N° 330 - TEAM X-RAID ARGENTINA
- KUIPERS
- Rene
- NLD
- 09/02/1960
- 185 cm
- 90 kg
|
- PALMEIRO
- Filipe
- PRT
- 11/07/1977
- 174 cm
- 72 kg
|
| MODEL |
MAKE |
| X3 CC |
BMW |
 |
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
|
| Scratch |
21
|
25
|
23
|
19
|
13
|
20
|
21
|
12
|
12
|
13
|
-
|
42
|
14
|
7
|
| Stage |
21
|
25
|
23
|
19
|
13
|
19
|
21
|
11
|
11
|
13
|
-
|
41
|
14
|
7
|
-
|
-
|
| Overall |
21
|
21
|
19
|
17
|
14
|
10
|
10
|
9
|
9
|
8
|
-
|
19
|
19
|
18
|
-
|
-
|
René Kuipers : «I will never again race a motorcycle»
An undreamed of return. René Kuipers wasn’t supposed to take part in the 2009 Dakar. “A month before the rally, BMW called to ask me if I could drive for them.” The Dutchman didn’t need long to think it over. “One day and then I said yes.” A return, thus, because René Kuipers already tried his luck on the Dakar. It was in 2006 on a motorcycle. A bad memory. «On day 5, just 6 kilometres from the finish, I fell on a large rock. I broke my arm and was forced to drop out.” It took a year and a half for René to fully recover. The injury was gone but the trauma remained: “I thought I will never again race a motorcycle.”
It will thus be aboard a BMW X-3 and alongside his Portuguese co-driver Filipe Palmeiro that the Dutchman sets of on a “new challenge”, with an ambition of “a place in the top 20”. To attain this objective, the experience of Filipe Palmeiro will be vital. Palmeiro has already competed twice on the Dakar and has put in a dozen rallies with the X-3 that he knows inside and out. He also knows Argentina after having taken part in several events there. René Kuipers, a former biker, is far from being a four-wheel novice after having taken part in numerous rallies across Europe (Germany, France, Belgium and England) for nearly 20 years.
Despite a preparation regiment limited by time, René believes he’s ready. An intensive fitness programme, tests with the car, analysing the maps pf Argentina and Chile and training in Berlin, in a pressure chamber to “understand how the body reacts at altitude”: the team has done its job. But there is the rest: “The Dakar”, explains René, is 40% the car, 40% the navigation and driving and 20% luck.”
Dakar start photos on line: www.maindruphoto.com