London: The innovative off road racing series – Extreme E’s floating centrepiece, the St. Helena arrived in Senegal on Wednesday for the second X Prix, the Ocean X Prix to be held at Lac Rose, Dakar from 29 – 30 May.
Extreme E’s repurposed former Royal Mail Ship, the St. Helena reached the Dakar port, having sailed for over 4 weeks from Extreme E’s championship debut in Saudi Arabia. Her iconic voyage has taken her across the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, via Valencia and then Gibraltar to finally reach the West coast of Africa.
Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Extreme E said: “I’m pleased to see that the St. Helena has arrived safely and on schedule in Dakar – her second voyage as Extreme E’s floating centrepiece is complete.
“St. Helena’s safe arrival means we can now focus on preparing for the Ocean X Prix later this month, and the next phase of our Legacy Programme, which includes the planting of one million mangroves along the West African coastline. As well as bringing our fantastic electric racing series to a place with such a legendary motorsport history, Extreme E aims to shine the spotlight on the environmental challenges that Senegal is facing as well as helping local communities.”
While at port in Valencia, the St. Helena picked some important cargo which includes AFC Energy’s first upstream green hydrogen fuelling solution which will work with its existing hydrogen power system to charge the championship's fleet of ODYSSEY 21 vehicles during the Ocean X-Prix. Also, Zenobe, a sustainable power solutions company loaded a second-life battery onto the ship. It will be utilised to power the series' paddock operations, yet again decreasing overall emissions.
Besides, while in Valencia, CUPRA, the car manufacturer, also loaded one of its Formentor e-HYBRIDs, the exciting new model which has only been on the market since March and will be used to transport Extreme E's personnel to and from site at Lac Rose.
The cargo will be transported to Lac Rose in Dakar, Senegal for the Ocean X Prix which will be held from May 29-30.