Press Release 2_2018
Among the XT+ crews in competition, the Spaniards Peña Campos and Tornabell Cordoba, current leaders of T3 in the World Cup. Team manager Marco Piana, with Steven Griener, on Toyota, will provide fast track assistance.
Fès (Morocco) – Day of administrative checks at the Rallye du Maroc 2018 which started today, October 3rd, in the imperial city of Fès, famous for the medina declared Unesco World Heritage Site.
After the tests in Merzouga on the Polaris RZR XP Turbo S (with Eric Abel and Christian Manez in view of the upcoming Dakar), Xtreme Plus Team reached Fès, the starting and finishing point of this edition of the rally-raid by David Castera.
At the starting line, with the XT+ colors and the #360 number, there will be José Luis Peña Campos, sailed by Rafael Tornabell Cordoba – Polaris RZR 1000 – well determined to defend the current leading position (208 points) in the T3 category of the 2018 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rally. After winning the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the Baja in Hungary and Poland and finishing second in Spain, Qatar, Kazakisthan and Italy, the Spanish driver driving the performing RZR prepared in the French workshops of Gorrevod will challenge the other crews to win the world title.
Always with the colors of XT+, the Swiss Vincent Gonzalez, paired with the French Stephane Duple, will be in the race with the #362 number as well as the British Graham Knight and David Watson (#363), strong for their victory at the Dubai International Baja: both will take to the track at the head of Polaris RZR 1000 in the T3.1 category. For Gonzalez, the Morocco Rally will also be perfect training in anticipation of an increasingly probable participation in the Dakar 2019.
For Xtreme Plus Team will be engaded also the crew of #202 composed by the Mexican Santiago Creel Garza Rios, sailed by the Polish Szymon Gospodarczyk, on the Polaris Turbo (at the start in the SSV category). Finally, Marco Piana, driver and team manager of XT+, will be on board the Toyota Land Cruiser KDJ120 (#365) with the English co-driver Steven Griener.
« We are happy to see a growing number of members among the SSV: it means that the work done by Xtreme Plus in the last 7 years has been positive – explains Marco Piana – and shows that these vehicles can be as fast as they are realible and perfect to participate in long and demanding rallies. We entered the race with the Mexican Garza Rios with a Polaris XT Plus Turbo: in America he races with Pro Trucks and he is very fast. And then in this penultimate stage of the world championship the competition stays on with Peña Campos who will defend his advantage in the ranking helped by Gonzalez and Knight to get the maximum score and consolidate the leadership in T3 « .
On the afternoon of October 4th, the Rallye du Maroc will begin with a prologue of 47 km (including 10 km of SS) near Fès and then continue with 5 stages, including 3 boucles in Erfoud, and end again in Fès on October 9th. For the SSV the kilometers to be faced will be 682 of liason and 1.225 of special (for a total of 1.907 km) while for the members of the cars the total route will be 2.051 km (689 liason and 1.362 SS).
Program:
October 3rd/4th – Technical and administrative checks
October 4th – Prologue
October 5th – 1 stage Fès-Erfoud
October 6th – 2 stage Erfoud-Erfoud
October 7th – 3 stage Erfoud-Erfoud
October 8th – 4 stage Erfoud-Erfoud
October 9th – 5 stage Erfoud-Fès
Press Office
Sonja Vietto Ramus
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