The race stretches across more than 5,500 miles of grueling terrain from Argentina to Chile; General’s trio will be behind the wheel of a Ford F-150 Raptor fitted with Grabber competition tires.
Celebrated as the toughest and most widely watched motorsports event in the world, the Dakar Rally is hosting more than 350 teams from around the globe.
“This is an exciting sponsorship for General Tire,” says marketing director Travis Roffler. “We’ve made a major come- back in motorsports in the past few years, and sponsoring Team USA at the Dakar Rally is just another step in the plan. With the reported 4.1 million spectators and 2.2 billion television viewers the event had last year, this is the ultimate off-road sponsorship opportunity for us.”
Skilton is an accomplished off-road racer. Mead says her stint is “a dream come true.” Throughout a 22-year international automotive journalism career she has raced and test-driven a wide array of four-wheel vehicles. In 2008 she was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. Mead has three published books and has years of experience as an automotive editor for CNN.The third driver, Collins, has participated in numerous extreme adventures and “world firsts,” including the first motorized traverse of Madagascar, the first motorized crossing of Borneo, the first motorized traverse of Siberia’s Elictare River Valley and the first 4X4 crossing of Colorado along the Continental Divide.
Mead and Collins are celebrating their 60th birthdays during the race; they can be followed online at www.fordracingparts.com.
For more information visit www.generaltire.com.
