We’re on Our Way to Morocco to Join the Libya Rally 2015
17.4.2015
Our racing team has set off to Morocco. With our „Dakar“ special we are about to start in the opening stage of the Libya Rally. The race track stretches over nearly two and a half thousand kilometres and we will have seven days to get to the finish in the city of 1001 nights, the imperial seat of Marrakech.
„We sent only one racing special to Morocco. The other stayed in our technology centre. After Dakar we made a number of changes and modifications that we need to test in actual racing conditions. Therefore, a good result is not the ultimate objective of our mission, though naturally we’re going to do our best to see how the technology will respond,“ commented out team’s boss Mario Kress.
Following our return from the Dakar Rally our technical team made some considerable changes to the racing special. They focused on optimizing weight distribution over the entire truck, the engine output increased by a hundred HP and the team has now been testing new Dutch shock-absorbers by Reiger, too. “We were exceptionally happy with how the Dakar debut went and with the performance of our truck overall. There isn’t a better feeling than when you know that your truck is actually able to keep up with the best ones. Now we are hard at work on getting ahead of them,“ gave us a wink Mario, who is going to experience the upcoming Libya Rally in the role of a crew mechanic.
Our team sent its black-and-red truck to the rally’s location at the end of last week. The rest of the team including the mechanics and Mario flew in on Tuesday. On Thursday technical and administrative scruteneering are on schedule and on Friday the race is going to open with stage one. The cabin of our truck competing with the endorsement by and in the colours of the Mammoet Rallysport team will carry the experienced pilot Martin van den Brink, his co-pilot Peter Willemsen and our very own Mario as the crew mechanic. A total of one hundred and twelve crews will start in the Libya Rally. Right at the beginning the trucks are going to face the longest test of the rally, as Stage 1 from the medieval royal city of Fez to Bouarfa stretches over 660 km. In total, the crews will need to overcome two thousand five hundred kilometres to get to the finish in Marrakech, the city of 1001 nights, the legendary market place with hundreds of minarets and a vibrant night life. But first the racing specials will need to tackle numerous technical tracks, pitfalls of the Atlas mountain range, long and fast flat lands and vast African planes, salt lakes and, of course, many sand dunes. “The track is rather varied and reminds one of the old legendary stages of the Paris-Dakar rally. This makes it the ideal test track for our purpose,“ added Mario.
Libya Rally 2015:
17. 4. – Stage 1: Fez – Bouarfa (660 km)
18. 4. – Stage 2: Bouarfa – Merzouga (235 km)
19. 4. – Stage 3: Merzouga – Mhamid (345 km)
20. 4. – Stage 4: Mhamid – Mhamid (210 km)
21. 4. – Stage 5: Mhamid – Tissint (370 km)
22. 4. – Stage 6: Tissint – Ouarzazate (280 km)
23. 4. – Stage 7: Ouarzazate – Marrakech (290 km)
