Al Qassimi to race a Peugeot 3008

November 13 ^th 2017 - 16:53

“I come from the desert so I am obviously thrilled about spending seven days in the dunes”, immediately warns Khalid al Qassimi as he looks forward to the 2018 Dakar and in particular to the first week of competition that will take place in Peru on a terrain he particularly likes. When he was growing up, Khalid spent most of his free time surfing the dunes of his father’s camel farm some 250 kilometres from Abu Dhabi in a buggy, on a quad or on a motorcycle. A few decades later, his driving skills are finely honed and after having taken part in over 30 rounds of the WRC, the UAE native decided to take on the Dakar. His first experience last January showed both his potential and limitations after he retired from the rally on stage 11… while in 10th place in the general classification. Al Qassimi raced the 2008 DKR and now he will have Peugeot’s latest rally-raid creation, the 3008 DKR Maxi, which is the same car that will be raced by Peterhansel and Loeb but prepared by the PH Sport team. This is an exciting but also an apprehensive time for the rally-raid newcomer, who has brought in Xavier Panseri as his co-driver. “This is a new rally-route, with a new car and a new co-driver. Most importantly, we must not get lost and pay attention on the narrow tracks because of the rather large size of the Maxi. But I hope to be the big surprise of the rally”.