- Five MINI All4 Racing and three BMWs X3 CC to go for it in the Dakar
- Competitive team wants the Dakar win
Team X-raid will field a record line-up in 2012 Dakar which will lead from Argentina through Chile to Peru. A total of eight vehicles entered by the German squad – five MINIs All4 Racing and three BMWs X3CC – will compete in the legendary event that will be started in Mar del Plata, Argentina. And with Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA)/Jean-Paul Cottret (FRA), Nani Roma (ESP)/Michel Perin (FRA) and Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Jean Marc Fortin (BEL), the X-raid line-up features at least three driver pairings that have got what it takes to win the Dakar, with their MINI All4 Racing.
Team X-raid’s line-up is completed by Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Andi Schulz (GER) and Ricardo Leal dos Santos (POR)/Paulo Fiuza (POR) who also will contest the event with the MINI All4 Racing. Meanwhile, the three BMWs X3 CC will be raced by the pairings Duos Boris Garafulic (CHI)/Gilles Picard (FRA), Alexander Mironenko (RUS)/Sergey Lebedev (RUS) and Stephan Schott (GER)/Holm Schmidt (GER).
Team X-raid is going to turn the desert into a colourful place, in January, with the five MINI All4 Racing contesting the 2012 Dakar in different, striking liveries: Stéphane Peterhansel und Jean-Paul Cottret have set themselves the goal to battle it out at the very front end of the field, with their green ‘Monster Energy MINI All4 Racing’. The nine-time Dakar winner is fiercely determined to celebrate his 10th Dakar triumph and cross the finish line in Lima, Peru, as the 2012 Dakar winner.
Their team-mate Nani Roma will attack together with his co-pilot Michel Périn in a yellow ‘Monster Energy MINI All4 Racing’. The Spaniard already has celebrated a motorbike win in the Dakar and now wants to polish up his CV by adding a Dakar win or a podium place on four wheels to his record. With Krzysztof Holowczyc and Jean-Marc Fortin, racing an ORLEN MINI All4 Racing in the livery of the Pole’s main sponsor, there is a third competitive pairing representing X-raid. With boosted self-confidence following their wins in the 2011 Silk Way Rally and the 2011 Baja Poland, they certainly also want to become a factor in the fight for the overall win.
Meanwhile, Leonid Novitskiy will race – together with his German navigator Andi Schulz – the orange Monster Energy MINI All4 Racing and is keen on demonstrating the experience he gathered as two-time FIA World Cup winner. While Ricardo Leal dos Santos and Paulo Fiuza will contest the Dakar with the red Monster Energy MINI All4 Racing. Dos Santos has got many years of Dakar experience under his belt and could make it to the top 10 again as last year.
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