64 replies to this topic

[Alex79]

Well, the year 2022 draws to a close and on the final day, the Dakar Rally ft Saudi Arabia will start next years season of motorsport. Start is this saturday in a specially constructed bivouac where the scrutineering will also takes place, simply called the Sea Camp



- GasGas is keen on defending the title in the bikes against sisters KTM and Husqvarna. Biggest shifts in the field look to be Adrien van Beveren who takes over a Honda, while his seat at Yamaha is now taken by Antonio Maio. An all time low for Dutch bikers though. Only two riders (Mirjam Pol and Wesley Aaldering) and two teams: BAS Dakar again supports Bradley Cox and Mason Klein. Husqvarna retains the services of Skyler Howes.
- In the cars Prodrive, Mini and Audi all upped their game to bring the fight to Toyota again. Mini X Raid took the same step as Prodrive by designing a vehicle that runs on synthetic fuel, Kuba Przygonski and Sebastian Halpern driving
- Prodrive's new buggy is now shared between Loeb, Terranova (the stalwarts) and new arrivals Guirlain Chicherit and Vaidotas Zala
- Two last minute arrivals who seem to be forever slated as PLan B: Wouter Rosegaar and Ola Floene. Both navigators found themselves called up, Floene joins Khalid Al Quassimi who mothballed the Peugeot and switched to a Mini Buggy, Rosegaar was set to compete again with Sebastian Eriksson in the small SxS buggys, but EKS floundered and he found himself called up by old compatriot Kees Koolen
- A Red Bull onslaught in both SxS categories: Can Am made a deal and has two sponsored factory outfits in both the Proto's and the SSV buggys. The old OT3 buggy was sold to Guillaume de Mevius who lets Overdrive handle the operation. Seth Quintero, Cristina Gutierrez and Austin Jones will make this an enjoyable in house scrap. Outsider Mitchell Guthrie jumped ship and drives a French MD Sports built buggy, although they retained their RBR sponsoring
- The B word makes an entrance, the organisation will introduce Balance of Performance in this rally (dun dun DUNNN)
- The last years it was the question which Kamaz truck would win the event, but because of the ongoing war in Ukraine both Kamaz and MAZ are not involved this time. Some think it might become a one make Iveco battle between 16 Dutch, Spanish, Belgian and Czech truck drivers, as De Rooy Racing, Buggyra Tatra, Martin Macik Tuning, Team Fesh Fesh and Praga al see chances for themselves
- De Rooy Racing actually split in two groups. Father and Son Martin vd Brink en Mitchell vd Brink drive the Eurol Liveried Iveco's, Vick Versteijnen and Janus van Kasteren take the Boss Machines liveried Iveco's. Mitchell seems to have a secret weapon in the person Mo Torrallardoña, the copilot who was instrumental in securing Gerard de Rooy's last Dakar win a few years back
- There's a strong Czecho-Dutch block against them. Martin Macik has two self built trucks combining Iveco Tatra and Liaz elements for himself and Kees Koolen, plus they sold an older truck to the Fire Brigade of Richard de Groot. Buggyra has two Tatra Phoenix trucks for Martin Soltys and Jaroslav Valtr, plus Ales Loprais updated his Praga restomod truck.
- Buggyra also sold an engine to Egbert Wingens who also uses an Iveco production model, just as Jan vd Laar's team
- Two Hybrids compete in the trucks this year: Teruhito Sugawara updated his HINO hybrid, and Gert Huzink has rebuilt the Renault Hybrid after last years crash. Kees Koolen was also planning a hybrid entry, but alas, the worldwide shortage in parts put a stop to that ambition.
- two interesting outsiders are Miklos Kovacs, multiple winner of the truck category in the Africa Eco Race has a new Hyena truck (Scania chassis plus Renault Sherpa engine) and Tomas Vratny who drives a Ford Cargo truck built by team Fesh Fesh. Fesh Fesh has another Fords for Lithuanian driver Vadotas Paskevicius and has an adapted version for paraplegic ex skier and Dakar nut Albert Llovera. It's the second try with this truck. Two years ago Igor Bouwens and Dave Ingels had two production models but ran into a laundrylist of problems

Like always, saturday starts with a small 11 km Prologue sprint, this time along the sea (no they dont mimic the Lac Rose, absolutely not), before a long stage on Sunday awaits. Lets see if the infamous phrase "Der Neuralgischen Punkt" (the sore waypoint) of Norbert Ockenga makes another appearance this year thanks to the challenging routes the ASO keeps dreaming up

Edited by Alex79, 30 December 2022 - 18:40.

