Rally Raid news & rumours

[alleskids]

I cannot find a good place for news and rumours concerning rally raids. Africa is the birthplace of rally raids, so it seems the perfect place to me. Besides a south AFRICAN won the Dakar rally and two Nissans bilth in South Africa became 4tth and 5th :) . Also two American drivers were on the rostrum, so what better place to discuss rally raids ? :)

Juta Kleinschmidt, the 2001 Dakar winner, is of the opinion that Le Dakar only can take place in Africa. She is on the edge of building up a new team, driving a Ford or a Nissan, probably built in South Africa. Marcus Gronholm on the other side, is very interested in Le Dakar because it is in not in Africa, but in South America. So we can look forward to a test and a rally for the 2 times world rally champion?

FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies 2009
UAE Desert Challenge 23-27 march
Tunisie Rally 23 april – 2 may
Transiberico Rallye (Portugal) 15 – 21 june

FIA World Cup for Cross Country Baja’s 2009
Baja Northern Forrest 26 februari - 1 march
Baja Italia 19-22 march
Baja Espana Aragon 23-26 july
Hungarian Baja 20-23 august
Baja Portalegre 22-25 october

other important rally raids
ASO Dakar series:PAX Rally some were in april
Rally dos Sertoes 23 june – 3 july
Por las Pampas Rally 3-12 september
ASO: Central Europe Rally somewere in september
Silk Way Rally 25 september- 3 october
Rallye des Pharaons 3-11 october
Shamrock Rallye du Maroc 24-30 october

[alleskids]

The board of CEO’s of Volkswagen has reacted positive about the Dakar victory and media coverage. But nothing has been decided about the future plans. If they continue they have to build a new version of the Touareg, based more on the production model. Nasser Al Attiyah is rumoured to race the VW. But he just has signed a new contract with X-Raid. He will start 2009 by doing the Baja Italian and the UAE Desert Challenge. His Russian colleague Leonid Novitsky will do all 3 rounds of the FIA Rally Cross Country Championship. Peter van Merksteijn wil also do a number of rallies.

Mitsubishi RalliArt will continue as a private team, like X-Raid. Providing technical assistants during the rallies and test and developing the Racing lancer, with permission of the factory. Carlos Sousa has become the first client. He wil do the Portuguese cross country championship (starting this weekend) and probarly the Dakar rally with sponsoring of TMN. Repsol is reported to be working on an other team. Joan Roma is the logical (first) driver, but maybe there will be an other driver. The second main sponsor, Valeo is reporting to be establishing a team with Frenchmen Luc Alphand and Stephane Peterhansel.

[alleskids]

This is the car Carlos Sousa wil use this weekend

[Wim_Impreza]

Thanks for the information. :)

Do you maybe know where we can find results of the 1st round of the Portuguese cross country championship?

[alleskids]

http://www.sigera.org/ervideira2009/
thanks Wim.
I hope we can share news (and rumours) about rally raid too on this forum. I occasionaly suffle true Spanish, Portugese and Russian sites to dig up rally raid news, but hopefully we can share it on an easier way here. Rally raids are more and more becoming an privateer opertunity. So any intersting news is welcom.

[alleskids]

Next thursday starts the Baja Northern Forrest in the snow of Sint Petersburg (Russia), the first round of the FIA Baja World Cup. Only 2 non Russian drivers are on the entrylist. One of them, Mirosklav Zapaltan will probarly do the entire baja world cup in a Mitsubishi L200. Defending Baja world cup winner Nasser Al Attiyah will be present during the second round, the Baja Italia.

http://www.northern-forest.ru/en/participants/entry-list

[alleskids]

Russian Boris Gadasin won the first round of the Baja World Cup on the snow of Sint Petersburg (Russia) in the Baja Northern Forrest. He came firs tin his Nissan for Rustan Misikov and Miroslav Zaplatan.
Gadasin will do the rest of the Baja World Cup in an Isuzu T2. The next round will be Baja Italian, were Nassar Al Attiyah wil be present with the X Raid BMW.

