· 2000 kilometres in heat and sand
The desert is calling and the X-raid Team acts! With a total of four vehicles, the team that won the past two Dakar rallies travels to the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (4th to 11th April, 2013). The three MINI ALL4 Racing are raced by the pairings Nani Roma (ESP) / Michel Périn (FRA), Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL) / Andreas Schulz (GER) and the two Germans Stephan Schott / Holm Schmidt, with Viktor and Vernon Rempel from Paraguay contesting the event with a BMW X3 CC.
For Roma and Schott, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge represents the first rally appearance since the Dakar in January while it is the second event of the season for Holowczyc. The Pole convinced in the Baja Italy held just a few weeks ago by finishing second. For father-and-son pairing Viktor und Vernon Rempel it’s not only the first appearance for the X-raid team but also the very first Cross-Country rally they are going to compete in.
The rally starts on the 06th of April with a ‘Superspeciale’ in Abu Dhabi. On the following day, the first stage takes the competitors from the Yas Marina Circuit (well-known due to representing a part of the Formula 1 calendar) right to Liwa, located in the desert. Liwa also will be the location of the bivouac that will represent the starting point for the following four special stages. The fifth and final stage will take the teams and drivers back from the desert to the Yas Marina Circuit. Over the course of the five days, the drivers will cover nearly 2,000 kilometres, with 1,400 of them being the total special-stage distance!
“For us, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge represents a traditional start into the season. Here, the heat and the sand make for extraordinary challenges for both the drivers and the material,” says Monster Energy X-raid Team Manager Sven Quandt. “Nani, Krzysztof and Stephan are well aware of what they will have to cope with and for Viktor, it will be an impressive venue for his maiden appearance in the off-road rally sport,”