[loki]

I meant to post something yesterday as the vehicles were being recovered.  Plenty of footage on the socials including a preview of the prologue and starting to focus on alternative fuel vehicles.  US coverage on the Cock as well as NBC Sports site.  Doesn’t look like any other terrestrial or cable coverage in the US and no word yet if it’s on the free side of the NBC channels.

[thegamer23]

I'm hyped, Dakar is magic, and this year is set to be quite harder than last season, with longer stages & harder routes.

 

Gonna cheer expecially for the legend himself, Franco Picco, 67 years old, at his 29th Dakar.

 

 

 

 

Talking about the big boys in the motorbikes (category i follow the most), i hope Adrien Van Beveren gets his first ever Dakar win.

The man had way too many injuries in the past, and deserves a win.
He's now riding with Honda after a life in Yamaha, and he won one of the last preparation races before Dakar.

 

 

 

 

 

To get in the mood i also suggest watching this Documentary on the 2022 Dakar from Tiziano Paternò (racing on the bikes) point of view, brilliant stuff.

 

Edited by thegamer23, 29 December 2022 - 20:20.

[Risil]

TRUCKS

[ArnageWRC]

Remember, Dakar is round 1 of the W2RC, the joint FIM/FiA series.

 

https://www.worldral...ionship.com/en/

[Fatgadget]

This is not Dakar. It's an impostor. But hey ho. At least its not being held in South America.

[Myrvold]

At least its not being held in South America.

 

Instead it's held in one single country. Yeeey, what an adventure!

Edited by Myrvold, 30 December 2022 - 14:48.

[Alex79]

It is what it is. At least it looks the part with challenging routes and landscapes and well, it is a country which is 25% of the size of the USA. The best edition of the south american dakar was the one in Peru

[eab]

The best edition of the south american dakar was the one in Peru

True that, far away from laim lima it went.

[Alex79]

On the 11 km's of this Dakar rally  there's not much to gain except for bragging rights and a good start position for sunday. But you can lose a lot if you go too far or get issues. In the bikes there was Eduardo Iglesias Sanches who crashed after only two corners and had to be airlifted out. For the top spots it became a fight between KTM, GasGas and Hero. Toby Price got the fastest time one second quicker than Daniel Sanders. Ross Branch put the Hero on 3rd with 8s deficit in front of Joan Barreda and Kevin Benavides. Thanks to Joaquin Rodrigues and Sebastian Bühler there were two more Hero bikes in the top10. Lets see if they can keep up

 

In the cars Erik van Loon was the one caught out. The goal was a top10 finish, but after crashing and rolling and a check on the car he lost 6 minutes. He also complained of neckpain, so hopefully the medical checkup will let him start tomorrow. Almost as bad was the start for Vaidotas Zala, the Lithuanian punctured a tire and lost five minutes to replace it. Again it became a close call for first place between Mattias Ekström and Sebastian Loeb. The Swede was one second quicker at the finish than the Frenchman. Third was Stephane Peterhansel who narrowly beat Al Attiyah and Chicherit for 3rd place. No heroics this time for the Coronel brothers, they just clocked a 30th time, their second car (sold to enterpreneur Michel Kremer) trundled home 91st)

 

In the Light Proto's  four familiar names in the top5. Cristina Gutierrez clocked in 1st before Seth Quintero, Guillaume de Mevius and Mitchell Guthrie. Number five was a nice surprise: Hans Weijs is back with his self built Arcane Buggy and clocked a time 12 secs slower than the RBR brigade. The second car of Roger Grouwels came home in 34th place.

