The Dakar Series kick off next Sunday 20th April, a new competition which is supported by ASO, the organising company, and which bears the legendary Dakar signature. It will start next Sunday from the capital of Hungary – Budapest -, and will include the participation of Repsol riders Marc Coma and Jordi Viladoms on motorbikes, and Nani Roma, Luc Alphand, Hiroshi Masuoka and Stéphane Peterhansel in cars.
Seven days of competition in a totally different race to what the Dakar traditionally was, as this time it is held in Central Europe, and will be substantially different to a Raid-Rally in the desert. Neither will it be similar to an enduro or baja race, as this time navigation resources will play an important role. In short, this is a new competition, which will most likely prove to be tough and full of uncertainty. The Rally will finish on the shores of Lake Balaton, in Hungary, on Saturday 26th April.
Last week, Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart officially anounced the debut in this event of the new turbo-diesel version of the highly successful Montero Evolution, cross-country rallying’s most successful car with a record 12 Dakar wins to its name since 1985. The new 2,997cc V6 powerplant benefits from Mitsubishi’s longstanding expertise in the field of advanced diesel technologies, ranging from low compression ratios to high-pressure fuel injection.
Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart has also decided to take a lead by enhancing its environmentally responsible approach to its competition activities in association with its key partners, Repsol, Valeo and BFGoodrich, all of whom stand out as pioneers in their specific domains when it comes to protecting the planet. ‘Now, our motor sports activity has taken a step up to establish the environmentally-friendly engineering strategy of Mitsubishi Motors’ underlines MMSP SAS’s new president, Osamu Nakayama.
Repsol sees the arrival of diesel power for the Montero Evolution MPR14 as an ideal opportunity to bring its latest research developments into efficient fuels in general and non-food sourced biodiesel in particular to the table. Indeed, the Spanish-based oil and gas firm’s efforts in this field contributed to its recent nomination as a ‘Gold Class’ company in the Sustainability Yearbook 2008 compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sustainable Asset Management (SAM), an independent company tasked with conducting the annual assessments for the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart will participate in the Central Europe Rally with a line-up of four Mitsubishi Montero Evolutions, including one MPR14 powered by the latest V6 diesel engine and crewed by Hiroshi Masuoka/Pascal Maimon (Japan/France), plus three MPR13s for Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard (France), Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret (France), and Joan Nani Roma/Lucas Cruz (Spain).
‘Our 2008 programme has been tailored to prepare for our new challenge which is to contest the 2009 Dakar with our new diesel-engined car,’ says Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Director Dominique Serieys. ‘Our schedule will initially take us to three events: the inaugural Central Europe Rally [Hungary and Romania], the Transiberico [Portugal] and the Baja España. Exact driver line-ups for the Portuguese and Spanish fixtures will be announced shortly, as will the team’s programme for the second half of the season.
Team Repsol KTM, with Marc Coma and Jordi Viladoms
In order to prepare for this race, Marc Coma and Jordi Viladoms have continued with training and have been working on aspects of navigation, in addition to actual physical preparation at the gym and on the bike. The team traveled to the south of France to test engines, chassis, suspensions, and to decide upon the best setup for this competition. The final decision was to race with the raid-rally bike, though with smaller fuel-tanks. They have also mounted a lighter chassis, and have sought to reduce the volume of the bike as much as possible, to make it easier to handle. The engine will remain unchanged, as the fast stages require a good deal of power, and bearing in mind that this bike was designed for racing in desert sands, the big question is which bike will adapt the best to this race.
Marc Coma and Viladoms’ rivals in this test will be mainly the same as in the Dakar, though once again, as this is a new type of race, no one knows who will adapt the best. However, the aim is still to win, despite the fact that they will start off uncertain as to how this singular event will develop. With so many unknown variables and the prospect of facing stages with very muddy, wet and even snowy tracks, the possibility that an unknown rider on an enduro bike may find himself in ideal conditions to make the most of his strong points is real. All these doubts will be cleared next Saturday 26th April.
