The Sertões five-time champions team will have a base in Portugal to expand its customer portfolio
and becomes an official operations partner for the Prodrive Hunter T1+.
Prodrive and the X Rally Team, five-time Rally dos Sertões champions, have forged a partnership that will see the Brazilian outfit commence operations in Portugal as an authorized dealer of the Prodrive Hunter T1+ to its customers across Europe and South America.
X Rally Team operates in the Brazilian national rally calendar, currently providing maintenance, vehicles, logistics, and support for ten clients. With its new base in the city of Évora, 140 kilometres east of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, the company’s goal is to extend its client base across Europe using Prodrive Hunter T1+ challengers, and facilitate the operation of the X Rally team itself in races outside of South America.
"X Rally Team is now authorized by Prodrive to operate the cars in a cooperative effort between the two organizations that involves training and an exchange between their professionals," said Beco Andreotti, CEO of X Rally Team.
"We are very excited about the opening of our base in Portugal and the partnership with Prodrive. We hope to leverage our experience and knowledge, along with Prodrive's know-how, to provide our customers with a competitive advantage to help them achieve their competition goals."
The first two cars acquired by the Sao Paulo based squad have been driven by brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart in the Rally Dos Sertões and the Sonora Rally (Mexico) round of the 2023 FIA World Rally Raid Championship running alongside fellow Prodrive Hunter T1+ competitors Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) who, with nine-times world rally champion Sébastien Loeb won a record six consecutive stage wins on the Dakar this year.
Gus Beteli, Head of Motorsport Performance, Prodrive, concludes,
"It is a pleasure for us to join forces with the X Rally Team. It is very gratifying to be able to show the power of the Prodrive Hunter T1+ in Europe and South America. I hope that with all the development in the car, that won more than half of the Dakar stages this year, together with the experience of X Rally will produce many victories for this partnership."
GALLERY
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Prodrive
Prodrive is one of the world’s largest and most successful motorsport and technology businesses. Over 500 staff are employed across its Banbury headquarters and composites manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes. While the company is perhaps best known for motorsport, today it is just one part of an organisation that in the last decade has diversified to become a technology business working in a range of sectors and providing a range of services. Within the Prodrive Group, there are four distinct but interconnected business areas: Motorsport, operating race and rally programmes for vehicle manufacturers and global brands; Advanced Technology, providing innovative technology for the automotive, aerospace, defence, and marine sectors; Composites, developing lightweight composite components for the automotive, aerospace and marine sectors; and Brand& developing bespoke clothing and accessories for leading brands.