• Al-Attiyah joined by Chicherit and Van Merksteijn
• Novitskiy, Terranova and Kuipers complete driver line-up
• BMW team eyes outright victory in South American classic
TREBUR (Germany): X-raid’s Power Racing Team will field six BMW X3 CCs in the
Dakar Rally 2009, which takes place in South America for the first time. The event
starts in Buenos Aires on Saturday, January 3rd and finishes back in the Argentine
capital on Sunday, January 18th.
Newly-crowned FIA World Cup and FIA International Baja Cup champion Nasser
Saleh Al-Attiyah will be joined in the Trebur-based team’s line-up by Frenchman
Guerlain Chicherit and Dutchman Peter van Merksteijn, with X-raid Russia’s Leonid
Novitskiy, Argentina’s Orlando Terranova and Dutchman René Kuipers completing
the driver line-up.
Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, will be partnered by Sweden’s Tina Thörner, while
Frenchman Matthieu Baumel and Belgian Eddy Chevallier partner Chicherit and Van
Merksteijn. Russian Oleg Tyupenkin, Frenchman Alain Guehennec and Portugal’s
Filipe Palmeiro complete the six-car team’s co-driving line-up.
All six drivers will wheel out the latest version of X-raid’s potent BMW X3 CC,
updates of which have already taken outright wins in the punishing UAE Desert
Challenge, Ha’il Saudi Baja, Baja Italy, Baja Spain and Baja Hungary this season in
the hands of Al-Attiyah.
“We have a large team with strength and experience in depth,” enthused team
director Sven Quandt. “Our drivers have a wide range of experience in all forms of
rallying and I am confident that our preparations will be rewarded with success in
January."
“We have been developing the BMW X3 CC for many months and I have been
delighted with the increased competitiveness of the car and the professional attitude
of the entire team.”
Al-Attiyah recently confirmed a third FIA title of the season, when he clinched the FIA
Middle East Rally Championship for the fifth time in six seasons, but he would dearly
love to add a Dakar win to his impressive list of recent victories. The Qatari finished
sixth overall with Alain Guehennec in 2007, while co-driver Thörner has tackled the
Dakar several times and finished runner-up with South African Giniel de Villiers in
2005.
“This is it, the big one,” enthused Al-Attiyah. “This is the event that we have all been
preparing for all year and I am so looking forward to the start. I have competed in
Argentina before in the WRC and enjoyed the stages there very much. But this will be
a totally different challenge. We have shown over the last few months that this new
BMW is more than capable of winning the Dakar."
“I know we have the pace and the reliability to win stages and, maybe, take victory. It
will not be easy. Volkswagen are very strong and Mitsubishi have a new car, but
there are less difficult sand dunes than we would find on a traditional Dakar Rally in
Africa and this could be more of a sprint event, which could suit me and the other
WRC drivers better. Altitude will also play an important factor and it is important that
we have the car set-up spot on for each day.”
Chicherit, 30, has won a stage on the Dakar Rally in the past and his co-driver
Matthieu Baumel is in winning form this season. The Frenchman partnered Al-Attiyah
to success in Saudi Arabia earlier this year and won a recent special stage event in
the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia before switching his attention to final
preparations for January’s Dakar.
Chicherit has the pace to match the Dakar Rally front-runners and is relishing his new
South American challenge. The Tignes resident first competed in the African classic
in 2005 and finished 49th overall and has set several useful times on off-road events
in 2008.
Fifty-two-year-old Van Merksteijn is the oldest driver in the X-raid line-up, but the
Dutchman is also one of the most experienced. The Enschede pilot has vast experience in Dutch special stage rallying and circuit racing, including success in numerous long-distance GT races.
He returned to rallying two years ago and tackled several WRC rallies, in addition to
working on the 2006 Dakar Rally. He and Belgian co-driver Eddy Chevallier will need
to call upon all his experience for his maiden Dakar outing.
Chevallier also has extensive WRC experience and finished ninth overall in the truck
category of the Dakar Rally in 2004 and was leading the section with Hans Stacey in
2005 until engine failure robbed the pair of a potentially stunning result. In 2008,
Chevallier finished fourth overall in the Monte Carlo Rally with François Duval and
won the truck category in the Central Europe Rally.