 

In the trucks it was Teruhito Sugawara who had a breakdown, his Hino truck stopped worked halfway through and was towed home by the Iveco of Igor Bouwens. The Japanese crew lost half an hour, for his assistance Bouwens received some time back and placed 3 minutes behind the winners

 

 

In front raz dva tri turned into uno-due-tre. Three Iveco's made up the podium and only one lonely Tatra (Martin Soltys) prevented an Iveco lockout. Martin Macik narrowly won the stage, 5 secs faster than Mitchell vd Brink. Janus van Kasteren came home 3rd on 6 secs, but meant he would have been quicker if he'd overtaken Albert Llovera's Ford quicker, he lost too much time behind the Andorran. Martin vd Brink complained of a faulty shock absorber but still drove to a seventh time 18 secs behind Macik

 

Tomorrow it turn a bit more interesting with a loop around Yanbu, 234 km special and then 300 clicks back to camp

[JRodrigues]

Big news already! Sam Sunderland is down and out! He hit the ground and was evacuated (conscious) with a lot of back pain.

[thegamer23]

Drama, what a shame

 

Wish him a fast recovery.

 

.

 

Edited by thegamer23, 01 January 2023 - 10:51.

[Alex79]

Yesterday two of the oldest truck drivers in the field were interviewed independently bij RTL: Gerrit Zuurmond and Kees Koolen. The former is an amateur who trundles through the Desert in his MAN, only bent on finishing. The latter aims a bit higher as he's defending W2RC champion, but both said the exact same thing when a too enthousiastic reporter asked for gameplans and ambitions."There are 15 people in every category who think they can win and who are going to take risks. So it's important to stay calm and see how many hit problems, let em drive. This stage was a loop around the Yandu Sea Camp with sandy roads, stony paths and a few dunes at the end. To top it off, "Der Neuralgischen Punkt 2.0" has arrived. In the last years if you missed a waypoint you could backtrack and lose time to still get it. Now the tablet for navigation locks in on the next, dishing out time penalties immediately

 

I wasn't really sure in the bikes, as Daniel Sanders is known for either copping a penalty deliberately to not start in first or braking a bit more cautiously in the end of the stage. The Australian had been in a daylong fight against BAS Dakar rider Mason Klein, switching the lead a few times. It didn't go too well for the teammates. First Sunderland crashed after 30 clicks and was airlifted with a concussion, broken shoulder and back injuries. Bradley Cox also fell off and dislocated his shoulder as well, so both are out. "Der Neuralgischen Punkt struck at the finish: Sanders, Pablo Quintanilla and Joan Barreda all got penalties, lifting Ricky Brabec on the top spot. Kevin Benavides clocked 19s slower, Toby Price 39s slower. The three evildo'ers landed in 5, 6 and 7. Mattias Walkner got some time back for assisting Sunderland and was awared 10th place. Brabec also has to start first tomorrow with the whole pack breathing down his neck (woof)

 

 

In the cars, you can have Murphy's Law where everything goes wrong that cán go wrong. According to one of my collegues there's also Smith's Law, saying "Cousin Murphy is an optimist." Erik van Loon has one of Smith's uppercuts I think. On the shakedown a front drive axle broke, on the prologue the car flipped and today, driving a nice comeback race from last to top 15, he ran afoul of the Neuralgischen punkt (missed two in fact) and was relegated to 55th position. He was NOT happy at all, even his website was unreachable for a while. In front there were other navigational woes, as Al Attiyah lost time trying to find the same waypoint, but he avoided logging in the next and only lost 7m10s. Brian Baragwanath went really well before he lost eight minutes on the same darn waypoint and Henk Lategan came home without a windshield which broke after contact with about the only tree on the path. Carlos Sainz did a good stage and clocked fastest before Loeb (10s) and Al Rahji (2m01s). In the end of the stage the buzzing of the electric Audi is btw taken over by a REALLY loud range extender, sounds like a small SSV or a snowmobile engine. Here a DNF's as well, Michel Kremers Century burned  down after 70 clicks. Welcome to the Desert, we got fun and games

 

