Silk Way Rally 2017 – Leg 13 – Alxa Youqi

Media Information

Silk Way Rally 2017

21 July 2017

 

Silk Way Rally 2017 – Leg 13 –
Alxa Youqi – Zhongwei

 

  • Both MINI John Cooper Works Rally cars complete penultimate
    2017 Silk Way Rally stage
  • Yazeed Al Rajhi / Tom Colsoul finish ninth to maintain
    10th place overall
  • Bryce Menzies / Peter Mortensen cross the line in
    11th after a challenging stage

 

Munich. The penultimate stage of the 2017 Silk Way Rally
proved to be one of the biggest challenges yet for the MINI
competitors as they made their way from Alxa Youqi to Zhongwei. More
huge sand dunes dominated the day’s 690.31km route where the optimum
way to tackle the stage was believed to be to ‘surf’ the ridges of
the dunes, but this proved tough.

 

Yazeed Al Rajhi (KSA) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) brought the
#101 MINI John Cooper Works Rally across the finish line in ninth
position to maintain 10th place overall with one leg
remaining, despite getting stuck for almost 45 minutes.

 

Al Rahji: “We drove smooth and safely in the stage
and didn’t push but in one place, on the flat between the dunes, we
got stuck. We tried to use a jack, but it was no use because of the
dunes and the soft sand. We waited 45 minutes for one truck to take us
out and then we continued slowly to the finish.”

 

The challenges were even bigger though for Bryce Menzies (USA) and
Peter Mortensen (USA) in the #105 MINI John Cooper Works Rally who had
another difficult stage.  Menzies remains positive ahead of tomorrow’s
final stage despite finishing today in 11th and
experiencing delays that have pushed the pair down to 9th overall.

 

Menzies: “It was a pretty tough stage today – a lot
of dunes and ditches. It was really rough on the body and on the car
and then about 30 km from the end, we got stuck. We put the jacks down
and they didn’t come back up. We had to dig for three hours and take
the jacks out of the car; once we did that we got out pretty easy and
just worked our way to the finish. Rough day but it’s all part of the
learning curve and we’ll just keep going tomorrow.”

 

The 2017 Silk Way Rally concludes tomorrow’s as the competitors
complete the final stage from Zhongwei to the finish point in Xi’an
China.  

 

Silk Way Rally 2017: Ranking after Leg 13