[White Sauron]

Russian Boris Gadasin won the first round of the Baja World Cup on the snow of Sint Petersburg (Russia) in the Baja Northern Forrest. He came firs tin his Nissan for Rustan Misikov and Miroslav Zaplatan.
Gadasin will do the rest of the Baja World Cup in an Isuzu T2. The next round will be Baja Italian, were Nassar Al Attiyah wil be present with the X Raid BMW.

Boris Gadasin will do the Cup in the same 7-litre Nissan GF edition, prepared by his team G-Force Motorsport. His main aim for the season is to try to beat Nasser Al Attiyah.

[alleskids]

I read in Portuguese media that Gadasin was buying a Isuzu D-Max from a Portuguese driver, Rui Sousa, to challange the T2 title. He changed his plans to an overal battle? That is even beter competition. Especially when he starts with a 15 points advantage.

[alleskids]

The ASO gave a glimp on the 2010 Dakar route. It will be a reversed route from this year rally, starting north, having more special stages in Chilis enourmous high dunes and returning into Argentina more in the middle, so loosing a big part of the southern special stages, which were to narrow and more WRC shape than rally raid.

[White Sauron]

I read in Portuguese media that Gadasin was buying a Isuzu D-Max from a Portuguese driver, Rui Sousa, to challange the T2 title. He changed his plans to an overal battle? That is even beter competition. Especially when he starts with a 15 points advantage.

The Isuzu D-Max was bought for the needs of his G-Force Motorsport team rather than his personal needs.

[alleskids]

Ok, thanks White Sauron, I though he wanted do drive the car himself. Does they have a driver in their mind do drive the Isuzu D-Max?

[White Sauron]

Ok, thanks White Sauron, I though he wanted do drive the car himself. Does they have a driver in their mind do drive the Isuzu D-Max?

At the moment the car is available for rent. Later (within this week) their web-site will be published with all information needed: http://www.gforce-motorsport.com

[alleskids]

Volkswagen will defend their Dakar title in 2010. The CEO of the board are surprised by the hugh publicity that VW got. Giniel de Villiers will agian be present, probarly also Mark Miller and Carlos Sainz. The WRC plans with the Corboda S2000 or an updated Polo S2000 have been frozen for some time.

[alleskids]

The rumours are getting stronger that Nasser Al Attiyah is moving from BMW X-Raid team to the factory Volkswagen Motorsport. X-Raid is going for the Dhubai Desert Challange with <only> the Russian crew of Leonid Novitsky and Dutchman Peter van Merksteijn. Al Attiyah had planed to do his almost home event (he is from Qatar and the rally raid is in the United Arab Emirats) but he, or X-Raid have changed the plans.

[White Sauron]

Dear alleskids,
here's the link to interview with Boris:
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/132-g-nissan1
The team's site is now working and will be publishing hot news from the Italian Baja.

[ZequeArgentina]

VW has been testing in north of Argentina this week (some of 2010 Dakar expected stages) with one Touareg. No information regarding who is the driver.

News regarding Nasser driving for V in dakar 2010 also informed by Ar media covering VW tests.

[alleskids]

Volkswagen Argentina confirmed 1 entry with a Race Touareg 2 before the officiale anouncement of VW Motorsport in Germany. So maybe it is a 5th Touareg with an Argentina driver :-).

[ZequeArgentina]

Humm, not so good. It must be Juan Pablo Raies who was promised an effort by VW Argentina to find hiem a possibility in a VW, but he is not good driver.
Never showed anything, he left Munchi´s WRC team after not showing anything good, and his participations in raids were not good at all.

Why is VW giving him a car???????

[urabus-denoS2000]

Because he has money.....

Sad truth my friend

[White Sauron]

You can follow the news from the Italian Baja on the web-site of G-Force Motorsport (Boris Gadasin's team):
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com

[White Sauron]

Here're some interesting news from Day 1 of the Italian Baja:
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/140-italian-baja-reportazh-o-pervom-dne-gonki-

[alleskids]

Yes. |Van Deijne won the SSS. Great news that he will drive a Pajero MPR13 :) . I am now looking for pictures of the car.