 

in the LW Proto's there was a sense of deja vu. Cristina Gutierrez winning a stage, starting first, pushing hard and breaking down. Last year this was blamed on the OT3 buggy, so a switch to Canam was in order. Still, Gutierrez managed to break one today, losing 20 minutes in the process. Guillaume de Mevius is the only one of last years OT3 crew who still uses the older model, now privately owned thanks to a sponsor package provided by Al Attiyah. The Belgian was hunting a win but lost out in the end against "Chaleco" Lopez by almost two minutes. Seth Quintero and Austin Jones finish third and fourth. New arrival Ignacio Casale tries to emulate Kees Koolen multiclass resume (switched from a truck to a private Canam) and clocked fifth. Hans Weijs had a good start in sixth, but he lost a lot of time in the second half when he got stuck, 19th, 47m behind Lopez

 

In the trucks there was not much difference from the other categories. Fast starters got into problems, steady driver surf up the order. Except for Martin Macik who found exactly the right mix and stayed in front the whole stage. Behind him there was hopscotching. First Janus Van Kasteren until he got stuck, Vick Versteijnen seems to have blown an engine, Pascal de Baar had a fire because of a loose oil pipe and Gert Huzink got stuck on a dune. That narrows it down   Ales Loprais picked up the loose ends and clocked a 2nd time 5 minutes behind Macik. Mitchell vd Brink was already peppered with questions if he's gonna win the rally, after the 3rd time today he'll have to punch the noisy reporter to make him shut up about it. At least he has bragging rights again versus Van Kasteren, who still came home fifth. Ben and Jan vd Laar had a good day in their production truck, 8th an close behind the faster models of Koolen and Martin Soltys

 

 

Stage 2 tomorrow is 431 km, a hilly start with lots of boulders and large dunes to cap it off.

Edited by Alex79, 01 January 2023 - 20:38.

[thegamer23]

USA youngster Mason Klein wins Moto Stage 2! 

Edited by thegamer23, 02 January 2023 - 10:59.

[OvDrone]

I will only get my coverage of the event here on this thread from Alex79's exceptional reporting and all you fellow enthusiasts as I am choosing for forgo any event happening in Saudi Arabia.

Hope we have an engaging and safe first round of the World Rally Raid Championship. GO Price & Loeb!



Edit: every Dakar thread, whenever I say 'Go Loeb' something unfortunate happens.

I'll never say that again lol

Edited by OvDrone, 02 January 2023 - 16:45.

[JRodrigues]

Major blows for the BRX, as they ran out of tires with Loeb and Terranova losing over an hour.

 

For now it's a 2 man show, with Sainz and Nasser seperated by 2' with Serradori in 3rd, 25' behind Sainz.

Edited by JRodrigues, 02 January 2023 - 14:32.

[skinnyman]

Seems like Loeb might never win this.

[Alex79]

Be Careful What You Wish For. These words could be said to those competitors of the last two SA Dakar's who wanted "more of a challenge." Well, David Castera recruited Tom Colsoul, former navigator in rallycars and trucks to make a route so challenging that those same people now cry for it to stop. The words of Koolen en Zuurmond also echo "let em drive, see who keeps standing."

 

The route to Al'Ula held a few "fantastic pranks" (not my words, blame Maik Willems). Waypoints close to each other, tempting sandy stretches with sharp rocks underneath. Britlle stones on the roadside which easily break and then get razor sharp, so the next slices open the tire wall. Add a few narrow passes and finally at the end, a lost dune and you have recipe to ruin peoples appetite for "challenges"

 

In the bikes I was surprised how many riders formerly or presently engaged by BAS Dakar or HT Husqvarna were found in the top 4. Mason Klein had a really good run. Last year he had a shoestring budget but thanks to a crowdfunding action he impressed KTM enough to donate Daniel Sanders' old GasGas bike to BAS Dakar. Strip the paint off, change the oil, stick on some ads for his GoFundMe supporters and yer good to go. While he did get a penalty of two minutes for navigational mishaps he had enough margin left to beat Hero rider Sebastian Bühler at the line. The German was intended to make his debut last year, but broke his femur just before the start. One minute and 19s was what Buhler lost to Klein. Skyler Howes came home in third and Ross Branch in fourth. Henk Hellegers has been training them well Btw, really check out Howes' Wyatt Earp disguise, just give the man a hat and a longcoat

 

A scary moment for Mirjam Pol, leader in the women's class, who found herself waking up by the roadside out of breath and a light blinking indicating the airbag in her suit warded off injury from a fall. "Nine million stones, you miss 8.999.999 and the last one..." Klein opens the stage tomorrow as Sanders braked to leave some guys in front, Barreda crashed and broke his big toe. He finished on adrenalin, a bit like Mattias Walkner, who also fell off and broke a few bones in his hand.

