Williamstown resident Sue Mead and her teammate finished fifth in the crossover division at the 2015 Gazelle Rally in Morocco this spring.

 

Mead and Shennen Marschner were part of a successful showing for the American contingent at the international off-road racing competition.

 

Mead and Marschner competed in a Mercedez Benz Sprinter 4x4 at the world's largest all-female off-road event.

 

"I have a competitive spirit, but I've been trained that you have to finish to win," Mead said in interview before leaving for the North African compeititon. "When it comes to the Gazelle, I don't even have winning in my head. It's so difficult that I've heard in order to win, you'd probably have to go three times, minimum. To get this kind of navigation and the terrain under your belt.

 

"That makes it appealing to me. But I would really love to just simply finish and be able to hand the vehicle back to Mercedes Benz and fly back from Casablanca and say what a great adventure."

 

One of 10 American teams entered in the nine-day competition walked away with a first-place win, and it came in the crossover division.

 

The tandem of Chrissie Beavis and Alyssa Roenigk, also racing for Mercedes Benz, won their division in an event in which teams are judged on the distance they use to reach predetermined check stations in the desert.

 

Mead trained for the race with Beavis in California along the Mexican border earlier this spring.

 

"Chrissie is one of the top navigators in the world," Mead said. "And she's on the second [Mercedes Benz] team from the U.S. It was really wonderful to train with her because she's done the rally twice.

 

"The other woman on the U.S. team is Alyssa Roenigk. She works for ESPN, and she's done a lot of adventures around the world, but this is new for her, too.

 

"We have a great group of four women representing the U.S. on the Mercedes team."