A total of 12 MINI ALL4 Racing cars are currently taking on the 2016 Dakar Rally in Argentina, the brand recently announced. In what is seen as a record entry, the 15-day racing event sees a total of five teams from Axion X-raid, Van Loon Racing, X-raid, Orlen and Perfect China Health 100 Yong in MINI ALL4 Racing cars.
Team Axion X-raid pairings include, Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-pilot Mathieu Baumel, Joan Roma and Alex Haro, Orlando Terrannova and Bernardo Graue and Mikko Hirvonen and co-driver Michel Perin. In the X-raid team is Boris Garafulic and Filipe Palmeiro, Harry Hunt and Andreas Schulz, Stephen Schott and Holm Schmidt and lastly, Nazareno Lopez and co-driver, Sergio Lafuente.
On the Orlen team, driver Adam Malysz teams up with Xavier Panseri, while Jakub Przygonski pairs up with Andre Rudnitski. Van Loon Racing sees Erik van Loon and co-driver Wouter Rosegaar, while Perfect China Health 100 Yong Team has Guo Meiling pairs up with co-driver Min Liao. MINI hopes to achieve a fifth Dakar Rally win with the said line-up.
The timed prologue on January 2 was cancelled as Guo Meiling hurtled off the road, uncontrollably at Arrecifes, near Rosario, hitting spectators. The incident saw a total of eight injured, including three children and a pregnant woman. Things didn’t look up after that as Stage 1 of the rally on January 3, the next day, had to be cancelled as well, due to bad weather, Reuters reports.
Etienne Lavigne, race director stated that helicopters which were needed to guarantee the safety of participants were unable to fly. The setback was due to thunderstorms that set in from Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz. It’s a dramatic start to the 2016 Dakar Rally, which comprises 9,500 km in total. The route starts in Argentina, goes through Bolivia and ends back in Argentina.
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Team AXION X would have a different meaning in Malaysia! :)