Ellen Lohr UAE event ends early

Ellen Lohr forced into retirement, in the Dubai Rally

Ellen Lohr and her co-pilot, Detlef Ruf, had to retire during the course of the second stage of the Dubai Rally. Just a short time after having passed the first checkpoint, in the morning, several cars got stuck in a region with high dunes and deep, soft desert sands. Hence, the scheduled track was blocked. During the change manoeuvre, Ellen Lohr and her M-Class prototype crossed the brink of a high dune in a very unfortunate way -- and the car somersaulted downhill. Lohr and Ruf succeeded in completing the special stage and making it to the bivouac, but afterwards, the team was forced into retirement as the damages on the prototype were to serious to be repaired on site.

"Quite obviously we had hoped for a clearly better result," Ellen Lohr disappointedly said. "But we experienced one of these combinations of unfortunate circumstances, resulting in an accident, you often witness in motor racing. The only positive aspect was the fact that we found out that our M-Class is truly rugged." For Team ORC, based in Nellingen near Stuttgart , were the rally prototype was designed and built, the vital period prior to the Dakar rally will be even busier, now. "During the weeks prior the Dakar start, taking place on 31 st December, the team will keep working even harder now to bring a perfectly prepared car to Lisbon ," added Lohr.

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