Team Saluki – A V8 in P8
The team received fantastic news today when they learned that they had been seeded 8th of the 37 starters in autos for this year's Desert Challenge. Thanks to their great finish last year, 7th overall, 4th in the T2 category, the team have broken into the top 10 seedings for the first time in this, their 6th Desert Challenge.
Mark & Tim will once again be racing against Stephan Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret, who finished behind the Saluki in last year's race, and against Joan Roma and Henri Magne who they first met in last year's Qatar Baja. The Fitech and Liberty Team are local rivals from the U.A.E., whilst Bruce Garland has been racing in the Desert Challenge for many years and is well known to Mark. Dave Mabbs, who shared the Saluki bivouac last year, has a new co-driver Michael Hannagan and is seeded 24th, one place ahead of David Gabbis & Xavier Caminada who also race locally in their T2 Pathfinder.
In order to catch all the excitement from the race, Sony Broadcast & Professional have loaned the team their latest semi-professional film camera, the HV-A1E. It is a High Definition camera and so will be recording material in broadcast quality. The team hope to offer this footage to production companies around the world immediately after the race.
Unfortunately the HD-TV tape length is just 63 minutes and with stages taking as long as 5 hours, Tim will be operating the camera by remote control and hoping to record the most exciting action. The camera will be mounted just behind the pair's heads from a cross beam on the roll-cage, so the footage might include a few choice words when the going gets tough. We just hope the sound track can be edited...! Another feature of the camera is its ability to automatically take a still photograph every minute or every five minutes, even when filming. With sufficient memory installed, Mark & Tim hope to capture some memorable photos of the view from the cock-pit of the Saluki racer. Some of these these may be posted on the web-site within minutes of the end of each day's racing so look out for the updates.
Follow the action on
www.teamsaluki.comRegards
Team Saluki
