The Quest to Qualify for the 2008 Adventure Racing World Championship
04.06.2008
The countdown is on as teams race through the events in the northern hemisphere summer with a chance to win a coveted spot to compete in the Adventure Racing World Championship in Brazil during the first week of November.Each team who wins a ARWorld Series race gains automatic and free entry to the World Championship. Some of the events in the ARWorld Series which act as qualifiers to this years championship have already been contested. In Australia the XPD Australia, The Raid in France, the Ecomotion Brazil '07 and the Portugal XPD have all produced winners. They are joined this year by the champions of the Bergson Winter Challenge in Poland, the Baja Traversia in Mexico, the Southern Traverse in New Zealand and the Bimbache Extrem in Spain.
Already the winners of these events reads like a who's who in the adventure racing world. From the 'spiritual home' of adventure racing in New Zealand, Orionhealth.com and Team NZ (the Richard Ussher lead team) will face the might of Europe's best with Les Arcs Quechua, the powerful Swiss/French team, Teva-La Pinilla from Spain and Navigator Suunto Poldim from Poland.
From America the winners of the Baja Traversia Dart/Nuun will also be on the start line in Brazil.
The next event in the Series is the new Irish event The Turas which has attracted a stellar field with it's 150,000 euros prize money. This is followed in August by the Bull of Africa with a huge field of 54 teams is set to line up for the challenge in the Eastern Cape. The last chance to qualify for the championship this year will be the Explore Sweden race in September
This will be the chance for the always strong Swedish teams to make their mark on the AR Series this year. However already teams like Explore Sweden and Bjurfors Adventure Racing Team have confirmed their entry to the Championship.
The ARWorld Series continues to grow steadily with 372 teams starting a ARWorld Series event during the '07 racing season with 276 teams finishing and qualifying to apply for a position in the ARWorld Champs.