[White Sauron]

Yes. |Van Deijne won the SSS. Great news that he will drive a Pajero MPR13 :) . I am now looking for pictures of the car.

Well, being first car on the road today proved to be not an advantage. Tonnie got lost in the first stage and finished about 2 and a half minutes behind Boris Gadasin (who won the stage). But he said he liked the behaviour of his new Mitsubishi really much.
Gadasin, though, wasn't even pushing at all - he checked the notes. So probably he will be even faster on the next stage.

New directly from the route and the service park:
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/142-italian-baja-su2-van-dejn-terajet-preimushhestvo-

[ZequeArgentina]

Because he has money.....

Sad truth my friend

Not the case here.
They (Raies family as a whole) know how to move out of the car.
His brtoher Gabriel was really good, but not him.
They never put one USD in rallying, they live FOM rallying their whole life.

[Wim_Impreza]

Jacky Loomans is 8th after the third stage, not bad. Surprising that Giovanni Manfrinato is there.

[alleskids]

Giovanni Manfrinato has also done the Northern Forrest Baja

[alleskids]

This is the new car of Tonnie van Deijne, the Pajero MPR13. I do not know if they wil paint it more yellow, like they did with the L200. I must say it looks nice and agressive in black.
Alexandre Berkut (Russia) had already bought one, so has Guilherme Spinelli from Equipe Mitsubishi Brasil (Brasil). Spinelli will porbarly only do the Sertoes Rally before Dakar.
Now Nicolas Misslin has one too, the 2007 Dakar winning car. He will do Tunesie rally, Transiberico, Baja Aragon and Silk Way rally with JMB-Stradale Off Road.

[alleskids]

Congretulation to Gadasin/Demyanenko for winning the Italian Baja. They now have a 12 point lead in the Baja World Cup.
Gadasin 30 pts. Zapletal 18. Misilin 11. Mironenko 9. Van Deijne 7

[White Sauron]

New photos, news and quotes are available at http://www.gforce-motorsport.com.
Congratulations to all the prize-winners!

[alleskids]

Markko Martin is doing test with the BMW X3CC in the UAE Desert Challange at this moment. I believe it is the car of Leonid Novitsky, who had to cancel his rally due to a broken arm, or shoulder. His team and the car already were flown to UAE, so they used the oppertunity to test the former WRC rally winner. If X-Raid and Martin are both satisfied, Markko wil do rally raids with the X3CC.

[alleskids]

Schlesser Aventueres is switching to a Porsche engine. The buggy will make it's debut in the Tunesie Rallye from 24 april on. Appearently the deal with Ford has been over, and that Jean Louis Schlesser has had an engine of his own design the last years, which were very succesful with wins in Tunesie, Maroc and China.

[alleskids]

Frenchman Nicolas Misslin, a young miljonair from Marseille, has bought the Mitsubishi Motor Motorsport team. It includes all the remaining Pajero MPR's, Racing Lancers, crew and fascilities. Mislsin made his Dakar debut in 2002, being 10th, best privateers, made some succes in rally raids. In 2005 he quit rally raids and did Ferrari Challange and GT3. He will make his ccomeback in the Tunsie rally. Not as just a privateer in a Pajero MPR13, but now as a team owner.
Luc Alphand and Stephane Peterhansel had plans to do the Dakar rally with a downsized MMSP. Also Repsol was rumoured to start a team with Nani Roma, and maybe a second driver.

