Nissan quit the dunes
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ByEurosport
Published 04/03/2005 at 02:37 GMT
Colin McRae, Ari Vatanen and Giniel de Villiers will be forced to find a new team for next year's Dakar following the announcement that Nissan is to end its works team. Customer pickups will be available to privateer teams, to which Nissan will provide technical support.
“Competing in the Dakar enabled Nissan to communicate its core strength and expertise in 4x4 technology and off-road durability,” commented Brian Carolin, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Nissan Europe, which deals with one of the major SUV and 4x4 markets.
“Our focus will now switch to a broader range of communications activities to support our aggressive new model launch schedule over the next three years.”
Nissan first entered Dakar as a works team in 2003 campaigning the Nissan Pickup. Over the course of the last three Dakar Rally Raids, Nissan proved itself as a strong and reliable competitor, regularly winning stages and finishing strongly in each race.
In addition, the experience gained from Dakar was used to power Nissan to victory in Rally Raid races across Europe, such as Baja Portalegre or in Morocco and Turkey.
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