 

In the cars, it turned into a game called "What goes around comes around". But this one almost became a miracle on the way. Erik van Loon got more that his share of bad luck, curses, black cats or Irish cousins against him the last day, and he was STILL in a foul mood. "Hate this stage, just stones, stones, what are they thinking?" he grumbled before the start. After the finish he still complained of a torrid day, getting hindered by other competitors, stuck in dust, getting two punctures. And why are all these camera crews waiting here? Because... Van Loon had been the fastest off the field for much of the race, except for the last puncture, which cost just enough time so Al Attiyah could swoop past and win bij 14s

 

Something I also noticed thanks to a shot of the Audi buggy and the latest Optimus MD buggy at the startline, it looks like Audi almost made an Audi Optimus this year, a bit bigger, a bit faster, 100 kilo heavier because the electric driveline. The weight is also a problem as both Peterhansel and Ekström had to back off after too much punctures. Only Sainz sailed through with only five minutes deficit on Al Attiyah and Van Loon. Back off is something Loeb and Chicherit also should have done. Loeb was grumbling he did drive as slow as he could and still "the tires looked like I drove over a Fakir nail bed". Both Frenchman finished, Loeb under his own power, Chicherit has been towed out

 

 

The smaller SSV category meanwhile turns into a family reunion. Marek and Michael Goczal had a good run last year and Marek's son Eryk is now also present in his own buggy. Father Marek won the stage, son Eryk came in 4th and uncle Michael lost half an hour as 12th. In the larger LW Proto it was Mitch Guthrie's MD Hybrid buggy claiming top spot. He was about the only top rider with almost no time lost due to punctures, but Chaleco Lopez might have won this if he did not break a steering axle and just about crawled to the finish in the last part, still getting second in the process. Hans Weijs did not imitate Van Loon in this category, but he came close with an eighth time today.

 

In the trucks tire troubles plagues everyone. Driving too fast is a recipe for disaster, driving too slow is also ill advised. Mitchell vd Brink learned the hard way, first punctured two tires going too fast (fixed with own spares), then he punctured two driving too slow (fixed by father Martin vd Brink). And then he broke the fifth and had to wait until our lovely MAN amateur Zuurmond stops and donates one of his tyres. At least Mitchell finished on his own power, but way after dark and 2,5 hours later then the rest. Martin Macik also had his troubles, punctures and a defective steering. He lost 80 minutes today, still enough for a top10. Janus van Kasteren was as close to a win as Van Loon, but again, der Neuralgischen Punkt 2.0 struck. According to the jury (may they burn in the nine hells) it was not enough that ONE nav tablet logged the darn WP, the backup also has to login, again something apparently changed from last year. Gerard de Rooy did lodge a protest, but a French jury admitting a mistake.... not likely.

 

So Ales Loprais finally won a stage again, 1m50s ahead of Van Kasteren. Martin vd Brink came home third and the rest of the top10 was speckled with slow but steady driving amateurs. Igor Bouwens, remember him giving up his result to tow out Sugawara, he clocked in 5th in the older Iveco Trakker. Same for Ben and Jan vd Laar, they did have issues, punctures, dust and whatnot, but still a sixth time with the underpowered version of the Iveco. Both surge up the order to 6 th an 7th. Thanks to Bouwens (Belgian) and Macik customer Claudio Bellina (Italian) it's not all an all Czecho Dutch fight. But its close anyway

 

 

Tomorrow: 447 km of special from Al'Ula to Ha'il, starting with a few canyons which will give the cameramen time to take some great shots, something the crews will likely not think about. Still want a challenge, well do ya, punks

Edited by Alex79, 02 January 2023 - 22:09.

[thegamer23]

Amazing reports Alex!!

This Dakar route is proving to be one hell of a challenge, and it's still early days.

Wouldn't be surprised to see outsiders taking the overall win.

Gutted for Loeb, but the race is still long.

.

Edited by thegamer23, 02 January 2023 - 22:15.

[JRodrigues]

Another big one out!

