Peterhansel aiming for third Morocco success
Peterhansel and Cottret aiming for third Morocco success, Guerlain Chicherit teams up with Michel Périn in Morocco, Holowczyc, Novitskiy and Leal Dos Santos complete X-raid line-up. The BMW X-raid Team has entered five BMW X3 CCs in the OiLibya Rally of Morocco as an integral part of the build-up and preparation for January’s Dakar Rally in South America. The non-championship event takes place in the Zagora region of the North African country between October 17-23rd, 2010. Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret won the rally for the Treburbased X-raid team in 2009 and they head the official team entry. Fellow countryman Guerlain Chicherit also faces the six-day Moroccan challenge and takes part in his first event with the X-raid team since steering his BMW X3 CC to fifth overall in this year’s Dakar Rally. The defending FIA World Cup champion will be co-driven by the vastly experienced French co-driver Michel Périn, a three-time winner of the Dakar Rally. Joining them are new Polish team signing Krzysztof Holowczyc in his PKN Orlen-backed car, last year’s Moroccan runner-up Leonid Novitskiy and Portugal’s Ricardo Leal Dos Santos, all of whom will represent X-raid in January’s Dakar Rally. The X3CC trio will be co-driven by Belgian Jean-Marc Fortin, Germany’s Andreas Schulz and Portugal’s Paulo Fiúza, respectively.
Peterhansel and Cottret will be bidding for their third Morocco victory in the space of seven years – the French duo also won the event in 2004. The demanding nature of the NPO-organized event makes it an obvious choice for team director Sven Quandt to include in team preparations for the Dakar.
Moroccan terrain is notoriously unforgiving to cross-country rally vehicles and X-raid will be able to test engine, cooling, suspension and transmission components and tires over harsh desert terrain, boulder-strewn tracks, sand dunes and through areas of tricky navigation where the role of the co-driver is crucial to the team’s success.
The BMW X-raid team will carry out a four-day test and development session before the rally, where the line-up will be bolstered by the appearance of German driver Stephan Schott and navigator Holm Schmidt, one of five crews already confirmed in X-raid’s 2011 Dakar Rally line-up.
The event is based around a centralized bivouac at Zagora in Morocco, with the competitive action beginning to the north-east of the town with the first 320km selective section on Monday, October 18th.
The second 261km selective section on Tuesday, October 19th takes crews through an ocean of sand dunes and offers a superb testing environment for the team in preparation for the rigorous of the Atacama Desert in South America next year.
The third 281km section passes through the Maharch region and crews will cross the Chegaga erg via two competitive loops of 160km during the fourth selective section on Thursday, October 21st.
The penultimate 249km competitive section on Friday, October 22nd passes through the mountains to the east of Zagora in the area frequented by the Ait-Attas Berber tribe. The final 158km section on Saturday, October 23rd offers a combination of small dunes, fast tracks and tricky navigation before the finish in Zagora.
Press Release Team X-raid GmbH – Puro Off Road is registered news user with Team X-raid GmbH
Image credits: Monika Wiackiewicz
Related posts:
- OiLibya Rally of Morocco
- Peterhansel clinches emphatic victory for the BMW X-raid team
- French Dakar legend Stéphane Peterhansel joins Team x-Raid
- X-Raid’s Peterhansel up to eight after setting fastest time into Iquique
- OiLybia Rally of Morocco Day 1 + 2
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This post was compiled by Memin Pinguin
