{"id":210476,"date":"2019-03-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=210476"},"modified":"2019-06-30T16:54:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T19:54:42","slug":"brazilians-take-the-lead-in-cross-country-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/brazilians-take-the-lead-in-cross-country-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazilians take the lead in Cross Country World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 After winning the first round of the\u00a0FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies<\/a>, two Brazilian racers are getting ready to travel to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin came out victors in the UTV category after a five-day race in Qatar last February. They accepted the USD 6,000 prize in Doha (pictured above). The UTV category is for two-passenger off-road vehicles. The duo was also the UTV category winner in the 2018 edition of the traditional Dakar Rally, and placed third in this year\u2019s edition, held in January.<\/p>\n

The Qatar race was the first of five comprising the World Cup. \u201cThe rounds are long in a cross-country rally \u2013 they last 5 to 6 days each. The Cup is similar to Formula 1, with several rounds and cumulative scoring,\u201d explained Gugelmin (pictured, on the left), who\u2019s the duo\u2019s navigator \u2013 Varela does the driving. Besides\u00a0Abu Dhabi<\/a>, where racing will start on March 31, they will also race in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and finally Morocco.<\/p>\n

Varela has been racing for 30-plus years, and Gugelmin started out with his father. The two met in 2012. That year saw them win the FIA World Cup in the T2 category. They also brought home the 2015 Rally dos Sert\u00f5es.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The terrain for the Qatar rally: ‘An ocean made of stone,’ as Gugelmin put it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the differences between Brazil and Middle Eastern countries, Varela and Gugelmin aren\u2019t exactly new to racing this kind of terrain. This was their fourth time in Qatar. \u201cThe terrains are completely different than what you find in Brazil. In Qatar, it\u2019s an ocean made of stone. It\u2019s hard to find the right route, it\u2019s a tough rally. It\u2019s what they call broken dunes, with lots of wind action. Abu Dhabi is a different scene. It\u2019s 100% extremely high dunes and even higher temperatures, or ones similar to those in Qatar,\u201d said the racer, who\u2019s endured heat of up to 50 degrees Celsius in past races.<\/p>\n

For two years now, they have been competing in the UTV category, the acronym for Utility Task Vehicle. They drive a Maverick X3. \u201cThis is the first time a Brazilian wins a UTV World Cup round,\u201d said Gugelmin. The Abu Dhabi rallies last five days.<\/p>\n

Varela and Gugelmin usually practice in Brazil. \u201cElsewhere in the world, we\u2019ll practice as a go along. When it comes to the terrains in Qatar, for instance, we raced the dunes in Lima, Peru [under similar conditions]; But I cannot practice in Qatar specifically. It takes several years of racing to get to this level of experience,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

Besides racing, Gugelmin imports racing and four-wheel drive parts. Varela is the founder of restaurant chain Divino Fog\u00e3o. Gugelmin explains that whenever they race abroad, they take the opportunity to see the countries and their culture. \u201cI love the Arab countries! I love the food. For the first few years, we\u2019d arrive a week earlier or leave a week later. We end up doing some tourism after the race. Qatar is looking great too. It\u2019s going to host the FIFA World Cup, and I\u2019m impressed with what they\u2019re doing in terms of construction. It\u2019s more developed with each new year,\u201d concludes Gugelmin.<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum <\/strong><\/p>\n

Marian Chytka<\/div>\n
Marian Chytka<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After winning the first round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, in Qatar, Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin are getting ready for the second race, in Abu Dhabi. They are competing in the UTV category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2324,"featured_media":210453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[202,7682,7683,5205,27023,7679],"class_list":{"0":"post-210476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-cross-country","10":"tag-fia-world-cup-for-cross-country-rallies","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-rally-en-2","13":"tag-rally"},"wps_subtitle":"After winning the first round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, in Qatar, Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin are getting ready for the second race, in Abu Dhabi. They are competing in the UTV category.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}