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28th
Paris-Dakar Rally 2006 (Dec 28 - Jan 15)
REPSOL MITSUBISHI RALLIART TEAM COMPLETES FINAL DAKAR RALLY PREPARATIONS
IN LISBON (DEC 30, 2005)
- LISBON, Portugal
- The Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Team completed its final pre-Dakar
Rally formalities at the Belem Cultural Centre in Lisbon on Thursday
morning, prior to the official start of the 28th grueling African classic
on Friday (New Year’s Eve).
- Team drivers Stéphane
Peterhansel, Luc Alphand, Hiroshi Masuoka and Joan ’Nani’
Roma were joined by their respective co-drivers Jean-Paul Cottret, Gilles
Picard, Pascal Maimon and Henri Magne to finalise administrative paperwork
and ensure that their quartet of Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolutions
passed the organizers’ stringent safety and legality checks.
- Ahead of the four
Mitsubishi teams and a record field of 240 motorcycles, 184 further
cars, 80 trucks and 240 assistance vehicles will be 15 special stages,
totalling 4,813 kms, in a total route of 9.043 kms. The remainder of
the official route through Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali,
Guinea and Sénégal will constitute road liaison sections.
The event finishes at Lac Rose, near Dakar, on Sunday, January 15th.
- "It is never
easy to win the Dakar for the first time," said Peterhansel. "But
our whole team works really well together and I have a great chance
to win the race for the third year. We carried out some very positive
tests with the new Pajero Evolution over the last few months and I think
that we are ready for the battle over the coming days."
- Team mate Hiroshi
Masuoka knows the importance of a safe start to the rally in Europe.
"The Baja Portalegre in October was a great test for the first
stage on Saturday," said Masuoka. "It was a difficult special,
particularly in the rain. We have the option of mud tires if the weather
is bad. I will follow Giniel de Villiers in the stage and be on the
track in front of Carlos Sainz, so it will be interesting. I will be
cautious, because I would be quite happy with fifth or six place when
we cross into Morocco."
- "Our team
know that it would be stupid to take any risks over the first two days
in Portugal, where a mistake could be very costly," said MMSP’s
Team Director Dominique Serieys. "We know that the stages can be
slippery. It is a time to be cautious. You can lose the Dakar in Portugal,
but you cannot win it!"
- Tomorrow (Saturday)
is the opening leg of the 2006 Dakar Rally and features a potentially
treacherous special stage between Lisbon and Portimao on the Algarve.
After a road liaison section of 186 kms, the Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart
Team will tackle a narrow and winding 83 kms stage in the Alentejo wine
region.
- Teams will be looking
anxiously at the weather forecast to ensure that the correct tires are
fitted for the stage. A 101 kms liaison section then takes crews to
the overnight halt and a New Year’s Eve dinner in the holiday
town of Portimao.
TEAM
REPSOL MITSUBISHI RALLIART BIDS FOR SIXTH SUCCESSIVE DAKAR RALLY WIN WITH
STRONG FOUR-CAR LINE-UP (NOV
21, 2005)
- French pairing
of Peterhansel and Alphand joined by Roma and Masuoka
- Japanese manufacturer
bids for sixth successive win and 11th in 24 years
- The Mitsubishi
Motors factory team has entered four cars in the 2006 Dakar Rally, as
it bids to become the first team in history to win six successive Dakar
rallies and clinch a record-breaking 11 overall victories in 24 years.
Mitsubishi entered the event for the first time with an unofficial entry
in 1983.
- The Mitsubishi
team has not been beaten on the grueling African event since the Millennium
and has entered a team of four of the latest MPR12 versions of the all-conquering
Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution for the 16-day event, starting in
Lisbon on New Year’s Eve and finishing in Dakar, Sénégal,
on Sunday, January 15th, 2006.
- Spearheading the
team’s challenge are the defending champion Stéphane Peterhansel
and the Japanese twice former winner Hiroshi Masuoka. Peterhansel teams
up with regular co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret, while Masuoka is reunited
with Frenchman Pascal Maimon, with whom he won the event in 2002.
- Completing the
official team line-up are the Spanish driver Joan ’Nani’
Roma and last year’s French runner-up Luc Alphand, with their
respective co-drivers Henri Magne and Gilles Picard.