 

 

 

Fall and withdrawal for Brabec The Honda rider crashed at km 274 of the special and was taken care of by the Dakar medical team. Suffering from neck pain, Ricky Brabec was transported to a hospital for additional examinations.

[thegamer23]

more drama!

[Alex79]

To call the stage of today eventful is an understatement. This resonates with Paris Capetown 92, Tatan in 2004 and two South American stages cancelled because of flooding. For those who hoped for sunny camera shots, it became a scene like Apocalypto or the 13th warrior with chaotic downpours during the SSV and Truck stages, The top bikes and cars made it through, for those who did not there is an aggregated time. For the others it became a puzzle like that Dakar videogame that came out this year and shocked us with thunderstorms in the Arabian Desert. Naively I kept thinking, that looks nice mr developer, but that never happens. Until it did today.

 

Exactly as he planned Daniel Sanders took off today, was in the lead for the whole day, but Mason Klein gave as good as he got and only lost one minute. Skyler Howes also was in form again, clocking third by three minutes "Oof, we missed the rain by an inch." he winked at the finish. For Ricky Brabec the rally is over after a bad fall. Luciano Benavides commented he was very disoriented and complained of neck pains. Sebastian Bühler also crashed but he could continue with 15 minutes timeloss. In the standings first Klein was reported to have lost the lead, but the dakar websites state he still has 1m48s on Sanders. Howes is in third and Kevin Benavides (en route to a podium but set back with two minutes time penalty) is in fourth.

 

In the cars both the first cars lost time today with Der Neuralgischen Punkt and punctures. Al Attiyah (13th) lost 21 minutes, Erik van Loon (12th) 20 minutes, but they still were classified in top 15. It got worse for Carlos Sainz who broke the suspension on the Audi (still a weak factor because of the weight), dropping him an hour down the rankings. Again, Loeb ran into problems as well, dropping half an hour with a broken suspension joint. Up front even before the neutralisation came the whole order was topsy turvy. Guirlain Chicherit started bog last, drove straight through everything was given fastest time after 378 km, just in front of Henk Lategan and Orly Terranova. Yahzeed Al Rahji had a horror day yesterday but he also won back time as fifth, but more important he spools up to second overall, 13 minutes behind Al Attiyah. Even Van Loon, with all his bad luck and trouble is still standing 13th with 44 minutes distance. Strange days indeed

 

 

It got stranger in the last two categories. Both Red Bull Can Ams of Cristina Gutierrez and Chaleco Lopez were left stranded in a raging river, and it took the combined might of a Tatra, two Ivecos and a Praga truck to get them out. Seth Quintero and Austin Jones had taken a different approach which was a bit smaller, and soon Guillaume de Mevius and Mitchell Guthrie followed. Those four were the first ones to reach km 378, meaning Lopez drops 1 hour 20 minutes to winner Jones and Quintero in second. De Mevius arrives in third. It also means Hans Weijs profits a bit and washes up in 12th place today, but climbs to ninth place overall. Quintero and De Mevius are 1st and 2nd only 60 seconds between them.

 

Janus van Kasteren, Ales Loprais, Martin Macik ánd Yaroslav Valtr did not plan to play RAC / ANWB / ADAC today. But they still had to at that rivercrossing. Shortly after they pulled out the two stricken Can Ams the neutralisation was called, calculations made, time given back and forth. Macik started quite far back, so he was given a win. One Dutch trucker is not happy about that, Gert Huzink was charging through the field in his hybrid Renault and 3 minutes faster than Macik, but he was stopped one WP earlier, with 2m39s distance to Macik. He looked like Drax the Destroyer when he was interviewed :rotfl:Valtr got third place and was suprised to be the new leader in the trucks for now. Mitchell vd Brink also crawled back up, clocking third time and getting back in top10. For Igor Bouwens the stage ended in misery, a sixth time was good, but a clumsy pass of that same pileup of SSV's and trucks ruined his chassis, rearaxle and two spare tires which got flushed away. The Belgian crew has to pull an allnighter to make the truck driveable again. Gerrit Zuurmond had the last word again: "At this rate, there'll be no one left to finish in Dammam."

