MINI ALL4 Racing to compete at the Hungarian Baja, 11-14th August – round 6 of the 2016 FIA Cross Country World Cup.

Press release

10 August 2016

MINI ALL4 Racing to compete at the Hungarian Baja, 11-14th August – round 6 of the 2016 FIA Cross Country World Cup.

Three MINI ALL4 Racing to undertake the longstanding Hungarian Baja with drivers Mikko Hirvonen (FIN), Bryce Menzies (USA) and Erik van Loon (NDL).

Munich. Now in its 16th year, the Hungarian Baja is a proven and very popular race to feature on the FIA Cross Country World Cup calendar. The action for this four day event begins on Thursday 11th August and concludes Sunday 14th August.

The Hungarian Baja will start once again in the territory of Veszprém city with regulatory administrative checks and scrutineering of all competing vehicles. Racing gets underway on the evening of Friday (12th), when competitors assemble at Óváros Square before making their way to the start of Stage 1 and the Super Special Stage (SSS) – an against the clock race comprising of spectacular action over a specially devised 10.3 km circuit.

The end results of the SSS will determine the race order for Stage 2 (Saturday 13th) and the start of Special Stages 2 and3. Sunday (Stage 4) will see the last kilometres of this 675 km event unfold to produce the winning competitor on the foothills of Bakony.

Three MINI ALL4 Racing are to compete at the Hungarian Baja. In MINI ALL4 Racing (race number: #1) is Bryce Menzies (USA) with co-driver and fellow American Peter Mortensen. Once again Menzies is reunited with his MINI ALL4 Racing to net further long-distance cross-country rally experience with this iconic car.

Also under the banner of X-raid Team is fellow (#2) MINI ALL4 Racing crew Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) and co-driver Michel Périn (FRA). Hirvonen is also looking forward to his time in Hungary and will be pushing hard – not purely for the win but also for further testing and development of the MINI ALL4 Racing.

After a short break, the Dutch pairing of Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar are also back in the thick of cross-country rally in a MINI ALL4 Racing (#5). These two Dakar Rally and desert rally regulars are the voice of experience across varied conditions and their testing input is very much respected.

The rolling landscape of rocks, streams, jumps, gravel and hard packed terrain of the Hungarian Baja will prove to be a severe testbed for all competitors – a scenario relished by the MINI ALL4 racing crews, but especially the experienced service and development team within the X-raid camp. All technical eyes are now focussing on the 2017 Dakar Rally, where the marriage of reliability and performance is a major key to success.

For further information about the Hungarian Rally, please visit: Hungarian Baja 2016

2016 Hungarian Baja : MINI ALL4 Racing line up

Race calendar: 2016 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.

19/02 – 22/02 Baja Russia
02/04 – 7/04 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge
17/04 – 22/04 Sealine Cross-Country Rally Qatar
23/06 – 26/06 Italian Baja
22/07 – 24/07 Baja Aragón
11/08 – 14/08 HunGarian Baja

25/08 – 28/08 Baja Poland

03/10 – 08/10 Rallye Oilibya du Maroc
21/10 – 23/10 Baja Portalegre 500

Find reports, photos and videos in high resolution of previous MINI ALL4 Racing activity on the BMW Media Website by clicking here.