IN three days time, on the 4 January 2015, MINI ALL4 Racing (already two-time winners with the X-raid team) will start campaigning three highly-modified Countrymans in one of the toughest-ever long distance races – the world-famous Dakar Rally.
The route of this mammoth 9,000km trips crosses the dust, dunes and deserts of South America, passing through Chile and Bolivia along the way and finishing in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 17 January 2015.
Reigning Spanish-French duo Joan “Nani” Roma (ES) and his co-driver Michel Périn (FR) have one goal to achieve in their Countryman ALL4 Racing: to hold on to the Dakar Rally championship.
The rest of the X-raid team is made up of the experienced driver pairings of Argentinians Orlando Terranova and Bernardo “Ronnie” Graue, plus the Polish/French duo of Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri who complete the line-up. There will also be five customer driver pairings in MINI ALL4 Racing cars built by the German-based X-raid GmbH.
“The Dakar Rally is the ultimate challenge for all drivers and teams, making it one of the most enthralling events in the world of motorsport. MINI has taken on this unique challenge with great success in recent years and has played a major role in the history of
the rally,” said Jochen Goller, Senior Vice President MINI.