MINI’s ‘Famous Five’…

Thursday, 29 December 2011

backtonews

In its bid to claim its first Dakar success, the X-Raid team has entered no fewer than five MINI ALL4 Racings which will be in the hands of battle-hardened drivers. All five will be competing on BFGoodrich All-Terrain+ tyres.

The Sven Quandt-run German operation has high hopes for this year's Dakar. With nine previous wins to his name, Stéphane Peterhansel stands out as the obvious team leader. The Frenchman won last April's Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for Mini and came second on the Silk Way Rally behind Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc.

A former European Rally Champion (1997), Holowczyc began cross-country rallying in the Noughties. This will be his seventh Dakar start, while he has already won two rallies in a MINI ALL4 Racing: the Silk Way Rally and Baja Poland. Holowczyc will be the team's number two driver.

Spain's Nani Roma is 'number three'. After winning the 2005 Dakar on two wheels, he spent several years as works driver for Mitsubishi. To prepare for January's marathon, Nani came third on the Rally Oil Lybia, which was won by Leonid Novitskiy, Team X-Raid's fourth driver.

After securing the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup in 2010, the Russian successfully defended his title this year thanks to a victory on Baja Hungary, second place on Baja Italy and fifth place on the Baja Portalegre.

Last but not least, the team's line-up is rounded off by Ricardo Leal Dos Santos, who came seventh on the 2011 Dakar and fourth on this year's Baja Portalegre.

The five MINI ALL4 Racings will feature different liveries: 'Toxic Green' for Peterhansel's car (N°302), 'MINI Orange' for Novitskiy (N°312), yellow for Roma (N°305) and red for Dos Santos (N°309). Holowczyc will fly the colours of his personal partners.