Press release
27 June 2016
Italian Baja successfully completed with Stage wins and top
ten placings for the MINI ALL4 Racing of Al Rajhi and Menzies.
Italian Baja provides close, exciting racing but punctures eventually
determine final outcome of fifth and sixth positions for MINI ALL4
Racing crews.
Munich. The 23rd Italian Baja ( 23-26th June)
provided an enthralling race that saw the leading position change on
numerous occasions during the three-days of racing across rocky river
beds and the surrounding dry landscape of Pordenone.
The MINI ALL4 Racing (#202) of Yazeed Al Rajhi (KSA)/Timo Gottschalk
(GER) and (#214) Bryce Menzies (USA)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) were both in
the thick of the action from the start of the Italian Baja. The
opening Super Special Stage (Leg 1) of Friday evening (26th June)
netted the MINI ALL4 Racing crews with top five results. Al Rajhi
finished with an impressive second and Menzies completed in fourth position.
Leg 2, Saturday (25th June) saw Al Rahji take the win in Stage 3 and
assume overall lead going into the final day of racing on Sunday
(26th). Bryce Menzies was hot on the heels of Al Rahji during Stage 3
and finished with a fine second place.
The first stage of two on Sunday produced even more shifts in the
leading group, no thanks mainly to punctures. The efforts of a
determined Menzies were finally rewarded with the win at the end of
the first 74.5 km stage. This win lifted the crew of Menzies/Colsoul
to race leader with one more stage to play for. The MINI ALL4 Racing
of Al Rajhi/Gottschalk completed in sixth.
The final stage (Stage 5) was the reverse direction of the previous
stage and set to be a classic race with any one of six cars likely to
take the overall win. But again fate dealt a cruel hand in the usual
form of punctures. Stage 5 ended with the MINI ALL4 Racing (#214) of
Menzies/Colsoul in 13th, with (#202) Al Rajhi/Gottschalk classed as
completing in 16th.
Overall race classification placed the two competing MINI ALL4 Racing
in fifth and sixth positions. The crew of Menzies (USA) and Tom
Colsoul (BEL) took fifth spot – a remarkable achievement indeed
because this was only the second outing for the American driver in a
MINI ALL4 Racing.
“We got a flat tyre,” said a still smiling Menzies. “It’s just bad
luck. We had to stop and change the wheel. At the end I didn’t know
where we had placed because it was so close. Never mind; I still had
fun and learned a lot.”
Two punctures and time spent assisting the MINI ALL4 Racing of fellow
X-raid Team family member Menzies from mud conspired against the duo
of Al Rajhi/Gottschalk. The time taken to get back into the racing
beat was small but the racing was so competitive the lapsed time was
difficult to make up. Their overall position was classed as sixth overall.
Meanwhile, the testing information gained from both drivers and the
MINI ALL4 Racing cars has again proved invaluable towards development
of the MINI ALL4 Racing in preparation of Dakar Rally 2017.
2016
Italian Baja
: MINI ALL4 Racing positions at race end
Race calendar: 2016 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.
19/02 – 22/02 Baja Russia
02/04 – 7/04 Abu Dhabi Desert
Challenge
17/04 – 22/04 Sealine Cross-Country Rally Qatar
23/06 – 26/06 Italian Baja
22/07 – 24/07 Baja Aragón
11/08
– 14/08 HunGarian Baja
25/08 – 28/08 Baja Poland
03/10 – 08/10 Rallye Oilibya du Maroc
21/10 – 23/10 Baja
Portalegre 500
Find reports, photos and videos in high resolution of previous MINI
ALL4 Racing activity on the BMW Media Website by clicking here.