- Peterhansel won
no less than six Dakar titles during an illustrious career as a motorcycle
rider and became only the second individual in the 28-year history of
the event to win outright on both two and four wheels when he won the
Dakar with Mitsubishi in 2004. He repeated the success last January.
Masuoka, meanwhile, won outright in 2002 and 2003 and finished as the
runner-up in 2004.
- "Jean-Paul
and I are quietly confident," said Peterhansel. "We have a
good track record together on the Dakar and will be well prepared. It
will not be easy by any means. Experience tells us that the Dakar is
such an unpredictable event. The route is complicated, but we are both
well motivated this year and looking forward to the start."
- "The new car
is very strong and fast and I think it is the best of its kind in the
world," said Masuoka. "I am very happy to be in this team.
Every year team technicians improve the performance of the car. Now
I feel that I can win the Dakar Rally for the third time.
Frenchman Luc Alphand was a former World Downhill skiing champion before
he became involved in cross-country rallying. He was the first driver
in history to win a stage of the Dakar in a diesel-engined car, before
joining the factory Mitsubishi team in 2004.
- ’Lucho’
went on to finish second overall on his first Dakar Rally with the Mitsubishi
team in 2005 and followed up this result with an outright win in April’s
Rally of Tunisia. His last competitive outing was a test session in
October’s Baja Anta Da Serra 500-Portalegre in Portugal, where
he took a stunning victory and beat a quartet of factory Volkswagens
in a two-year old, MPR10 version of the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution.
- "The main
enemy is the desert," admits Alphand. "My first Dakar was
a real disaster, but I and am getting used to it. Everything is possible
this time. We are four drivers with the same car and we all want to
win. I finished second last year. In 2006, I will have even more experience.
I hope to do a good Dakar. With a little luck, who knows?"
- Spaniard Roma joined
the Mitsubishi Motors Repsol Team last autumn and went on to finish
second in the Qatar Baja, sixth on the Dakar and fourth in both the
Patagonia-Atacama and Morocco rallies, before taking a maiden win in
July’s Baja Spain.
- He again teams
up with Andorra-based co-driver Henri Magne, one of the most experienced
of all the cross-country co-drivers and the winner of the 2003 FIA World
Cup and the 2004 FIA European Baja Cup.
- ""When
I was young my mother gave me a present - the Yearbook of the Dakar,"
said Roma. “I started to follow the race. It was a dream to think
about winning and it was incredible to win on the bike in 2004. Now
I just hope that I can win the Dakar in a car."
- "This year
our main competitor has made good progress," said MMSP’s
Team Director Dominique Serieys. "They have learned a lot from
us and about the FIA regulations. We made two small mistakes in South
America and Morocco this year, but we won in Tunisia and Dakar. We won
13 of the last 15 races and my feeling is that we are going out to win
again. It will be tough. But Africa and the tracks of the route will
be the main competition for us. We are strong and motivated to win."
- "I have been
impressed by the team’s positive attitude and meticulous preparations
for this year’s Dakar Rally," said MMSP’s President
Isao Torii. "Mitsubishi has achieved a remarkable run of success
on this event in the last five years and I have every confidence that
the team is capable of winning the race again for a sixth successive
year."
- The 2006 Dakar
Rally will start for the first time in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon
and the opening timed special stage will take place on New Year’s
Eve during the run south to Portimao on the Algarve coast.
- Scrutineering and
documentation take place in Lisbon on December 28th-30th. On New Year’s
Day the capacity entry of cars, bikes and trucks will head south towards
Spain and the Mediterranean sea crossing to Morocco.
- Over the following
15 days the capacity entry heads deep into Africa and through the depths
of southern Morocco, across the treacherous Mauritanian Sahara to a
rest day in Nouakchott.
- From there the
route heads further across the Mauritanian wilderness en route to more
traditional Black African stages in the Republic of Mali, Guinea Bissau
for the first time since 1996 and finally into Sénégal.
The traditional finish will take place beside Lac Rose, near Dakar,
in Sénégal on Sunday, January 15th.
- There will be only
limited GPS points made available to competitors, stages without GPS
and at least two Marathon stages where service assistance is not permitted.
TEAM REPSOL
MITSUBISHI RALLIART - 2006 DAKAR RALLY ENTRIES
- Stéphane
Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution
Hiroshi Masuoka (J)/Pascal Maimon (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution
Luc Alphand (F)/Gilles Picard (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution
Joan Roma (E)/Henri Magne (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution
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