BREAKING NEWS: 28/11/2008

WALKER ECOSSE AND FRONT ROW GB COMPLETE THE NEXT STEP TO BUENOS AIRES

The pace of the Dakar Rally begins to gather momentum into a new era of challenges, as the competitors and support crews gather in the port of Le Havre, France for the technical and administrative scrutineering. Over the course of December their vehicles will be transported to Buenos Aires in Argentina for the start of the first Dakar Rally to be competed outside the African continent.

The obligatory early mornings and late nights have been part of Front Row GB’s build up, in order to prepare their bikes and support facility for the all important scrutineering stages of the rally. With Le Havre being as much of a home location as the Dakar Rally will ever be to Front Row GB, it was decided the use of the local ferry services from Portsmouth for the support truck, with the overnight sailing directly into Le Havre, while the rest of the Team would make use of the Channel Tunnel departing 3am hoping to convince the organisors if would be better to let them start scrutineering 7 hours earlier than expected.

Simon Pavey from BMW World and Off Road Skills is associated with Front Row GB and Walker Ecosse for the 2009 Dakar Rally and the group successfully made their way through scrutineering at 11am on 26th November rather than waiting to the designated time of 6.15pm. This proved to be a bonus with scrutineering for the 3 riders and support crew being completed in one day rather than being spread over two. Even though it is a reduced administration sector of the rally, with further scrutineering in Buenos Aires, the Team was not complete with vehicles ready to board the transport ships until 8.30pm, taking a total of 9 ½ hours.

Front Row GB is well prepared for the new adventures of South America with the new KTM 690 Rally being the motorcycles of choice. The manufacturers have made some minor but essential modifications to the 2009 model as the bike is still (in theory) in development after only being released to the public in 2007.

The Team have again put together an exceptional package with Walker Ecosse and their MAN 6x6 support truck including Stuart Walker, Gordon MacDonald and for the 2009 Dakar, Dave Marton fresh from the Yamaha Italia World Superbike squad. The ingredients of the Front Row GB recipe for South America will hopefully let them challenge the more financially supported factory teams and compete at the highest level.

FOR FULL TEAM DETAILS AND EVENTS GO TO:

WWW.FRONTROWGB.COM