[alleskids]

Orlando Terranova has wonhis first (international) rally raid with the Rally Oilibya Tunesie. X-Raid had dominated the rally with 3 cars in the top 5. But Russian Leonid Novitsky had a heavy crash in the stage of friday. The crew had to be taken to hospital, something broken in the arms I believe.
Teranova has been leading for most of the rally. Lavaille is second in the Dessoude proto, Chicherit is third. He keeps his lead in the World Cup

[alleskids]

http://www.marathonrally.com/news/_al_attiyah_and_cruz_senra_new_in_volkswagen_team. 12266.0.html
Nasser Al Attiyah is confirmed as Volkswagen driver. He will team up with Timo Gotschak. Carlos Sainz will get a new codriver, Lucas Cruz, the former co of Nani Roma. The teams of De Villiers/Von Zitewitch and Miller/Pitchford will stay the same. Next round wil be the Silk Way Rally with 3 cars.

[White Sauron]

If you're interested in russian raids and want to know more about performances of some russian drivers known abroad (Gadasin, Misikov, Mironenko, others), you can read some interesting news from the 2nd round of our championship (first was the FIA Cup "Northern Forest") here:
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/177-baha-arelija-90-pylnyj-start-

[White Sauron]

Alleskids, you once asked about Isuzu which Gadasin acquired in Portugal. The car was then prepared in Russia by G-Force Motorsport and made its first appearance in russian rally-raids. There's more information from the driver: http://www.gforce-motorsport.com. Hope it's interesting for you and others.

[alleskids]

Nani Roma will race for X-Raid BMW in the Transiberico Rally and the Baja Espana Aragon. He will be navigated by Michel Perin, who swapped places with Lucas Cruz besides Carlos Sainz in the VW.
Pierre Lartigue will make a comeback. He will drive a Citroen C4 Proto in a Spanisch rally raid. That team Tot Curses will do the Rally of Maroc in spetember and probarly Dakar. Maybe with one of the great the legends of rally raids.

[Mirek]

Loprais Tatra Team confirmed to do Silk Way Rally in autumn (Russia - Kazakstan - Turkmenistan), also 11 (!) truck of Kamaz team are expectd together with De Rooy, Ginaf and MAN teams.

Baja300 Power Days show in Lausitz Germany (24-25th July) should show some top drivers in WRC, Buggys, Trophy Trucks and motorbikes. Already confirmed Petter Solberg, Galli, Block, Gassner jr., Marco Wallenwein (rally), Despres, Pilát (bike), Schwarz, Kremmer, Martin Christensen (buggy), Baldwin, Sullivan, Vildósola jr., James (power truck). Rumours about Gronholm, Kresta and others...

[White Sauron]

Nani Roma will race for X-Raid BMW in the Transiberico Rally and the Baja Espana Aragon. He will be navigated by Michel Perin, who swapped places with Lucas Cruz besides Carlos Sainz in the VW.
Pierre Lartigue will make a comeback. He will drive a Citroen C4 Proto in a Spanisch rally raid. That team Tot Curses will do the Rally of Maroc in spetember and probarly Dakar. Maybe with one of the great the legends of rally raids.

Thanks for great news, mate! Strong rivals are always good for competition!
PS: please check your private messages...

[White Sauron]

Volkswagen is testing this week with Nasser and Carlos in Hungary. somebody there to take photos?

[alleskids]

VW will do the Rally dos Sertoes again (23june-3 july). It will partly be for the news equipes of Al Attiyah/Gottschalk and Sainz/Cruz to <socialise> together. A third equipe will soon be confirmed

[alleskids]

http://www.dakar.com/2010/DAK/presentation/us/r3_5-le-parcours.html
The ASO revieled the route of the 2010 Dakar. It will go straith form the start on 1 januari to the hughs sand dunes of Chili.

[Mirek]

Beautiful photos from Dakar testing in Tunisia by Petr Lusk: http://www.ewrc.cz/ewrc/fotogalery.php?events=841&fotograf=2&all=1

[alleskids]

:) they surely know how to abuse their trucks and cars and bikes :) . Does he have a 650cc KTM?
KTM is with drawling back from the 2010 Dakar rally because the ASO is limiting the 650cc bikes al lot suddenly to give the 450cc and amateurs a beter change of winning the Dakar. KTM is pissed because they made preperations for the rally and have a lot of 650 material ready for clients and factory drivers.

