ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Amauteur driver Thomas Edward Bell and navigator Patrick McMurren of Dubai-based race team Sabertooth Motoring Adventures have successfully completed another international cross country race with their Red-Lined built T1 Nissan Navara. Bell and McMurren finished third in the T1.1 category and ninth overall in this week's Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Red-Lined Motoring Adventure is an official marketing partner with Nissan South Africa. The company focuses on building custom off-road race cars and trucks that are marketed and sold around the world. The Nissan entries are purpose-built T1 Dakar Navaras powered by a VK50 engine.
"We are absolutely delighted with this incredible result among a strong international field in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is regarded as one of the toughest desert races in the world — it runs over the dunes all the way and the Liwa Desert offers among the most complicated and difficult dune challenges out there. They say that if you can master Abu Dhabi and the Liwa Desert, you can pretty much handle any other dunes that you may come across around the world," said Bell.
The 2019 cross country season has been marked by success for Bell and McMurren. After finishing the grueling Dakar Rally on their first attempt, they went on to place eighth in the Dubai International Baja.
"So we took all challenges the Liwa Desert threw at us and despite sandstorms making the already difficult going quite treacherous and managing to get stuck a few times, our Red-Lined Nissan Navara once again ran like clockwork to make it three finishes on the trot, which is something that we are extremely proud of!" said Bell.
Bell and McMurren were not the only Red-lined partners to place in this year's event. Saudi Arabian Essa Aldossary and his UAE navigator Ali Hassan placed 12th overall in the team's second T1 Nissan Navara.
"For us, it is all about the journey and the adventure that comes with it, but we also managed to bring home a great result, which was a great team effort between my Sabertooth team and our partners at Red-Lined," said Bell. "Our adventure is fast becoming an incredible journey, which we don't really want to end and we are now looking forward to ticking off more bucket list items starting with the Morocco Desert Challenge next week — we can't wait to get back into action!"
The Sabertooth crew of Bell and McMurren, together with the technical support of Red-Lined, now take their T1 Nissan Navara straight to Morocco for the 3000km 8-day Desert Challenge.
Contact
Karen Van Wyk
Red-Lined Motoring Adventure Marketing
karen@redlined.co.za
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