The World Adventure Racing Championships (XPD Australia)
Oskalunga; All the Way from Brazil – With a Little Help From Their Friends
Rob Howard/Togumi / 25.10.2011
Oskalunga Kailash are a team who have been at the top of Brazilian racing for many years now, and they are travelling to Tasmania now thanks to the support of the AR community at home in Brazil.They received a place by a roundabout route after winning this year’s Ecomotion Pro expedition race against some strong international teams looking for a spot on the ARWC qualifiers list. However, the race organisers decided to withdraw from the World Series shortly before the race, but after all the teams had entered, so World Series owners Geocentric generously agreed to keep the free place open to the winners.
The team, which was established in 2001, has a strong track record, finishing 4th when ARWC was held in Brazil and having completed all the EcoMotion Pro races in the top 8, but they still needed to find additional funds to travel to Tasmania. For a while they were wondering if they could “sleep in some garages somewhere� when they got there, but were working hard to sell T-shirts to raise the money they needed.
In October they won Adventure Camp 2011, the top one-day race in Brazil (which they’ve won 6 times in its 10 year history) and this was where the teams fortunes looked up.
After explaining about the T-shirt sales an auction was won with a bid 10x the value of the shirt, then at the prize giving their victory speech was interrupted by the organizer with news that an anonymous benefactor had donated half the money they needed. This was soon followed by another anonymous donation to get the team close enough to their total. Thanks to this support the team were on their way to Tasmania!
Of the 4 racers travelling only Barbara Bomfim remains from the original 2001 team and she will be joined by squad members Rafael Melges and Diogo Malagone. To complete the team they invited Carlos Fonseca (nicknamed Caco) from Team Selva, after regular team member Frederico Gall was unable to travel to Tasmania.
[Having to find a late replacements is always a difficult situation for a team to find themselves in. South African team Cyanosis-Marquest International were faced with this dilemma after an injury to their female team member. They asked Jeannette Wylie if she could join them and she agreed, despite the fact she only got married last week. The happy couple have now had to postpone their honeymoon until after the race!]See All Event Posts