[Mirek]

I don't know honestly. My knowledge of dakar motorcycles is very limited but I think that Czech riders use smaller bikes.

[alleskids]

Tjechie is a far greater force in cars and a big force in trucks :) . It is always a nice battle to watch between trucks from The Netherlands, Russia and Tjechie.

[JHvP]

KM Racing used large KTM this year, but I don´t know, what they will use in 2010.

[White Sauron]

Boris Gadasin's interview ahead of "Transiberico": http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/199-gadasin-trans1

[alleskids]

The third VOlkswaen Race Touareg in the Sertoes Rally (Brasil) will be driven bij Brasilians Mauricio Neves and navigator Eduardo Bampi. Neves is a very experienced driver in the Brasilan Cross Country rallies. Bambi drove with Klever Kolberg in the Petrobras Mitsubishi for many years. The other two crews are Carslos Sainz/Lucas Cruz and Nasser Al Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk. The Sertoes is from 23 june till 4 july.
The Rally dos Sertões is the first of two rallies Volkswagen will contest in preparation for the 2010 Dakar Rally. In addition to the event in Brazil, the factory team’s schedule includes the Silk Way Rallye through Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan from 5 to 13 September, which is organised by "Dakar” organiser A.S.O and provides a foretaste of the dune and sand stretches at the "Dakar”.

[Wim_Impreza]

After 4 of 8 special stages in the Rali Vodafone Transibérico, local mans and winners of 2005 Filipe Campos/Jaime Baptista leads the rallyraid in the BMW X3 CC from X-Raid. Second are Guerlain Chicherit/Tina Thörner with also a BMW X3 CC from X-Raid. Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz are third with a Mitsubishi Racing Lancer.

[White Sauron]

A lot of good photos from Transiberico available here: http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/home/fotografii/?g2_itemId=1128

[alleskids]

Stephane Peterhansel has signed with the X-Raid BMW team. He will probalry make his debut with the X3CC in the Baja Espana Aragon (23-26 july).
Luc Alphand was rumoured to have signed too, but his heavy crash with a motorbike in a France rally has been very bad, probarlry his neck/back injured very much.

[alleskids]

Carlso Sainz has won the rally dos Sertoes in Brasil. He switched position many times with Nasser Al Attiyah, there closest difference was 4 seconds. Finally Sainz won with 1 minute lead, after 2605 km of stages. The 10 special stages were almost equaly split between the two.
The team's next chalange is the Silk Way Rally in september, in Russia. Nasser Al Attiyah has asked to start in the Baja Espana Aragaon (23-26 july).

[White Sauron]

News from the International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas leading team ahead of the 3rd round:
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/215-g-force-proto-pered-bahoj-ispanii-testy-dorabotki-nastrojka-

[White Sauron]

Some news from the Spanish Baja:

http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/221-baha-ispanii-prolog-i-ne-tolko-

Do you think that BMW is still unpbeatable, or "shakedown" means nothing? ;)

[White Sauron]

Well, answering on my own question they are...
Anyway, here're for you the latest news from the Aragon Spanish Baja:
http://www.gforce-motorsport.com/en/press-centr/news/222-baha-ispanii-subbota-

Description of events and some good photos.

[alleskids]

Dutchman Tonnie van Deijne has won the 2009 Hungarian Baja in his Mitsubishi Pajero MPR13,. Yes! :-). It was a hard fight with Boris Gadasin and Palik. Unfortunaly Gadasin was excluding because of his suspencion? It keeps the Baja Cup very close for the last round in the Baja Portelegre (Portugal)
Gadasin 30 points
Zapletal 27
Van Deijne 26

[Mirek]

Very nice gallery from Silk Way Rally by Petr Lusk: http://www.ewrc.cz/ewrc/fotogalery.php?events=884&fotograf=2&all=1

[alleskids]

The ASO seems to have some serieus financiel problems and the route for the 2010 Dakar had to be redirected because of fear for the Mexican flu, the rally being forbidden to pas trough a state, plus the low number of entries.
Has any one heard more of it?