Terranova tackled the Por Las Pampas Rally last season and will be doubly
determined to achieve a top finish in his native Argentina. Orlando is the main local
hope for success, is sure to attract massive local support and will be heavily reliant
on the vast experience of co-driver Alain Guehennec.
The Frenchman has partnered Al-Attiyah, former Dakar winner Pierre Lartigue,
former Group N world champion Grégoire de Mevius and X-raid’s former FIA World
Cup champion Khalifa Al-Mutawei in the past. This will be Guehennec’s 17th Dakar
Rally campaign.
Russian Leonid Novitskiy is one of the fastest improving drivers in off-road racing and
had been second overall in the early stages of the recent UAE Desert Challenge. He
and Oleg Tyupenkin will be hoping for a top five finish in the X-raid Russia-run BMW
X3 CC.
Dutchman René Kuipers completes the driver line-up. He has tackled several rallies
in Europe, including winning the Conrad Rally, finishing third in the Hellendoorn Rally
and fourth at the Lautzits event this year. His co-driver Filipe Palmeiro has
considerable cross-country rally experience and the Portuguese navigated for
Brazilian Paulo Nobre on previous X-raid team campaigns.
The X-raid Racing Team faces its toughest ever challenge if it is to emerge victorious
from the world’s most famous off-road rally. A provisional 230 bikes, 30 quads, 188
cars and 82 trucks from 49 countries will take part in the event, but X-raid will need to beat the might of the factory Volkswagen and Mitsubishi teams to stand a chance of taking an outright win in the car category for the first time.
The ever-improving BMW X3 CC has been a match for its factory rivals on several
events this season, with Al-Attiyah beating the factory Mitsubishis fair and square in
the Baja Spain and the X-raid car swapping fastest stage times with the Volkswagens
and Mitsubishis on the two rounds of the 2008 Dakar Series.
Dakar 2009 gets underway from the Argentina capital on January 3rd, with a short
liaison into a 371km special stage in the direction of Santa Rosa de la Pampa. This is
followed by specials across remote Argentinean agricultural land and barren
wasteland, taking in overnight stops at Puerto Madryn, Jacobacci, Neuquen and San
Rafael.
On January 8th the event reaches the Argentine city of Mendoza, before crossing the
border into Chile on the second longest day of the entire event on January 9th. This
section consists of 397km of liaison roads and a 419km special stage in the Andes
foothills en route to the Chilean Pacific coastal port of Valparaiso, which will also host
the traditional rest day on Saturday, January 10th.
Competitive action resumes in Chile on Sunday, January 11th with a 294km special
stage between Valparaiso and La Serena, using terrain similar to that used in the
former Patagonia-Atacama Rally. The route continues to head north through Chile
and into the Atacama Desert – the highest and driest desert in the world – where
teams will benefit from much needed rest at two successive overnight halts in
Copiapo.
The competitive action continues at high altitude as the route heads east towards the
Argentinean border and a rest at Fiambala, after a tricky section in excess of 4,700
metres above sea level. Once the rally has returned to Argentina, the competition
resumes with trails through sand dunes en route to La Rioja and on to more
traditional FIA World Cup tracks en route to Cordoba, Argentina’s second largest city,
on January 16th.
The final stage takes teams back to Buenos Aires on Saturday, January 17th for the
traditional fanfare welcome and ceremonial finish after 5,652 competitive kilometres
in a total route of 9,574km.
Dakar Rally 2009 – X-raid teams
302. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Tina Thorner (S) BMW X3 CC
306. Guerlain Chicherit (F)/Matthieu Baumel (F) BMW X3 CC
315. Orlando Terranova (RA)/Alain Guehennec (F) BMW X3 CC
316. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Oleg Tyupenkin (RUS) BMW X3 CC
318. Peter van Merksteijn (NL)/Eddy Chevallier (B) BMW X3 CC
330. Rene Kuipers (NL)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) BMW X3 CC
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