Schlesser Dominates DAKAR on FOX Racing Shox With Victory!

FOX Racing Shox Athlete - Tom Geviss Blazes the Dakar Rally in Stage 4

Story - DIRTnewz Staff / Photos Courtesy of Motorsport.com

Santee, California (January 9, 2007) Blasting through the massive sand dunes of Morocco, Jean Louis Schlesser dominated the field during the incredibly challenging Stage 4 that nearly demolished some of the world's best off road racers. As the sun rose over the African desert and illuminated the course for Stage 4, competitors lined up in their previous day's finishing order for the 407.4 mile stage that included a Special Stage consisting of 243 tortueous miles. That compares to about the same distance as the famed SCORE San Felipe 250 held along the pristine coast of Mexico's Sea of Cortez along the scenic Baja Peninsula.

Facing the most difficult stage the 29th Edition of the Dakar Rally, FOX Racing Shox sponsored Jean Louis Schlesser drove his machine to a dominating performance across the massive sand dunes of the Morrocan desert, as well as defying the rock-pounding race course through the treacherous canyons. Fitted with the advanced technology derived at FOX Racing Shox, Schlesser drove away from the field in the early stages as he started from mid-pack.

Utilizing FOX Racing Shox and BFGoodrich Tires, Schlesser commanded a performance second to none as he handed the factory teams a beating in this first challenging stage. Completing the stage in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 54 seconds, Schlesser beat his closest rival by a whopping eight minutes.

Although, Schlesser's victory was rewarding, the African desert stung competitors in the 2007 edition of the Dakar Rally. American supported motorcycle racer, Elmer Symons, paid the ultimate price as he sped across the desert in his first ever Dakar Rally crashing to his death on the desert floor. Symons had previously held a mechanic position on two Dakar Rally teams, however this year was his year to conquer Dakar.

Symons, a South African residing in the United States died while riding through a section that had been marked "dangerous." The accident occurred during the fourth special stage at approximately 9:10 a.m. Race headquarters received a tracking alert and within eight minutes a ASO medical helicopter was on scene and confirmed his death only ten minutes later.

Dakar has long been regarded by thrill-seeking adventurers as the "ultimate challenge" in off road motorsports.

"First and foremost, I'm devastated by the death of this young rider," stated Schlesser when he learned about Elmer Symons' fatality. "It's really terrible news. As far as today is concerned, I hadn't especially aimed to win here, but I knew that it was possible," the French racer continued.

"I'm rather proud to have finished in front of big teams like Mitsubishi and Volkswagen. It shows that I can be competitive, even on my own and even with the resources I have. At any rate, it's a good motivation to keep on taking the race to them."

Schlesser previously had corporate sponsorship, but that was sidelined in the weeks leading up to this year's race and he decided to launch a single-vehicle attack on what has been regarded by many to be the most difficult off road race in the world.

FOX Racing Shox Vice-President, John Marking remarked, "Schlesser ran well today in the first of the many difficult challenging stages of this year's race. He has an incredible amount of experience and he's a very talented driver."

Driving the #556 MAN race truck for Robby Gordon Motorsports is yet another athlete sponsored by FOX Racing Shox, Tom Geviss. Geviss is an intregal part of John Marking's off road race team and performs duties as the regular co-driver. Geviss was tapped by Robby Gordon to drive his MAN race support truck that is entered as a race vehicle in this year's race.

Geviss and his navigators, Will Higman and Paul Mischel, were reported by Bloomberg News of London, England to have become lost while racing towards the ferry for the ocean crossing at the end of Stage 2 in Seville, Portugal. Reports across the wire stated they were assisted in navigation by local police. Police joked in their statement that they better not get lost in the desert because patrols don't extend beyond the city.

Geviss finished the harsh stage four 1 hour and 58 minutes behind the truck leader, Russian drivers - Tchaguine, Yakubov and Savostin. Of course, the MAN L90 Robby Gordon Motorsports Monster/Toyo Tires truck is not equipped as a so-called race truck, but is packed down with a huge load of parts, supplies and gear needed to support the #320 HUMMER race car driven by team owner-Robby Gordon.

Geviss is a five-time SCORE Baja 1000 winner competing in his first-ever Dakar Rally and is facing the longest most difficult off road adventure of his storied career. After four stages of racing the United States entry, #556 MAN L09, has a total time of 13 hours, 54 minutes and 37 seconds, which is only an hour back of his team owner, Gordon, racing the HUMMER H3 and sitting at 12 hours, 54 minutes and 19 seconds.

Gordon has struggled to overcome obstacles that have plagued him from the start. In Stage 1 he had a clutch adjustment issue and in Stage 2 he became mired in the mud and then today in Stage 4 he suffered more bad luck with contaminated fuel, which created more problems for the NASCAR Nextel Cup racer.

Stay tuned in the coming days as we'll bring you direct reports from FOX Racing Shox personnel that will be at Atar, Africa during the rest day.

Visit www.foxracingshox.com