[White Sauron]

Ok, here's the provisional calendar of the Bajas Cup for 2010:


FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas

16 - 18/02 Hail Baja 2010
25 - 28/02 Baja Russia -Northern Forest
18 - 21/03 Italian Baja
23 - 25/07 Baja EspaЯa Aragon 2010
26 - 29/08 HunGarian Baja
14 - 17/10 24 Baja Portalegre 500

And now please tell me WTF there're only 7 days between the Saudi Arabian and the Russian races. From my own experience I know that it takes minimum 12 (!) days to deliver a car by ship from the western shore of Saudi Arabia to a port in Europe (France or Italy). Then it's 3-4 more days to bring them by trailer to Russia. And where's the sense? Those competitors who have only one car, will have to choose between the two events. And what do you think they'll choose - a familiar sand or unfamiliar snow? And even for those who can spare two cars (like Zapletal), it will not be interesting to send them to different places at the same time - I'm not sure it will be even safe for him and his team to switch from HOT and SAND to COLD and SNOW within just a few days...
I understand they moved the Saudi Arabian event for the Dakar benefit, but it severely punishes the organisers of Northern Forest...

[alleskids]

Jan de Rooy is ending his rally carriere. He finds it unproperite to spend millions of euro's on his rally hobby while the transport company is suffering from the economic crisis. Gerard de Rooy has decided not to do rallies either for a while. So no Gerard and Jan de Rooy in Dakar/ Africa race. Also no Hans Stacey in Dakar either. So kamaz has a free ride in Dakar :( :)

[White Sauron]

Boris Gadasin and G-Force Motorsport win the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas 2009!!!! For more details please visit http://www.gforce-motorsport.com

PS: Today Boris' self-made G-Force Proto was faster than both semi-works diesel BMWs!

[alleskids]

Too bad for Toinnie van Deijne to crash on the first day :( . He had the FIA trophy in his hands after the engine problems of Boris Gadasin.
Gerard de Rooy will stil be present in Dakar, but only as a teammanger. Jospeh Adua is hiring the Iveco truck from the De Rooy Team. 1988 Le Mans 24 hours winner Jan Lamers will drive the Ginaf truck, replacing Frits van Eerd.

[Tom206wrc]

Subaru to take part to DAKAR 2010 accross south America :confused:

[ZequeArgentina]

Yes two Subarus on the dakar:

exactly it is an Argentinean effort.
It is a semi T1 prototype, why semi? because it is highly based in the production vehicle: body starts with the original body, with a tubular chasis added, gearbox is subaru standaqrd (form the 2,5 turbo Forester) and engine is the 2.0 turbo gasoline engine, in which the team has high experience with as the have plenty of goup N Imprezzas running for several years.

The constructor is Baratec (Barattero brothers) which are no amateurs at all.
They have plenty of experience in building rally cars, experts in suspenssions (their struts and shock absorvers are sold worlwide, even in USA their brand RSSP are well used in Subarus and Mitsubishis).
They have been chosen form Subaru (STI, their racing divission) as one of the six worlwide development partners for Subaru group N, and supply parts as ST original parts.

Regarding their Dakar effort, it started with th OK from Subaru Japan, but after the crisis subaru informed that their support will not mean money nor parts (really retired their effort), the project was somehow stopped.
They decided to keep it on their own with lower scope (2 cars in stead of 4, self development, less tests).
Budget is very limited (for a Dakar) with 1,8 million USD inlcuding all tedevelopment.


They were able to keep development andwill have 3500 km of tests, not the ideal but something.

They found support form Indumotora, (subaru distributor in Argentina and Chile) and local oil company (YPF) and are able to run the Dakar with two drivers:
Ikemachi: japanese driver with experience in dakar (6 times, only n Africa)
Pozzo: argentinean driver, group N world champion in WRC in 2001. Great experinece in rally, not in raids (only run lat year with a fist tim in dakar team, and ended early wih a broken engine).The project is a long term one, I do not expect a good result this year, they may choose a favourable stage or 2 and will try to show speed