The Mini All4 Racing has won the grueling Dakar rally every year from 2012 through 2015. Now Mini is gearing up for another assault on the Dakar, with four factory-backed X-Raid team cars and another eight teams fielded by privateers.
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Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and his long-term navigator Mathieu Baumel will be back, along with the driver/navigator pairings of Nani Roma/Alex Haro and Orlando Terranova/ Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue. Retired WRC rally ace Mikko Hirvonen is coming out of retirement to contest his first-ever Dakar in the fourth X-Raid Mini along with veteran Dakar navigator Michel Périn.
Al-Attiyah says, “To win Dakar you need good luck, a good team and good co-driver – and also work very hard yourself to achieve a win. The MINI ALL4 Racing is very good because it has won four Dakar titles. My aim now is to win the Dakar again.”
The 2016 event will run in Argentina and Bolivia; Peru has elected to withdraw. The Dakar runs from January 2 to January 16, just after the holidays and before the start of the 2016 racing season. It is always a welcome event for motorsport fans looking for early-January action.—Brian S, Morgan
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