• Francisco Guedes and Rui Pita 8th

It was a very positive Rallye du Maroc for the two Santag Racing cars in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), which ended this Friday after five tough stages in the sands of the Moroccan desert, with the duo João Dias and João Miranda finishing the race in seventh place overall among the Challenger category cars, and Francisco Guedes and Rui Pita in eighth place among SSVs. It was five days of racing, a lot of difficulties, a great adventure, but with the satisfaction of seeing the two Santag Racing cars reach the end of the 1512kms timed among the toughest of such a tough challenge.

“The team is to be congratulated for its behavior over these almost 10 days in Morocco, and the results of our drivers leave us all satisfied. João and Francisco performed excellently and were very competent drivers, but I can't fail to praise the entire structure which, in such a demanding race, always put the cars in excellent condition,” said David Vieira, manager of Santag Racing at the end of the race on Friday.

João Dias repeated his participation in the Rallye du Maroc, “a race that always brings new difficulties,” said the driver. “This year the rain made life difficult in the roadbook, but we were still up to it,” added the driver, who praised the Santag Racing team in Morocco: ”The team was impeccable, with great dedication, which led to zero mechanical problems over these five hard days of competition.”Francisco Guedes also expressed his satisfaction at the end of the race. “It was my first experience of a World Championship race abroad. And what an experience!” he said with a broad smile after completing the last stage of the race. The duo also had their first contact with the desert dunes in this race and showed good progress throughout. “I had a lot of initial difficulties trying to adapt. It takes a lot of training and experience to be able to perform at the highest level in this type of event, but I was lucky and privileged to have done this event with the Santag team, which gave me a car that was always excellent and very reliable - without a single problem - throughout the more than 2000 km of the Rally.” The driver also praised his navigator, Rui Pita, “who was brilliant, without a single mistake, and who helped me a lot on my debut”.

On arrival at the bivouac, the drivers were met by David Viera, who praised their participation and the work of the whole team. “Both João Dias's OT3 and Francisco Guedes's Can Am have always been in the top fifteen in the stages, which in a race with this profile and level of demand makes us happy, as the structure matches the difficulty and harshness of a race like this. This is what we prepared for and everyone's commitment over the last few days is a reason to be even more confident about the future,” added David Vieira.

The whole team is already looking ahead to the next event on the calendar, this time in Portugal, with the Baja de Portalegre.

Automatic translation of the Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: Santag Racing