Five times Sertões champion team will have a base in Portugal to extend its customer portfolio and starts to act as authorized dealer for Prodrive Hunter T1+

• Brazilian team expands operations in Europe with base in Portugal
• The Prodrive Hunter T1+ from X Rally Team, which will have 2
• Car was the sensation of the Dakar in the hands of Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin

Two big names, from Brazilian rally and world rally, join forces. The X Rally Team, five-time champion of the Sertões Rally Championship and one of the great references of the national off-road, and Prodrive, a company with extensive experience in off-road and also in motorsports in general, with a great history of achievements in several categories, have signed a partnership for the operation of Prodrive Hunter T1+ for customers in Europe and South America.

"X Rally Team is now authorized by Prodrive to operate the cars, in a cooperative effort between the two organizations that involves training and an exchange between their professionals," said Beco Andreotti, CEO of X Rally Team.

This way, the Brazilian team will expand its operations beyond the Atlantic, and will also operate in Europe. The organization, known for its excellence in the world of off-road competitions, is installing a new base in the city of Évora, in the central region of Portugal, 140 kilometers east of the capital Lisbon.

The expansion of activities, according to the team's CEO, Beco Andreotti, is to extend its client base and facilitate the operation for the team itself in races in the region. In Brazil, X Rally Team operates in the national calendar providing maintenance, vehicles, logistics, and support for about ten clients. With the base in Portugal, the goal is to expand the number of clients and also provide the current ones the experience of competing in rallies in Europe.

Expanding its boundaries to provide services and compete in international rallies, the team, which will compete in the 2023 season using two Prodrive Hunter T1+, the same vehicle used by nine-time world rally champion Sebástien Loeb to win half the specials in this year's Dakar rally - and six in a row, a record - has adopted a business model to facilitate its performance in European races by taking its clients from Brazil and also by winning new ones on the other side of the Atlantic.

X Rally Team's operation in Portugal will be carried out exclusively in the maintenance of Prodrive Hunter T1+ cars for its own drivers and also customers. The first two cars acquired by the team will be used by brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart in the Sertões and other competitions.

The car is built by Prodrive, which has in its portfolio work as official Subaru team in the World Rally Championship and Jaguar in the former World Endurance Championship. The company's founder and CEO, David Richards, was also head of the BAR Formula One team in the first half of the 2000s.

"It is a pleasure for us to join forces between X Rally Team and Prodrive. It is very gratifying to be able to show the power of the Prodrive Hunter in Europe and South America. I hope that all the development in the car that won more than half of the Dakar stages this year, and the experience of X Rally will turn this partnership into many victories," celebrated Gus Beteli, Prodrive's team boss.

"We are very excited about the opening of our base in Portugal and the partnership with Prodrive. We hope to leverage our experience and knowledge, along with Prodrive's know-how, to provide our customers with a competitive advantage and help them achieve their competition goals," Andreotti concluded.

The X Rally Team is sponsored by Vedacit, Motul, BF Goodrich and Rodobens.

Automatic translation from the original Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source X-Rally official Press Release
Photos BRX / Prodrive

Artugna Race 13th Italian Baja di Primavera
Valid for: Italian Cross Country Rallyes Championship and 2022 SSV Championship

The Spring Baja on the "creek that is not there"
The countdown begins for a new season of the Rally-Raid and SSV Championships.

In exactly one week, enrollments will open for the 13th Italian Baja di Primavera – Artugna Race and the curtain will rise on the Italian Cross Country and SSV 2023 Championship. For the third consecutive year, the first Italian challenge will be staged on dirt roads of the Pordenone foothills, between the municipalities of Aviano, Budoia, Polcenigo and Fontanafredda, intersecting "the torrent that does not exist, the creek with two names" (source Municipality of Budoia): "In the upper part it is perennial and is called Cunath , while in the lower part its bed is often dry and is called Artugna”. A watercourse that has been a fundamental resource for the surrounding places, allowing for the cultivation of gardens and fields, for operating the mills, and for quenching the thirst of the people who lived in houses built with stones from the river bed. Now the Artugna is the symbol of the Baja di Primavera organized by the Fuoristrada Club 4x4 Pordenone, an ideal competition to open the season without strong mechanical stress on the evolving vehicles. A compact track of dirt roads, between the fields of the foothills, a very guided and technical route as they say in rallying jargon, with several repetitions of a single timed sector.
The teams and riders are still very "secretive" before releasing reservations about the new season, but there are already some splendid certainties. Certain protagonists will be Alfio Bordonaro, from Catania (Sicily) who in 2022 won his first Cross Country Rally championship at the wheel of a highly decorated Suzuki New Grand Vitara, and Amerigo Ventura, from Torino (Piemonte) who dominates among the Side by Side Vehicles drivers with a Quaddy Yamaha pulled to the hilt.

Source: Italian Baja Official press release
Carlo Ragogna Press Office Italian Baja

Valid for: CERTT  - Campeonato Español de Rallyes de Todo Terreno

On friday 3 of February, it was held at the Fortress of the Sun the presentation of the poster of the new edition of the Baja Lorca - Ciudad del Sol, both tests of national character that one more season will be organized by the Automobile Club of Lorca.

The event was attended by the Mayor of Lorca, Mr. Diego José Mateos; the Director General of the Institute of Tourism of the Region of Murcia, Mr. Juan Francisco Martínez; the Deputy Mayor of Lorca, Mr. Francisco Morales; the Councillor for Sports of the City of Lorca, Mrs. Irene Jódar; The President of the Royal Spanish Automobile Federation, Mr. Manuel Aviñó; the President of the Automobile Federation of the Region of Murcia, Mr. Sebastián Plazas; the President of the Andalusian Automobile Federation, Mr. Manuel Alonso and the President of the Automobile Club of Lorca, Mr. Pedro Zamora.

The first to speak was Pedro Zamora, who highlighted the agreement reached with Eurosport for the broadcasting of a twenty-six minute prime time report on the event, which will be accompanied by some advertising spots during the week of the rally, which will be a great tourist showcase for the Region of Murcia and the city of Lorca.

Also took the floor Mr. Manuel Aviño, who highlighted the great organizational work of the Lorca club, as well as Mr. Diego José Mateos, Mayor of Lorca, who invited all Lorca to be part of these events that help tourism in the city.

For his part, Mr. Francisco Morales, Deputy Mayor of the city, highlighted the large number of overnight stays that year after year leave Lorca with full hotel rooms; closing the ceremony Mr. Juan Francisco Martinez also highlighted the great impact that sporting events have within the regional tourism environment.

The Baja Lorca - Ciudad del Sol will again be part of the Spanish Championship All Terrain Rally for the third consecutive year, being the date scheduled for this tenth edition on 26 and 27 May as the third round of the competition, and will also feature several new kilometers, the main novelty being the format of two days, due to the municipal elections to be held on Sunday 28 May.

The route will consist of two special stages of 167 kilometers that will take place on Saturday, with a prologue in Las Canales that this season will take place on Friday.

For this year's poster we have had the presence of two local drivers such as Borja Rodriguez, Águilas driver who is part of the Automobile Club de Lorca for years and managed to finish the Dakar with the Toyota we have here, and Pedro Gallego, Lorca driver who has participated in the last two editions of the Spanish race.

The event was closed with a small agape courtesy of the Automobile Club of Lorca for all attendees.

In order not to lose detail of both tests will be finding all the information in the coming days on the web www.automovilclubdelorca.es

Automatic translation from the original Spanish version
Soruce Automovil Club of Lorca