OILIBYA TUNISIA RALLY
FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup
Round 2

Terranova (BMW/BFGoodrich) picks up a maiden win

Argentina's Orlando Terranova secured the first FIA Cross-Country Rally Wold Cup
win of his career today after 4,000km of competition through the wastes of Tunisia and
Libya. Christian Lavieille (Nissan/BFGoodrich) once again finished on the podium,
joined third-placed Guerlain Chicherit (BMW/BFGoodrich) who made it an all-
BFGoodrich top three.

With a total route length of more than 4,000km through Tunisia and Libya, the Oilibya Tunisia
Rally was the longest round of this year's Cross-Country Rally World Cup. BFGoodrich's
partners in the prototype category used the same All-Terrain tyre which won January's Dakar
with Volkswagen.

The works VW/BFGoodrich team had chosen to give this week's competition a miss, so the
fight for victory was expected to be a shootout between the BFGoodrich-equipped BMW X3
CCs of Chicherit, Terranova and Novitskiy), the latest Buggy-Schlesser/BFGoodrich and
Christian Lavieille's Nissan Proto/BFGoodrich.

Guerlain Chicherit followed up his victory on the opening round in Dubai by claiming the
super-special which kicked off proceedings, but his team-mate Orlando Terranova was
fastest on the first two proper stages before Chicherit responded with the best time through
the canyons of SS4.

Things didn't go quite so well for BMW/BFGoodrich on SS5 (624km) – the longest stage ever
organised in the history of the Rallye de Tunisie – which ran from Derj to Oubari. All three
BMW X3 CC drivers dropped valuable time on this one, while Lavieille (Nissan/BFGoodrich)
took first place to set himself up for a podium finish.

Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit saw his final hopes of victory fade with a turbo problem on
SS7, but that wasn't the end of BMW/BFGoodrich's troubles since Novitskiy went on to crash
out heavily on SS10 while running third. The Russian and his co-driver were helicoptered to
hospital in Djerba and the stage was neutralised for the car runners.

The final stage didn't have any effect on the overall order which meant that Orlando
Terranova was able to take his first win ahead of Christian Lavieille and Guerlain Chicherit
who continues to top the provisional championship standings. Pascal Thomasse was fourth
overall and the first buggy driver home, ahead of Jean-Louis Schlesser and his new Buggy-
Porsche/BFGoodrich.

Dominique Bravy (BFGoodrich Cross-Country rally technician): "This long rally featured
a wide range of terrains, including dunes, rough portions, stony tracks and sand. It was
basically a pot pourri of what Africa has to offer. Our T1 4x4 category partners used the All-
Terrain which proved strong and quick in the sand, while the Buggy runners ran the familiar
Baja T/A."

Final positions:
1, Terranova/Palmeiro (BMW/BFGoodrich). 2, Lavieille/Debron (Nissan/BFGoodrich). 3,
Chicherit/Thorner (BMW/BFGoodrich). Etc.