 

 

If there's no biblical flood tonight the rally continues around Ha'il tomorrow, 373 km of camelgrass and soft sand. If it still contains some moisture after the rains, the real motorcross enthusiast will come out play, at least that was what Howes was hoping ;)

Edited by Alex79, 03 January 2023 - 21:26.

[OvDrone]

We all gotta move to the Saudi desert, as apparently that's where all the rain is at lol

Whenever I look at the overall standings in cars in particular, it sucks. I still believe Sainz at least can recover that time back and it appears that anything can happen. So I am not giving up on Loeb either.

On bikes, I am rooting for Howes if Price cannot make it. Gonna follow Howes closer in World Rally Raid from now on.

[Dolph]

Audi gets a 11 bhp boost from stage 5 onwards. Al-Attiyah, who enjoys an 18 minute lead blows up: “Thank you for killing the race early”   The same guy who just a few days ago said Sainz is always complaining about something 

 

https://www.motorspo...boost/10417172/

[thegamer23]

Yay, Adrian Van Beveren won today's moto stage!!

Sanders lost 26 minutes, drama in the overall!
 

Edited by thegamer23, 05 January 2023 - 10:47.

[Alex79]

A bit later because I crashed down with the flu yesterday, but I did have the time to record and retrace.

 

My headache almost got worse as I listened to Bart vd Velden (team manager of Mason Klein) en Henk Hellegers (team manager of Skyler Howes) who tried to explain another rulechange that comes straight out of the Tour de France. "Bonus seconds" As riders who have to open stages lose too much time as there are no tracks to follow ASO has decreed that on certain stages the first few starters get a few bonus seconds per kilometer, so the time loss is kept in balance.

 

It was NOT a good day for Hero yesterday, as within an hour all three bikes ran into something. Joaquin Rodrigues crashed and broke his leg, Ross Branch ran on empty and had to barter for gasoline and Sebastian Bühler stopped with water in his tanks. That last one happened to more competitors, probably they forgot to check the tankers. Mason KIein only 12 minutes, but both Branch and Buhler lost almost 3 hours thanks to that.

 

It looked like spanish referee Matheu Lahoz had taken a break from sending off people in football and starting working for the ASO. Joan Barreda was going to win this stage, at the finish he was 16s quicker then Quintanilla and Howes, but the jury awarded Nacho Cornejo the win because they gifted him back the time he lost while waiting with Rodrigues after his fall. And then the whole decision was revoked and Barreda got his stagewin anyway Daniel Sanders retains the lead overall by three minutes. Howes remains second, Kevin Benavides is third.

 

 

I see that in the cars the infamous BoP will make a difference today, yesterday it didn't look like Audi needed it. Both Sainz and Peterhansel were in 2nd and 3rd, narrowly beating Al Attiyah in fourth. This stage went to Sebastian Loeb with only 13 seconds to spare. Some comfort for Prodrive as they also had a torrid day. Orly Terranova complained of back problems after a very hard landing. Guirlain Chicherit lost 2 hours with problems and Vaidotas Zala had to be towed home when his car broke down.

 

Another DNF was Benediktas Vanagas, who landed so hard after a jump he hit his head on the roof and got a concussion. And Erik van Loon also complained of back problems the first 200 clicks, then it turned to sandy tracks so he could make up a bit of time to 11th. Tim en Tom Coronel came close to a top10 finish but a late flat tire lost them 20 minutes so they dropped back to 19th. For  outsiders Century Racing a good result in the standings gets nigh impossible: Brian Baragwanath lost an hour, Matthieu Serradori three hours.

 

 

In the buggys the whole LW Proto standings got mixed in a blender. Seth Quintero had suspension issues, Lopez had technical issues, Gutierrez dropped another 45 minutes. Which means Mitchell Guthrie swooped in for another stagewin, beating Joao Ferreira by three minutes. WHO? Joao Ferreira. European Baja Champion, driving a X Raid developed buggy, powered by a Yamaha engine. Like the OT3 a fast car, but also prone to break down, hence the fact that Ferreira is almost last in the general standings. Guillaume De Mevius and Austin Jones came home 3rd and 4th, so the difference between Guthrie and De Mevius is still 90 seconds, Jones is at 11 minutes, Quintero has to make up 1 hours 21 minutes

 

 

