This cost us the time.” Guerlain Chicherit and Tina Thörner began the stage from the front of the car field, but lost over one and a half hours replacing Read More→
Volkswagen provided an impressive example of the power and performance of its TDI technology on the twelfth and longest Dakar Rally stage: All three Race Touareg were more than ten minutes faster than their nearest challengers on the day’s 476 kilometer long stage and continue to hold a convincing lead in the overall standings. The order in the two classifications is identical: The Volkswagen factory drivers Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) celebrated their second stage win, the sixth for a Race Touareg this year. Towards the middle of the stage from San Juan to San Rafael the two Spaniards were about four minutes faster than their team mates Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D). However, on Read More→
Volkswagen defended its lead on the eleventh of the 14 stages in the Dakar Rally: The three Volkswagen Race Touareg cars continue to lead the overall standings after the second Andes crossing from Chile to Argentina. The name of the potential winner still remains wide open: The leaders Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) lost 5 minutes 38 seconds of their lead to Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) and Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA). The closest rivals – Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret (F/F) in an X-raid BMW – are already 2 hours 9 minutes behind the leader in fourth place. Sainz was forced to accept a setback on the descent of the Andes from an altitude of around 3,000 meters: Read More→
Team X-raid’s Guerlain Chicherit and Tina Thörner produced a stunning performance to take the fastest time on the 11th stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally between Santiago in Chile and San Juan in Argentina on Wednesday afternoon. The BMW X3 CC crew began the special fifth on the road and in a similar position in the overall standings and managed to finish 30 seconds in front of Argentina’s Orlando Terranova to consolidate their position in the main rankings. The success marked a first stage win for the reigning FIA World Cup champions on this Dakar and Chicherit’s second ever – he and co-driver Matthieu Baumel won the special between Tambacounda and Dakar in 2006. “The stage was short and I was given the go-ahead to push as long as I kept the car on the road,” said Chicherit. “So I said to Tina that the stage was for us. I attacked from the start, but we had trouble getting past Nasser (Al-Attiyah). This year I have really found my strengths and my weaknesses and I am going to work on coming back stronger than ever next time.” Read More→
