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Morocco Desert Challenge 2023: Mission acomplished for Century Racing
The mission was clear: go to Morocco to test the latest engine firmware/software upgrade and the reliability of the turbo engine. Mathieu wanted to win the race, that was the secondary objective.. win a few stages? Sure. But win all 8 stages in such dominant fashion? It wasn't part of the plan and we certainly didn't even dream that big.
Some may say the big teams were not there so no real strong opposition. A 70-plus car strong field, temperatures regularly above 45° C, the notorious Moroccan rocky sections and barely power-restricted buggys with good drivers tell a different story.
With fan issues at the start of the race causing overheating and putting the engine in semi limp mode, Mathieu and Loïc won. When they were tasked with opening the road when the bike stage was cancelled on day 6, they didn't disappoint and won again.
They pushed the car and their bodies to the limit (sometimes switching off the air conditioning to help the engine cool for more than 200km), and did it with a smile, knowing how critical this XL test was for the CR6-T.
And of course the SRT pit crew did a sterling job every night, some claiming this was a much harder race than the Dakar itself.
Mathieu at the finish line: "We gave it our all since day 1, and never left anything on the table. Loïc was a master in navigation and rarely put a foot wrong. The car was a dream despite the searing heat, we obviously had to manage the temperatures from time to time but it would have been the same for everyone.. In my 17 years in the game I have never experienced heat like this, and it was by far the hardest Moroccan rally I've done. Thanks to my team and the CR crew back at base, the latest engine developments have pushed the car into another dimension."
Julien Hardy, Century Racing team manager : "We are understandably over the moon with this result, it's been months of hard work since the disappointment of Mathieu's blown engine at Dakar and we were eager to see if the fixes we implemented were working. We have also spent many long hours working on the engine response and Mathieu is reporting a drastic improvement in the dunes, so we're thrilled. All this work will allow us to hit the ground running with the CR7 when we start testing later this year. The next big upgrade is a new radiator we tested last week and which should see the engine performing at full power levels, even in 45+° ambient."
This race win marks the first multi stage win for our partner at SRT and hopefully one of many to come.
Finally, congratulations to our other two finishers, CR6 newcomer Mike Van Eikeren and Antoine Gallant, showing great tenacity too in these difficult conditions and both scoring top 5 stage results.
Source Century Racing
Helder