Oli Bennett "XITEd" to make World RX return in Barcelona

PHOTO CREDIT: Oliver Bennett.

Oliver Bennett will return to the FIA World Rallycross Championship for the upcoming Catalunya curtain-raiser on 23/24 July, as the XITE Racing squad aims to showcase the improvements brought to their MINI Cooper Supercar since they last took to the track.

The 28-year-old's first full World Championship campaign came in 2019, reaching the semi-final stage at Silverstone and in South Africa, while he repeated the feat in his lone appearance last year in Barcelona.

Now, Bennett is looking forward to returning to the cockpit at the same circuit in just under a month’s time, as he prepares to put his upgraded MINI through its paces.

"I’m really excited to be back in Barcelona," Bennett said. "Because of coronavirus, Spain was the only World RX round I competed in last year. Even though I hadn’t been in the car much and it was my first time in the Mini, I still made it to the semi-finals."

Since the last outing for XITE Racing in October last year, his team has updated its Mini SX1. 

"The car’s had some updates and we should be getting more speed from the Mini, so I want to be looking to the semi-finals and beyond. I’ve had more seat time, done more testing, and have a really good feeling with the car," he explains.

Bennett is well aware of the challenges that he faces in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, having competed in 22 events across four seasons with his best result coming in Barcelona last year - 11th place overall. 

"Obviously, this is a world championship, so we know there’s going to be a lot of quality drivers out there. Let’s see who’s coming and what they’ve got. A top-10 would be a decent result, but I’m secretly chasing the top six," he said.

"Oh, yeah. Well, a top-six would be a mega result. The main thing for me is to get back in the car. I can’t wait to be back in the Mini – it feels like I haven’t raced it for a long time now. And I like Barcelona, it’s a cool place. It’s the place I first watched a WRX race. The fans are great, the atmosphere’s really nice and it’s a pretty sick track too."

XITE Racing has confirmed that they are considering an entry in World RX of Germany at the Nürburging on July 31-August 1.

Later this season, the British team will focus their attention on the all-American Nitro Rallycross series, starting with a September season-opener in Salt Lake City. The all-American series is a five-round, coast-to-coast tour that includes action as far west as Glen Helen Raceway in California and The FIRM, Florida in the other direction.

"Nitro Rallycross is really exciting for us," Bennett says. "We’re working very hard with XITE Energy in North America right now and the chance to go out there and take the brand and the car on a tour through some of the coolest tracks in America is something I’m very excited about."

This year’s Nitro campaign is just a precursor to the real deal, as XITE Racing confirms that they are the first team to sign up for next year’s all-electric NRX series.

"The main focus of our NRX effort is looking forward to the FC1-X. The Extreme E Odyssey 21 all-electric racer is a cool thing, but this RX car is just insane," he says. "When the lights go green at NRX next year, we’ll be fired into the future by the electrical equivalent of 1000bhp." 

Dakar 2021: Sweet and sour day for South-Africans

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool. 

Written By: Franco Theron - NamWheels

The 2021 Dakar Rally is now at its midway point and much can already be taken from the first week of racing. In both the motorbike- and car categories, the fight is extremely tight. 

Honda, Yamaha, and KTM seem to be inseparable with the top 5 times overall after every stage, being within seconds from one another. While Yamaha is still to win a stage in this year’s Dakar, it is Ross Branch and Andrien van Beveren, who can be said to be the most consistent of all the current top riders. 

In the car category, the X-Raid Mini’s seemed to play a very strategic game early on, but Toyota fought back with an even better approach. After stage 4, the lead between the Mini of Stephane Peterhansel (Mini) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) was a mere 5 minutes. 

Stating that the marathon stages, leading up to-and continuing after the rest day, would be the stages to attack, Al-Attiyah knew well that these stages were two of the most technical and demanding of the edition. 

Leading up to the rest day, this is how the motorbike and car categories got on. 

Honda going strong 

Stage 4 winner, Joan Barreda Bort (Honda) started the stage first and evidently did not hold back. Having taken his 27th Dakar victory, the Spaniard was keen on climbing his way back into the overall contention. So to was his teammates, Kevin Benavides and Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo. Yet, by the second checkpoint, Barreda Bort seemed to have lost a chunk of time to the stage leaders’ duo to a navigational error. Similarly, the Yamaha of Van Beveren fell into the same error. 

