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Rally dos Sertões:Anticipating extreme competitiveness, X Rally starts the 25th Sertões of its history.
The Baumgart brothers compete with a new car: the Prodrive Hunter T1+
The 31st edition of the Sertões marks the 25th participation of the X Rally in the race
Team has 5 titles: four with Cristian and Beco and one with Marcos and Kleber.
After the biggest Sertões of all in 2022, with more than seven thousand kilometers in 15 days of competition, the largest rally in the Americas returns to its traditional eight-stage format and with a prologue in its 31st edition. The race begins this Friday (11) and ends on the next day 19 crossing the states of Pernambuco, Bahia and Ceará in 3,8 thousand kilometers and a little more than 2,000 kilometers of timed stretches.
The team X Rally Team, owner of five titles in the main rally of the country, goes to their 25th Sertões and expects a technically challenging route and a test of extreme competitiveness by the quality of the grid between the cars.
Brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart bring a new car, the Prodrive Hunter T1+ to replace last year's Toyota Hilux IMA T1 FIA. After their debut in Mexico, on the World Cup stage, the brothers made the double at the Jalapão Rally in late June, when Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea won the race ahead of Cristian Baumhart and Beco Andreotti.
"Sertões returns to its ‘normal’ size after an extremely long journey last year. But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. We are forecasting a technically difficult route, which will put the cars and the doubles to the test virtually every day," said Beco Andreotti, navigator and CEO of X Rally.
In addition to the route, competitiveness should be the mark of this edition, according to the browser Kleber Cincea. "Only in our team we have 11 cars, five of them being T1+, the fastest in the rally. Other teams will also compete in the category and are ready. I am therefore sure that the dispute will be very tight. A full plate for the rally fan, because nobody has an advantage and the tension will only pass at the end of the race," Kleber said.
Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti, and Marcos Baumhart and Kleber Cincea form two of the longest-lived duos in the history of the World Rally. With four titles of the Sertões, Cristian and Beco are the only duo with four Sertões victories (2016, 2017, 2018 e 2021). The duo has competed together for 22 years. Marcos and Kleber have won the Sertões of 2020, are four-time champions of the Jalapão Rally and three-time Brazilian rally champions, and have been in the same cockpit for 17 years.
"The expectation is high. We have two new cars in the team, which we follow with our great partners of all time, who help us achieve higher performance. There is no ease in the Sertões. Whether with 15 days, as was last year, or with eight stages, as will be this year, it is always a very difficult rally and that challenges drivers, navigators, and machines to the extreme. We have worked hard this past year, so our goal is the victory for the team," said four-time champion Cristian Baumgart.
With 11 cars in the team, the X Rally brings a real squad of 120 people among mechanics, engineers, drivers, cooks, and other professionals: "We are a team of dedicated people, united around a goal, and that comes from a long-standing enthronement. It will be our 25th Sertões, always surrounded by great expectations. We already had the taste of running with our new car, we made all the adjustments, and for the whole team, we will always work with a focus on winning. Of course Sertões is unique, has several traps, but with the union of all, we seek to overcome the obstacles of the journey", summarizes Marcos Baumgart.
In addition to the duo composed of Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti and Marcos Baumgarti/Kleber Cincea, the X Rally ranks nine more cars. For the T1+ class, Sylvio de Barros/Ramon Sacilotti, Mauro Guedes/Edu Bampi and Fefo Rosset/Marcelo Haseyama compete on board the Toyota Hilux Overdrive T1+. The cars in the category have a higher damper course, larger tires (37 in, versus 32 of the T1) and some models are equipped with V6 turbocharged engines.
For the FIA T1 class, the Paulista team will have the duo formed by Dan Nacif/Fred Budtikevitz and Gunter Hinkelmann/Fabrício Bianchini; in the T1 (formerly T1 Brazil) run Pedro Prado/Josi Koerich, José Silmar/Alyson Antunes, Rodrigo Aché/Felipe Eckel and Luís Carlos Naciff/Erick Silveira. In both classes, the duo align the X Rally Ranger built by the team.
The X Rally Team is sponsored by Vedacit, Motul, BF Goodrich and Rodobens.
Automatic translation from the original Brazilian-Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: P1 Media Relations/ X-Rally Team
Helder