– South Racing also set to run Fernando Alvarez and Pablo Monasterolo
South Racing continues its hectic global motor sport programme by running two cars in this weekend’s Baja Spain Aragon, round five of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies that is based in the town of Teruel and finishes on Sunday afternoon.
DMAS South Racing is looking forward to running the former WRC star Xavier ‘Xevi’ Pons for the first time since the Dakar Rally at the helm of a Ford Ranger. Fellow Spaniard Sergio Lafuente navigates Pons, who finished 30th overall in January’s Dakar at his first attempt. Meanwhile, Spaniard Fernando Alvarez teams up with Argentinean Pablo Monasterolo in a South Racing Toyota Hilux.
Baja Aragon is the biggest Baja of the year and promises to be a dogfight at the front, said South Racing’s managing director Scott Abraham. Xevi will be at the wheel of the latest generation Ranger and we are looking for a strong result. Fernando will surprise a few people, because his participation in this year’s Maxi Rally Championship in Argentina has given him great preparation for this event.
Pons began his WRC career at the 2003 Swedish Rally and competed in 62 FIA World Rally Championship events, claiming seven stage wins and 51 series points during various spells with different Citroën, Mitsubishi and Subaru teams. He also won the 2010 Super 2000 World Rally Championship.
Alvarez finished eighth overall with the German-based South Racing team in the recent Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina and is relishing the chance to shine over the demanding stages that cut through the remote Aragon countryside.
South Racing is also running two cars in the gruelling Silk Way Rally that finishes in Beijing on Sunday (July 24). Those two cars are being driven by Chile’s Hernan Garces and Germany’s Jürgen Schröder.
South Racing was founded in 2013. Based near Frankfurt in Germany, the young, customer-driven team also has workshops in Portugal and has extensive experience of the Dakar Rally and rallying in South America.
Competitive action at Spain’s Baja Aragon fires into life from 18.51hrs on Friday with a revised opening special stage, near Teruel, and that precedes two days of action and a route of over 800km through the Jiloca and Comarca de Teruel regions.
There will be two selective sections of 194km and 188km from 08.31hrs and 13.34hrs on Saturday and a fourth and final special of 188km from 09.39hrs on Sunday morning.
Neil Perkins,