Wildcats shine at Tuareg Rally

The 2012 Tuareg Rally saw no less than eight Qt Wildcats entered in the professional class for what was to prove to be a fantastic event over the course of the 8 day event.

Starting in Almeria, scrutineering was conducted at the Spanish port before the start of the Rally from Nador
in Morocco.

From day one the Wildcat and their crews showed how competitive they are with the teaming of Alwin Oud & Mark Luijckx (Team Alwin) taking the stage with Steve Ingels & Phillip Cornette following closely behind in 2nd.

The two Race2Recovery cars of Qt’s Dave Marsh & Tom Neathway and Tony Harris & Ben Gott also figured in the Top 10 of the first day.

Day 2 saw the first real performance from Qt’s all new V6 diesel with the father and son pairing of Fodil & Zeyd Allahoum claiming the 3rd spot overall for the day.

“The Wildcat performed faultlessly in all of the conditions from high speed hard terrain to the vast dunes of the Erg Chebi desert,” said Qt’s MD and Driver, Dave Marsh. “The highlight of our Rally came on Day 5 where we claimed overall victory for the dune race stage where the huge soft dunes claimed so many other cars.  Racing in such an extreme environment really emphasised the Wildcat’s performance and it was greatly satisfying to see the 2nd car home was the Wildcat of Team Alwin. Not even an end-over-end roll prevented the Harris/Gott Wildcat from continuing!”

UK Wildcat Owner & Driver Dave Holland accompanied by his experienced co-driver Dan Lofthouse (current Border Hill Rally Champion) relished the conditions pitting themselves against the tough conditions thrown at them by the event organisers.

Piloting the Qt works Wildcat were Justin Birchall and Jonny Koonja who soon adjusted to the long stages after being used to the more short circuit British Cross Country Championship events posting a stage win on Day 7.

Flying the flag for France, Gaetan GE & Annie Gauvineali performed well and used the event to test their newly developed Sadev sequential gearbox.

Full service & support was provided by the expert technicians from Qt which assured that all Wildcats were ready to go every morning. Fraser Parish, Wildcat Support Team said, “This has been a great event and a fantastic opportunity for us to see the cars that we hand build doing what they are meant to do.”

Overall Results
2nd - Ingels/Cornette
5th - Oud/Luijckx
10th - Marsh/Neathway
21st - Birchall/Koonja
22nd - Holland/Lofthouse
25th - Harris/Gott
33rd - Alahoum/Alahoum
36th - GE/Gauvineali

Posted in: Almeria,Alwin Oud,Border Hill Rally,British Cross Country Championship,Dave Holland,Fraser Parish,Jonny Koonja,Justin Birchall,Morocco,Qt,Race2Recovery,Rally,Steve Ingels,Tuareg Rally,Wildcats