2012 Dakar - 1-15 Jan 12

MINI congratulates the X-raid Team and Stéphane Peterhansel on their victory at the 2012 Rally Dakar.

Posted: January 17, 2012 12:32 PM

Stéphane Peterhansel (FR) and his co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret (FR) have made it. At the end of the last of 14 demanding stages, the duo and its green MINI ALL4 Racing car was confirmed as the winner of the legendary Rally Dakar in a time of 38h 54m 46s. This was Peterhansel’s tenth victory at the “Dakar”. He has already claimed six titles on a motorcycle, and now has four wins in the car category to his name.

Dr. Kay Segler, Senior Vice President, MINI Brand Management and Business Coordination, said:
“On behalf of MINI, I would like to congratulate Stéphane Peterhansel, his co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret and the entire X-raid Team on their triumph at the 2012 Rally Dakar. To stand on the top step of the podium on ten occasions after the toughest rally in the world is quite simply an unbelievable achievement. Sven Quandt’s team has once again proven its class with all five MINI ALL4 Racings finishing in the top ten.”

Joan “Nani” Roma (ES) and Michel Périn (FR), also driving a MINI ALL4 Racing, finished runner-up to complete a one-two for the German Monster Energy X-raid Team. When the rally came to a close in Lima, Peru, the gap between the two leading MINI cars was nearly 42 minutes.

Results

Posted: January 17, 2012 12:28 PM

Dakar Rally

Nasser Al Attiyah to drive Hummer

Posted: December 11, 2011 9:10 PM

Car number 300 that is usually kept for the title holder will finally be present at the start of the 2012 Dakar. It will indeed be set on a Hummer that Nasser Al Attiyah will be driving for Team Robby Gordon, with Lucas Cruz as his co-driver.

"As of now, everyone will know where Qatar is on the map of the world", those were the words of Nasser Al Attiyah after capturing his first victory on the Dakar last January in Buenos Aires. Achieving his dream after a fantastic battle with team mate Carlos Sainz, the flying Qatari was forced to settle with the strategic choices of Volkswagen that left him without a steering wheel after retiring from off-road rallies. Always keen for new projects, Al Attiyah bounced back once again in style and will live a rather busy 2012 year, including a WRC season, the London Olympics in shooting and of course a mouth-watering start with the Dakar where he will defend his title in a … Hummer!

His name was announced or whispered in all the title-contending teams, but it will finally be as Robby Gordon's team mate that Al Attiyah will start the 2012 Dakar. And Qatar hasn't finished gaining in notoriousness: indeed the Hummer H3 that will be prepared for him by the North Carolina based team will be carrying the colours of his country.
"The thought of not doing the Dakar almost made me sick but things eventually turned around. It's fantastic because it's a new challenge for me and I'm proud of being able to represent Qatar", insisted a delighted Nasser who doesn't forget that his main goal will be to manage a double on the Dakar, a performance that only Ari Vatanen has achieved in two different cars (1990-1991 / Peugeot-Citroën). Until now, the best performance of the Hummer was third spot back on the 2009 Dakar when Gordon had only been beaten by the Race Touareg VWs of Giniel De Villiers and Mark Miller. With a virtuoso of the calibre of Al Attiyah and a totally new panorama in terms of title contenders, all hopes are alive.

Entry List

Posted: November 8, 2011 5:08 PM

2012 Dakar - 1-15 Jan 12 - ENTRY LIST (Cars)

Dakar Rally

BRITAIN’S ALL-PROFESSIONAL DAKAR RALLY TEAM IS BACK ON TRACK(S)

Posted: September 23, 2011 9:36 PM

The Excite Rallye Raid Team has announced its driver and equipment line up for 2012 and also for the 2013 Dakar Rally: the team will be running 3 vehicles specially commissioned from RaBe Race Cars, driven by Martin Rowe, John Hardy and Andrew Coley. (Driver biographies are detailed below in Editor’s notes).

Poole-based Excite Rallye Raid is the only professional, all-British Dakar Rally team to beentering the gruelling Dakar Rally in 2013.

In fact, Excite Rallye Raid Team is the first professional, all-British team to ever set itssights on the Dakar Rally.

The team combines world class drivers with an experienced management, marketing and support crew, working with the tough and reliable RaBe Race Cars vehicle to fly the flag for Great Britain in the spirit of all the great British explorers and adventurers from history.

Business Manager David Jones says:
“We’ve been working on this project for a long time; we haven’t disappeared, but we have had to change our approach due to the economic climate everyone is working in. We looked at the level of media coverage for rally raid events, and recognised that if we wanted to secure the necessary backing, we first needed to secure the coverage, across all forms of media - and with some really unique ideas, we’re confident we’ve now done that.

We were approached by a manufacturer, RaBe Race Cars, whose staff have been around the sport for a long time. They’ve been monitoring our progress for a couple of years and on seeing our professional approach, they asked if we could work together. We have goals that we would like to achieve which we can each assist the other with, so we have now set our sights a bit higher. Of course, this fits perfectly with our other goal of achieving the right level of financial backing.”

Mike Jones of RaBe Race Cars says:
“RaBe Race Cars has years of off-road motorsport experience at every level, from club to International works teams. In fact we have a family motorsport tree that is celebrating its 100th Anniversary of continuous motorsport involvement in 2012. The last 15 years have been devoted to Desert racing and achieving not just a finish but top honours at Dakar. Little known outside of the bivouac of Dakar, we have built cars for many other teams who race under their own colours and logos.

The partnership with the Excite Rally Raid Team is part of our desire to push our skills to the top of our sport.

The road to developing a serious car has been as tough as the race itself. After 4 years of testing and development, we now have a car that can stand up against any of its peers. The five prototypes have already competed at three different Dakars, achieving a mechanical finish reliability rate of 100%. With this reliability and the knowledge gained from testing in Morocco, we will be able to focus on the fine tuning of the D4_WN5 production version to leap into the world rally raid spotlight. This is a very serious Dakar car, and we are very pleased to combine our skills with the Excite Rally Raid Team for a serious attempt at Dakar.

The Excite rally team bring all the extra pieces together to help us move forward and have a serious all-British attempt at a podium finish and ultimately a world championship crown. We very much like the skills that the Excite team are bringing from a wide range of other motorsports and all the key members of the combined effort bring something very unique to the wider team. The 2012 season will be a great year for the Excite rally team and UK motorsport fans will see a lot more of a massive global sport that they all know and love…. the Dakar Rally.”

Team Principal and Driver John Hardy says:
“This is the best chance an independent manufacturer team has had to perform at the top level in a long time. We hope that we may be able to work towards a very good result on the Dakar in 2013 and then, next time around, why not shoot for overall honours?! We have always intended, and still intend, to give it our very best shot!”

The Excite team’s preparations and training programme are ongoing at the present time and the next significant target is to participate in several off-road rallies in 2012 to help with the car’s development and to build up time in the new vehicle before taking on the Dakar Rally in 2013.

Excite Rallye Raid is currently in partnership talks with several global brands, but the team would love to be backed by a British sponsor to round off the all-British package.

Event Website / Details

Posted: May 20, 2011 12:33 PM

Dakar Rally