International Teams Watch Raid Quotas

Rob / 16.04.2004

A record 80 teams from 18 countries have already signed up for the 2004 X-adventure Raid Series, hoping to get to the Raid World Championship, which will close the season at the end of November, in Argentina. They come from countries all over the world, including Finland, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Poland, the United States and Spain, and will be looking to claim the places in the final set aside for teams from their region.

This quota system will ensure the final has 30 teams from all over the world taking part, and also offers a great opportunity for new teams to move up and compete on the world stage. What’s more all ranked teams in the final will win US$5000, which will go some way towards meeting the cost of getting to Argentina. (The winners will get $50,000 and the total prize fund is $230,000.)

The zones and places available are as follows:

Zone I: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland = 4 places
Zone II: U.K., Ireland = 2 places
Zone III: Germany, Austria, Italy = 3 places
Zone IV: France, Switzerland, Benelux countries = 7 places
Zone V: Eastern European country, Russia = 3 places
Zone VI: Spain, Portugal, Africa, Arab Peninsula = 3 places
Zone VII: Americas (North and South) = 5 places
Zone VIII: Asia, Oceania = 3 places

The best scores will be calculated on 3 results. With the series races taking place on 4 continents this does favour teams with the budgets to travel, but it may also offer new teams a way into the World Final.

Zone 2, the UK and Ireland is a good example. The winners of last year’s series final in New Caledonia, Team Saab Salomon, would be expected to get to the Final (esp. as they are racing all the series stages), but there is another place for a British or Irish team, and as yet no more are entered. Any British or Irish team scoring some points in the more accessible races in Morocco and the Alps could find themselves on the way to Argentina. (And the majority nationality of the 4 competitors determines where a team comes from, so it might be only 2 racers need to come from UK/Ireland.)