Qatar’s Adel Abdulla, French off-road racer Matthieu Serradori and teammates Benjamin and Cedric Bujon overcame an awful start to climb back from the foot of the massive field to finish a superb 12th overall and third in their category at the 27th edition of the 24H Tout Terrain de France at the Circuit de Fontaine-Fourches yesterday.
After a disappointing qualifying session and losing many laps following an early accident, the MMP (Micouleu Mécanique Précision) Rallye Raid Team-built Buggy managed to complete 180 laps of the demanding northern French circuit and finished 34 tours behind the overall winning Can-Am Maverick of the French trio of Sébastien Guyette, Pascal Mercier and Maxime Fourmaux.
Adel said: “It was a very enjoyable and one of the most difficult races that I did in my life. It was not easy. To make the strategy beforehand with the team, you could really feel the teamwork in this race, especially with everyone pushing for a good result ”
Adel and his French team faced a daunting fight back through the field. They were classified in 24th position in the overall standings after 17 hours of racing. The MMP Rallye Raid entry had amassed 112 laps and were running 35 tours behind the leaders, having run a best lap of 5min 55.655sec.
At this point, the overall leaders were Guyette, Mercier and Fourmaux in a Can-Am Maverick entered in the SSV category. The leaders in the T1A category were the third-placed Mitsubishi Pajero crew of Igora and Rudolfo Skoks and Arvis Pikis and they held on to secure the class win at the finish.
Qatar’s Adel Abdulla in action at the 24-hour Tout Terrain de France.
