- Four Argentineans to contest their home race
Almost four months after the end of the Dakar Rally in January, the MINI All4 Racing is going to return to Argentina this week. The two MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles involved will be raced by the Argentinean pairings Orlando Terranova / Bernardo Ronnie Graue and Lucio Alvarez / Sebastian Halpern who already are looking forward to contesting their home event. For X-raid, the appearance in Argentina represents a major challenge as the Pharaons Rally in Egypt is held in this week and many of the vehicles that contest the FIA World Cup rounds are still en route.
The Desafío Ruta 40 isn’t part of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup but reminds of the Dakar Rally. Some sections even take the competitors across the same regions as the season highlight in January did. This fact has attracted several competitors to Argentina. All the bivouacs will be erected at cities located around La Rioja, not far from the Andes.
The event will be kicked off in the evening of the 18th of May when the cars cross the podium in Catamarca. On the following day, stage one will be contested around the Argentinean city. On 20th May, the second stage will take the field to Tinogasta, located some 1200 metres above sea level. The third stage, on 21st may, will take the competitors around another loop, with the service staying in the bivouac. On day four, the field will be racing from Tinogasta to Chilecito, a village the Dakar already made several stops at. And the final stage will be contested from Chilecito to Villa Unión. When they cross the finish line, the teams will have covered a total of 2825.41 kilometres, with the special-stage mileage adding up to 1539.49 kilometres.
http://www.desafioruta40.com.ar/en/
