vide poche !

Hungarian Baja: Overdrive BE with three Toyota Hilux and Nasser Al Attiyah

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah joins the "Team Orlen" duo of Marek Dabrowski and Adam Malysz to drive three Overdrive Racing Toyota Hiluxes in this weekend’s [ HUNGARIAN BAJA], round seven of the 2014 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. The event is based at the historic baroque town of Pápa in Veszprém county and takes place on August 14-16.

Al-Attiyah returns to the team with whom he won the Saudi Arabian Ha’il Baja and will drive a car similar to the one he plans to drive at the 2015 Dakar Rally. The Qatari has experimented with several cars this season, but is relishing the prospect of adding to the 106 points he has already scored in this year’s FIA World Cup that have catapulted him into third place in the points’ standings behind Russian driver Vladimir Vasilyev (X-raid Mini) and Saudi Arabian rival Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota Hilux). Al-Attiyah – winner of the Hungarian event in 2008 - will again be co-driven by the experienced Frenchman Matthieu Baumel.

Dabrowski and Malysz hold fourth and sixth in the FIA World Cup standings in the Team Orlen Toyotas and head to Hungary with their respective Polish co-drivers Jacek Czachor and Rafal Marton. The pair have achieved several consistent results this season with the V8-powered Hiluxes that are run by the Belgian Overdrive team in conjunction with Hallspeed of South Africa.

"We are delighted to welcome Nasser back to the team," said Overdrive Racing’s team director Jean-Marc Fortin. "He will be with Overdrive Racing and Toyota in Hungary and Poland, for sure. We have a strong three-car line-up and will be pushing hard for the win. Nasser needs to get back into contention for the championship and what better way to do that than to take a win in Hungary."

The Overdrive Racing team’s best result to date on the Hungarian Baja was third overall for the Venezuelan driver Nunzio Coffaro last year. Main rivals for the Overdrive trio this weekend include championship leader Vasilyev, Czech Miroslav Zapletal, Russian Boris Gadasin, Pole Krzysztof Holowczyc and the Argentinean Orlando Terranova.

Administration checks will take place at the Varasi Sportcsarnak on Thursday afternoon (August 14) and Friday (August 15) morning, before the ceremonial start and the first 55.5km stage take place on Friday evening.

Four timed selective sections of 73.5 km, 120.5 km, 73.5 km and 120.5 km are planned for Saturday (August 16), before the event reaches a conclusion with the prize giving ceremony at the Varasi Sportcsarnak in Pápa on Saturday evening.

FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies – positions after round 6

01. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS) I Mini All4 Racing I 171 pts
02. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) I Overdrive Toyota I 120 pts
03. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QT) I Overdrive Toyota I 106 pts
04. Marek Dabrowski (PL) I Overdrive Toyota I 83 pts
05. Miroslav Zapletal (CZ) I Hummer H3 Evo I 74 pts
06. Adam Malysz (PL) I Overdrive Toyota I 68 pts
07. Reinaldo Varela (BRA) I Overdrive Toyota I 56 pts
08. Erik van Loon (NL) I Mini All4 Racing I 48 pts 

quel coffre !

Rally dos Sertões: More than 100 car and truck competitors in Brazilian rally.

Dunas Race, organizer of [ RALLY DOS SERTOES ] in Brazil, released the entry list for the 22th edition in the categories Cars and Trucks. The event, which will have its start on August 24th in Goiânia and the arrival on the 30th in Belo Horizonte, will feature 45 vehicles and 90 competitors between cars and five trucks and 12 competitors in the category of "giants "of the rally.

The Entry list can be seen [ HERE ]. Apart from cars and trucks, the Sertões also has the contest categories motorbikes, quads and UTVs and will soon be disclosed the subscribers list.

Among the cars a lot of newness and expectation of a fierce fight between the top names in the national off-road. In the main category, the FIA T1, there will be four "super machines" and the strong Brazilian teams will accelerate the for the championship title.

Biggest winner of the race in the car category, the four-time champion Guilherme Spinelli from Brazil is one of them. After two runner-ups followed, besides the browser Youssef Haddad in the Mitsubishi Petrobras team, they want the title back. Partners for five years, they won two Sertões and hope to repeat it this season with the model Mitsubishi ASX Racing.

But for that, they will have to overcome other weight pairs: Reinaldo Varela, holder of a rally world title and also Rally dos Sertões champion, will be the browser side Gustavo Gugelmin to the staff Divino Fogao Rally Team / Overdrive with a Toyota Hilux; the staff of South Africa Rally X / NWM also arrives strong enough to fight with Mark Baumgart / Kleber Cincea and Cristian Baumgart / Alley Andreotti, with Ford Ranger models.

In Prototypes categories - T1 and T3 will be 11 vehicles, including the current champions Rafael and João Antonio Franciosi Capoani, which run through the Mitsubishi Ralliart Team Brasil with a L200 Triton SR. In Super Production, Glauber Fontoura and Minae Miyauti will also defend the current championship aboard a Mitsubishi Triton ERS. Already in Pro Brasil, will be eight cars in the race, with various brands and prototypes.

With three entered the Production - T2 will have one of the novelties this year: The return of the Suzuki competition. The brand - which won the first title of the Rally between cars in 1995 - have two pairs: Julian Diener / Gilson Rocha and Marcelo Mendes / Luis Felipe Eckel, who will pilot a Suzuki Jimny. The other car in the race category will be a Toyota FJ Cruiser dual Kffuri Marcus and Rodrigo Czech.

And closing the modality cars, the big highlight is the new Production category T2/TR4, which will feature 11 cars in competition. Created to encourage the rally base in the country, it attracted a good number of participants, which was the initial goal of Dunas Race to launch the project.

The truck category, which always draws attention wherever goes and surprises with the speed of these "giants" of the Rally, has five teams entered, two triples and three doubles. Two six-time champion are among the favorites: Edu Piano - current champion - will be aboard a Ford Cargo 1933 4x4 beside Solon Mendes and Antonio Carlos de Sales; and Guido Salvini Netto, who was the second place in 2013, shares the Mercedes Benz Atego 1725 4x4 with browsers Fernando and Flavio Bisi Chwaigert.

The modality will still have three teams with trucks Ford F4000: Fábio Freire / Fabio Rocha, Felicio Bragante / Ricardo Costa and Garcia Kenner / Rafael Dal Bello.

In addition to Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, five cities will receive the caravan Sertões in 2014. Of these five, three are to host the rally for the first time, Catalão (GO), Paracatu (MG) and São Francisco (MG). Complete the route, Caldas Novas (GO) and Diamantina (MG), which have received the Sertões in other editions.

Before leaving for the special stage, the competitors still compete at the prologue in Goiania on August 23rd, with the promotional start in the same evening, at the renovated International Goiania speedway.

Schedule Dos Sertões Rally Brazil 2014

23/08 - Prologue - Goiânia (GO)
24/08 - SS01 - Goiânia (GO) / Caldas Novas (GO)
25/08 - SS02 - Caldas Novas (GO) / Catalão (GO)
08/26 - SS03 - Catalão (GO) / Paracatu (MG)
27/08 - SS04 - Paracatu (MG) / San Francisco (MG)
28/08 - SS05 - San Francisco (MG) / Diamantina (MG) - MARATHON
29/08 - SS06 - Diamantina (MG) / Diamantina (MG)
30/08 - SS07 - Diamantina (MG) / Belo Horizonte (MG)