McRae returns to challenge for Dakar success

15th December 2011

By Giles Wade

 

Alister McRae will challenge for overall honours on next year’s Dakar, when he returns to the South American event for the first time in three years.

McRae has been announced as a last-minute addition to the Dutch Team Prodakar outfit, where he will be co-driven in a McRae Enduro 4x4 by Michel de Groot.

The Scot will drive one of the three-litre turbo-diesel-engined T1 class cars he helped develop on the January 1-15 event. Team Prodakar has four entries on the Dakar next month.

The McRae Enduro 4x4 has been heavily developed in the last 12 months and now features an improved transmission and engine specification. McRae and his Team Prodakar team-mates will be up against an X Raid Mini team which includes nine-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel. Last year’s winner Nasser Al Attiyah will defend his title at the wheel of a Hummer, having recently signed for Robby Gordon’s team.

The marathon event will be McRae's first outing since he clinched his first ever FIA title, the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, on the final round in China last month.