M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport, in partnership with Ford Performance, will take part in the Baja Spain Aragon 2023 race to be held over the weekend of 21-22 July, with Nani Roma and Gareth Woolridge joined by Alex Haro and Boyd Dreyer in the navigator role respectively.
With all eyes on the preparations for the 2024 Dakar Rally, the team will make the international racing debut of the M-Sport NWM Ford Ranger T1+ at Baja Spain Aragon 2023. Representing the first opportunity to showcase the capabilities of the recently upgraded Ford Ranger T1+, participation in Baja Spain Aragon 2023 will help benchmark the vehicle's performance and determine the direction to be taken in development going forward.
Veteran Dakar Rally driver Nani Roma has been a key member of M-Sport and NWM's development programme. His experience of the Dakar Rally is invaluable, with the versatile driver having competed in 25 events, while being one of the few to have won the race on two and four wheels.
Nani Roma's record in the Dakar Rally speaks for itself, with the Spanish driver having two wins and a total of five podium finishes in his career. Nani Roma's experience has been instrumental in developing NWM's Ranger T1+ into a competitive race vehicle for the Nakar Rally in the T1+ category.
Nani Roma's experience in vehicle development is being leveraged in duplicate by M-Sport, with the driver offering feedback and insights into Ford's upcoming Ranger Raptor T1+, which is set to challenge for top honours at the 2025 Dakar Rally.
With his recent victory in the 1,000km Kalahari-Botswana Desert race, Gareth Woolridge is the youngest of the Woolridge dynasty and today, after an amazing season so far, he leads the standings in this year's South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC).
Gareth Woolridge is the lead technician for new vehicle assembly at NWM and one of two drivers in the team who compete in the South African rally-raid championship. Since 2019, when the project was launched, Gareth Woolridge has also played a key role in the design, build, testing and overall development of the T1 Ranger, which is powered by the EcoBoost V6 engine, and from 2021 he has also been involved in the project, which goes by the name T1+ Ranger. All this makes it the ideal choice for both M-Sport and NWM's effort to develop the Ranger T1+ into a vehicle capable of leading the Dakar Rally.
Woolridge grew up in the world of off-road racing, thanks to his father's achievements in the Dakar Rally. Gareth's career began at the age of just 16 and his talent was evident from the very first moment. The driver made his debut in top-level rally-raid racing in 2015 in the racing colours of Neil Woolridge Motorsport, and a year later was promoted to factory driver when he joined the official NWM Ford team. In 2017 and 2018 he took third place in the South African Class T championship, while in 2022 he finished third overall driving the NWM T1+ Ranger. Gateth Woolridge also competed in the seven-day 3,600km Rally dos Sertões in Brazil, finishing first in his class and tenth overall.
Nani Roma said: "This has been a very nice development process for the Ranger T1+. The car has changed quite a bit since I first tested it compared to the last test we recently completed in Morocco. All the engineers have done an excellent job in terms of the stability of the car, while improving reliability and increasing its capabilities. We worked together in the right direction. The Ranger is a tough car, and we still have a few areas to work on. But already, as of this moment, it's excellent.
"I've known M-Sport for years, since the days of Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae and when I was riding motorcycles, I also followed rally racing. M-Sport has always been a high level team in the World Rally Championship in which it takes part with the aim of competing for wins and championships. They are a team of super-professionals who are great to work with. The team is highly organised and despite being in a different environment to which they are not used, it didn't take long for them to understand what they needed to meet this challenge.
"My goal has always been to win all the races I have competed in in my 30 years of racing. I have won Baja Spain nine times, four on motorcycle and five in a car, so it would be very special to win my tenth victory with Ford in this particular project. Winning is always my goal and especially as this is a home race for me. But this time things are a little different. I haven't raced for a year and a half and I'm in a very new environment. At the moment we don't know exactly where we are compared to the other teams. At Baja Spain all the factory players will be taking part, which means it's the perfect opportunity to see what level we are at with our car. We're really excited about this project with Ford. I would like to say a special thank you to Matt Wilson and Malcolm Wilson and to Ford for the confidence they have shown in me. Now it's time to keep pushing hard and start fighting battles."
Gareth Woolridge said"The cooperation between NWM and M-Sport is really excellent and I think it will bring strong results for both. M-Sport has offered its vast experience, which has already helped significantly, especially in the area of set-up to get the car to perform at its best. I think NWM has helped and will continue to help to bring its expertise to rally-raid racing, as M-Sport has experience mainly in rally-raid racing. It is important to understand some of the potential shortcomings and differences between these two areas. NWM has helped a lot with this. M-Sport's professionalism is of a high level and it's great to work with the whole team."
"We completed a series of tests with M-Sport and NWM in South Africa, Dubai and Morocco, and with the upgrades we added, mainly in the cooling and suspension areas, the difference in the performance of the car is huge. The race in Spain is something new for both Boyd and myself. The format is a little different, and that's something we'll have to get used to. But the terrain will be similar to what we've encountered in other races we've taken part in before. We'll go into the race and hopefully learn a lot with the team. This is our first race with M-Sport, so the goal is to go there, learn, work and build momentum together as a team to achieve a good and strong result. The most important goal for us is to finish in a good position."
Neil Woolridge, founder of NWM, said: "We are really looking forward to racing in Baja Spain, a race that has been on our radar for quite some time. The testing and development programme we completed with M-Sport last year has boosted our competitiveness, and we are now seeing the results of our efforts after going 1-2 in June in the Botswana Desert Race, where we beat Toyota, the current champion in SARRC, Dakar Rally and Dakar World Rally-Raid Championship.
"We are excited to have a driver of Nani Roma's calibre and experience on our team, who brings with him a wealth of knowledge and expertise relevant to our Dakar Rally effort. I am delighted for Gareth and the Boyd, who will meet the challenge of Baja Spain building on their deep knowledge of the T1+ Ranger while gaining more experience on the international racing scene."
Matthew Wilson, Director of M-Sport, said: "We've been working very hard in partnership with NWM for just over a year now, and now we're seeing all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place for our rally-raid team. We're ready to start racing the fully upgraded Ford Ranger T1+ alongside two highly accomplished drivers in the rally–raid matches, Nani and Gareth. M-Sport and NWM have laid the foundations for a solid foundation on a technical level with the support and contribution of Nani and Gareth. The next step is to start racing and develop as a team, which starts with the race Baja Spain".
