IRVINE, Calif. and RABAT, Morocco, March
19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- WD®, a Western
Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and world leader in storage
solutions, today announced their support for the 25th Annual Rallye
Aicha des Gazelles in Morocco,
Africa, the all-women rally
covering over 2,500 kilometers, entirely off-road. The event will
take place from March 20 to April
4.
WD is supporting TOTAL CHAOS Fabrication and Team Real America
Chaos (#180), which is competing in the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles.
The event is being hosted under the patronage of His Excellency
King Muhammad of Morocco and
features 330 women from 25 countries.
Morocco represents a market of
opportunities for WD as the company operates in the North African
nation through key channel partners. The race offers the perfect
opportunity for the company to engage in a community-service
initiative. Twenty-five percent of the fees generated from entry
and registrations for the Rallye will be donated to the provision
of medical care for the population in the remote regions of
Morocco through the race-related
Heart of Gazelles Foundation.
The world-renowned event will see the #180 teammates --
fabricator, racer and automotive TV personality Jessi Coombs and TOTAL CHAOS Fabrication
co-founder and CFO Nicole
Pitell-Vaughan -- share driving and navigation
responsibilities as they compete in one of the most physically and
mentally challenging female motorsports rallies in the world. The
race, unlike any other, is not aimed at testing speed, but awards
teams on their navigation skills. The aim is to travel the shortest
distance while navigating across the North African desert for 9
straight days without any electronic or GPS equipment.
"We are proud to be a part of an event that today has become a
symbol of woman empowerment across the globe," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president of Content
Solutions and Worldwide Sales at WD. "Partnering with TOTAL CHAOS
Fabrication gives us the opportunity to exhibit the quality,
durability and reliability of our hard drives in a high-adrenaline
environment as these two impressive women travel across one of the
harshest terrains on earth, in a bid to make history. The Rallye
Aicha des Gazelles is also a great opportunity for WD to
participate in a community-building initiative that contributes in
some way to the development of the nation of Morocco, which continues to be a hub for rapid
business growth in Africa and
emerging markets. We look forward to helping record every moment of
Nicole's and Jessi's amazing journey."
The Rallye also gives both the team and WD the opportunity to
test the durability and dependability of their equipment. During
the course of this journey, the teams are only equipped with
cameras, backup drives, battery chargers and generators, and must
ensure that the equipment selected is one that can survive the
rough and high-risk environment.
The team's unique journey will be captured and shared with
supporters and audiences across the globe via videos and photos. WD
hard drives form a core part of the team's strategy to store the
treasure of recorded moments that it can later study to revise
strategies and tactics for future events and races.
"For races like this we must frequently back up onsite
everything we record because video file sizes and quality have
grown so rapidly over the last few years," said Nicole Pitell-Vaughan. "We copy footage, delete
the data from the storage cards and get them back in cameras. If a
camera card gets damaged, we still have everything backed up on a
WD portable drive and saved. I have to be able to trust the safety
equipment in my car and trust that all the information we carry and
need is safe. I can't compromise on quality, dependability or
durability because my life and career depend on it. Sometimes, we
have only one opportunity to back up or capture the moment and this
is why the storage is so important. I'm proud to know that my WD
hard drives meet and even exceed our expectations for high-speed
file transfer and can withstand the abuse in transport and harsh
environments."
About WD
WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and
storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the
company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and
solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and
integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing
systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as
well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD's
leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media
players and software solutions empower people around the world to
easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on
multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered
in Irvine, Calif. For more
information, please visit the company's website at www.wd.com.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global provider of
products and services that empower people to create, manage,
experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and
manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home
entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands.
Visit the Investor section of the company's website
(www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and
investor information.
Western Digital and WD and the WD logo are registered
trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and
other countries; other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to
other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein
are the property of their respective companies.
Logo -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20000711/WDCLOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wd-supports-team-real-america-chaos-in-25th-edition-of-rallye-aicha-des-gazelles-in-morocco-300052845.html
SOURCE WD