The Brazilian team will debut their new cars at Portugal's Baja TT Wine Capital of Portugal
X-Rally Team, 4 times champion of Rally dos Sertões titles, just got two Toyota Hilux IMA 2020 to race Brazil's biggest rally, but the first contact will take place in just a few days in Europe.
The X Rally Team, won three times in a row the Rally dos Sertões and won four times champion of the race as a constructor, will add two Toyota Hilux IMA 2020 to the dispute of this year's Sertões, which takes place from October 31 to November 8, starting in Mogi Guaçu (SP) and arrival in Barreirinhas (MA). The car is exactly is the same that won the 2019 Dakar driven by Nasser Al-Attiyah, but comes with the latest updates, the same ones used by Fernando Alonso when he raced the Dakar this 2020.
The team from São Paulo, which by the hands of pilot Cristian Baumgart and navigator Beco Andreotti, won three consecutive editions of the race - 2016, 2017, and 2018 -, and won the fourth consecutive year as a constructor in the title of Lucas Moraes and Kaique Bentivoglio in 2019, will make available the two models to brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart.
The titles came under the Ford Performance brand in partnership with Neil Woolridge Motorsport, which dates back to 2014, and which remains in force regardless of the acquisition of the new Toyota.
“The pandemic forced everyone to change their plans, and running the new generation of the Ranger with a V6 turbo engine was in ours. However, NWM warned us in advance that, because of the whole situation caused by the coronavirus, they would not be able to deliver the cars to us in time to test and go to the Sertões ”, said Beco Andreotti, three-time navigator and head of the X Rally Team.
“They are fantastic partners and we have this opportunity to vary the mix of brands within the team. We continue to serve other drivers with the X Rally Ranger of the highest technology and safety built at our headquarters in São Paulo and now we start a new chapter bringing the Toyota Hilux ”, he continued.
The new Toyota Hiluxes were built in Belgium by Overdrive and are the official vehicles of the brand at the FIA World Cross Country. It is the same car with which the two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso competed in this year's Dakar in Saudi Arabia and that the three-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah was runner-up.
“It is also a fantastic car and we have the opportunity to have the most updated version of the Hilux, which has already been extensively tested by Toyota, even in the most demanding conditions possible, as it was in the Dakar. It is also a safer option than competing with a vehicle that would be in its initial stage of development ”, justified Andreotti.
The pairs formed by Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti, and Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea, will already have their first contact with the machines on the weekend of September 25th to 27th in Portugal, where they will dispute the Baja TT Capital of Wines of Portugal, race with 300 kilometers of course. Days before, the Brazilian pairs will test the car independently on a 250 km route for the initial adjustments.
"It is important to have this first contact with the car in racing conditions, not just tests so that we can adapt to the differences of the new model, learn about its mechanics and procedures, as well as arrive at Sertões with the advance preparation", he highlighted Andreotti.
The two full-spec Ford Ranger T1 FIA class V8s - the fastest in rally-raid - with which Cristian and Marcos competed in Sertões 2019, remain for rental to drivers interested in competing in the race with state-of-the-art equipment.
Official press releqase
