Petersen/White Lightning Announces 2008 Dakar Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing Announces 2008 Dakar Program




Michael Petersen to Drive American-Made, Purpose-Built Buggy in Effort's Second Year

ENSENADA, Mexico, May 31, 2007 - Team owner and driver Michael Petersen (Las Vegas, 
Nev., USA) announced his team's program for the 
Euromilhões Dakar 2008 today. For the team's 
second assault on the world's most difficult 
motorsports event Petersen will wheel a buggy 
purpose-built and designed in the United States for 
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing. The 
lead entry in a possible three-car effort will be driven 
by Petersen and Matthew Stevenson (Ipswich, 
England) in the January 5-20, 2008 Rally-Raid through 
Africa. The two drivers combined in the two-time 24 
Hours of Le Mans class-winning team's first foray at 
Dakar earlier this year with an impressive finish of 
23rd overall, fifth in the two-wheel drive class. Today's 
announcement and unveiling of the 2008 T1.3 class 
buggy came as Dakar sanctioning body officials 
Etienne Lavigne (Dakar Director) and Fred Lequien 
(Motorsport Director for Dakar) of the Amaury Sport 
Organisation (A.S.O.) joined in Ensenada, Mexico with 
the event's United States and Mexico representatives 
to outline the 2008 Dakar course.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Petersen's vehicle of choice differs in several ways 
from the buggy that he drove in 2007. It will blend the 
best of the American off-road trucks that the team 
raced to Baja 500 and Baja 1000 overall victories from 
1995-'97 and the Dakar buggies like Petersen drove 
in January. As in the team's premier, the 2008 
machine will be two-wheel drive unlike the majority of 
the competitors which rely on four-wheel drive. In the 
2007 edition of Dakar, Petersen drove to a high stage 
finish of eighth-place in the final leg of the 6,906 
km/4,291 mile journey from Lisbon, Portugal to Dakar, 
Senegal.

Since announcing the program last year, Petersen 
and longtime partner, entrant and team manager Dale 
White (Bozeman, MT., USA) envisioned a vehicle of 
their own design. For the years that the two competed 
in the North American off-road scene, they had always 
competed with trucks built in White's White Lightning 
Racing shop. For 2008, White and Petersen oversaw 
and directed the design and construction of the new 
chassis by off-road legend Bill Savage. Currently, two 
chassis are being built with the first nearly completed 
and the second close-behind. Both vehicles, and a 
potential third, are being constructed at longtime 
Dakar and desert racer Darren Skilton's (Lake Wood, 
Calif., USA) Baja Automotive Adventures facility in 
Long Beach, Calif. These buggies are purpose-built 
with the experience garnered over the course of 
decades of racing in off-road and at Dakar by 
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing, Baja 
Automotive and Savage.

The first buggy will begin an intense testing regime in 
late-June. Petersen, White and Skilton will do the 
development work in the deserts of Nevada and 
Mexico. With the knowledge gained at last year's 
Dakar, the trio will seek-out testing venues that most 
closely resemble the conditions of the route they will 
take across Southern Europe and Western Africa early 
next year. Petersen and Stevenson are the only two 
drivers currently confirmed for the Euromilhões Dakar 
2008. Additional entries are possible.

The opening of entries for the 30th Edition of the 
Euromilhões Dakar was May 15th; all entries must be 
submitted by June 22nd. The event itself will leave 
Lisbon on January 5th, 2008, reaching the Atlantic 
Ocean in Dakar on January 20th. The event's only rest 
day is scheduled for January 13th.

Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing has 
won nearly all the world's major motorsports 
endurance classics including the 24 Hours of Le 
Mans ('03 & '04), the Baja 500 and Baja 1000 overall 
('95-'97), the 24 Hours At Daytona ('01), the 12 Hours 
of Sebring ('05) and the Petit Le Mans ('05 & '06). They 
have won over 50 off-road events and the American Le 
Mans Series GT2 Class Driver and IMSA Cup 
Championships ('05 and '06) and Team 
Championship ('05) on the shoulders of 10 American 
Le Mans Series class victories. To this point in the 
2007 American Le Mans Series season, the No. 31 
MMPIE/PAWS/Petersen Holdings/Michelin Ferrari 
F430 GT has two pole positions and one GT2 class 
victory.

A rendering of the 2008 Dakar buggy is available for 
download at the Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning 
Racing's On-Line Media Center: www.petersenmotorsports.com/m
c_login.htm (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=viycsacab.0.5olesacab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0249&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.petersenmotorsports.com%2Fmc_login.htm)
. Please contact Tom Moore at 
Tom@PetersenMotorsports.com for Login 
Information.

Quotes

Michael Petersen, Owner/Driver: "Soon we will 
begin the rigorous testing of the new Dakar buggy for 
the up-and-coming race in 2008. The new car is 
taking shape as I speak. The first runs are scheduled 
to begin at the end of June which should give us 
plenty of test time with Dale, Darren and myself using 
the first car quite a bit until the second is done. This 
car is all done in California. To give her a good 
working out to help weed out all of the bugs the testing 
will be in Mexico and Nevada. We may even try to enter 
into a rally before the Dakar race as we will see how 
the timing goes with everything. I am excited to be 
back with my co-driver, Matt Stevenson, from last year 
as we were a good match. I look forward to better our 
finish from last year. The first year was quite an 
adventure as I am sure that the 2008 course will be 
much more difficult. We will all be up for the challenge 
that will surely come our way."

More on Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning 
Racing can be found at www.PetersenMotorsports.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=viycsacab.0.ijy7bzbab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0249&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.PetersenMotorsports.com)

To learn more about The Dakar please visit www.Dakar.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=viycsacab.0.tdmq4zbab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0249&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.Dakar.com)


For more on the ALMS, please visit www.AmericanLeMans.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=viycsacab.0.986o49bab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0249&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.AmericanLeMans.com)

Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=viycsacab.0.ijy7bzbab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0249&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.PetersenMotorsports.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing
Tom Moore
Sporting Relations Manager

email: tom@petersenmotorsports.com
office: 615-778-1614 cellular: 615-509-5000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Digital images and complete team and bios available 
upon request.


Editors, please do not publish any contact 
information other than web sites.  Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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