For most of the stage, the Honda’s of Cornejo Florimo and Benavides led the stage, with overall contender, Xavier de Soultrait (Husqvarna) threatening the leading times. 

Benavides did, however, take the stage lead from his teammate during the end of the stage, with Barreda Bort seemingly losing more time as the stage progressed. In the end, Benavides won the stage ahead of Cornejo Florimo to make it another Honda 1-2 stage win. 

Ultimately, this also propelled Benavides into the overall lead, ahead of de Soultrait. 

Branch ever-consistent 

Signing for the Monster Energy Yamaha Rally team after two highly successful first years in the race, Ross Branch proves to once again be the ever consistent, smiling rider. 

Even more importantly, the Botswanian has remained within or close to the top 5 overall positions, even though the leaders around him are trading positions constantly. Whilst Yamaha has already seen one retirement early on, Branch proves to be the leading Yamaha rider: besting even his highly experienced teammate, van Beveren. 

This can mainly be attributed to a cautious approach and one without too many navigational errors. 

Branch is also now positioned as the sole Yamaha in the top 10 and with a shot at overall victory. A mere 8:24 behind de Soultrait and 6:18 behind Cornejo Florimo, Branch is perfectly positioned to attack on Saturday. However, Kevin Benavides on the Honda seems to have found his rhythm and is now almost 11 minutes ahead. 

Toyota vs Mini 

Just before the start of stage 5, Peterhansel was handed a one-minute penalty for unknown reasons. This would bring the leading two competitors of Peterhansel and Nasser Al-Attiyah to within four minutes. 

Opening the stage for a third time in succession, Al-Attiyah lost time to Peterhansel at the start, but quickly gained on the Frenchman to trail him by a mere 23 seconds at the 155km mark. However, by the next 197km mark, this gap grew by two minutes.  

Peterhansel reached the finish to put almost 3 more minutes into his lead over Al-Attiyah. Yet, this was not quick enough to win the stage, meaning that he will not open the road on Saturday, but rather the Toyota of de Villiers. 

Will Toyota play a tactical game with Peterhansel, come Saturday?  

South-Africans flying the flag high

It was a win-lose situation for Toyota and South-Africa. While bad news came through for Lategan, Giniel de Villiers managed to take stage honours today, recording the fastest time at every checkpoint. 

Erik van Loon (Overdrive Toyota) was hot on his heels, until Brian Baragwanath (Century Racing) and Martin Prokop (Benzina Orlen) took over the contention for second on stage. 

Baragwanath looked set to make it a first stage win, until de Villiers once again bested his finishing time by a full 5:45 minutes, with Prokop finishing in third. 

It would therefore be a good day for South Africans as it would record a 1-2 stage finish. 

Sainz unable to defend his 2020 title? 

As of 2020, a three-time Dakar winner, the multiple World Rally Champion, Carlos Sainz, seems to be unable to repeat success at this years’ edition. The Spaniard lost half an hour to the leading pair of Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah on stage 3, when he made a navigational error and again lost considerable time on the fifth stage. 

Racing through the first checkpoint at 43km, he already lost 28:40 minutes to the stage leader, Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing) and more importantly, around 20 minutes to his two overall contenders. 

Magical rookie Lategan

Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) already proved his worth in only his first year of Dakar racing. The two-time South-African cross-country driver and former rally-ace not only challenged his much more experienced teammates in the third and fourth stage, but managed to finish stage 3 in second position, whilst just being pipped by Peterhansel in the following stage to end in third. 

Starting third on stage 5, the same navigational headache as for Sainz and Sebastien Loeb (BRX) seemed to haunt the young South-African. Soon thereafter, news came through that the Lategan and his co-driver were taken to the start of the stage again for medical treatment as they rolled their Hilux in the stage. 

This is a huge blow to the race as Lategan’s form started to rival stage winning times. Would he have raced on, the South African would have certainly ended the race as the top rookie? 

Certainly, a big learning curve, may this be a future Dakar winner in the making?