I already said Gert Huzink looked like Drax the Destroyer when he lost that rain stage due to ASO meddling, but yesterday he drove like Drax the Destroyer trying to make up for that. Two ways this can end, a fastest time or an accident. Alas, Huzink blew the engine, so he's out. The second Renault of Pascal de Baar did rather well in seventh, but if de Baar had not broken a tie rod it could have been even beter. It turned into another victory for Martin Macik, who beat Mitchell vd Brink by almost 9 minutes. Loprais came in third and takes over the lead as Yarosav Valtr had damper problems and lost 45 minutes. Martin vd Brink also jumps up the order, getting home fourth nets him second place overall for now. Janus van Kasteren complained of electric gremlins and lost another hour

Edited by Alex79, 05 January 2023 - 10:54.

[ArnageWRC]

Changing BoP during the race is an absolute 'no-no' for me. It's bad enough in the middle of the season, but this is next level 'jiggery pokery'. It's like changing the goal posts, or scoring system in the middle of a game.....Why motorsport series thinks it's acceptable, is truly bizarre.

[JRodrigues]

Well, it seems the EoP didn't make much difference today. Nasser quickest, followed by Sainz and Peterhansel.

 

A Toyota engineer was on a podcast a few days ago saying this was already expected, either in favour of Toyota or any other car. (in portuguese: link)

Edited by JRodrigues, 05 January 2023 - 11:16.

[AlexS]

Dakar is now basically a farce.

[Risil]

Changing BoP during the race is an absolute 'no-no' for me. It's bad enough in the middle of the season, but this is next level 'jiggery pokery'. It's like changing the goal posts, or scoring system in the middle of a game.....Why motorsport series thinks it's acceptable, is truly bizarre.

It's real "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" stuff isn't it

[BRG]

Dakar is now basically a farce.

It finally reached its sell-by date when it left South America.  

[Alex79]

Well, we just mind have found out The Secret of Nasser Al Attiyah thanks to RTL. He was scheduled for a little interview with the annoying Frank Verhoeven, but he treated him to excellent tea instead and made Frank shut up for a few minutes Tea that has that kind of stopping power has no equal in the world.

 

But lets get serious, Al Attiyah and the whole of Toyota were not happy thanks to the already infamous 11 bhp boost the Audi's electric cars have gotten. Only reaction to complaints was a whiny sounding "come on we agreed to this!" from ASO. Don't really know if that also fuelled Al Attiyah today, but he was in fine form, nibbling away more minutes from Sainz and Peterhansel and winning a second stage this year. Sainz 1m57s, Peterhansel lost 3m44s. Biggest loser out of the BoP saga seems Al Rahji, who came 4th this stage but still got bumped back to third place by Peterhansel. Sebastien Loeb was on course for a good result, wanted too much and flipped the car in a dunepan, he lost 20 minutes and clocked in as 9th

 

Erik van Loon had another Catweazle day. First a driveshaft broke, then centre diff played up at exactly the wrong moment, namely when negotiating a dune. He hit a gras knoll on the way down, rolled 3 times, broke another drive shaft. So they had crawl out of the stage 2WD, losing 1h30m as 67th on stage. And a very strange little train showed up at bivouac when Vadotas Zala (10th day) towed in Tom en Tim Coronel (21th) who in turn were towing Guirlain Chicherit. The Frenchman had a good run in 5th, but ran on empty in the liaison until the Coronels picked him up... and ran out of fuel themselves, so when Zala came by and stopped to have a laugh, he was kind enough to take the whole convoy along

Al Attiyah remains in the lead, Peterhansel now 2nd at 22 minutes, Al Rahji third at 27 minutes. A stealthy outsider is now Lucas Moraes, who slithered up the order the last days and is in 6th place

 

 

In the bikes Daniel Sanders woke up just like ..  well, me. A sick wreck not fit for doing anything, especially not on a bike in an unstable Desert environment. But he soldiered on anyway, despite losing half an hour and coming in as 21st. Joan Barreda also had an off day, he crashed again, together with Toby Price it seemed. As the bike fell on him and a few other riders were close, they all scrambled to help him. It only costed 14 minutes, but how big is the blow to his health after the earlier trouble. Price got some time back and managed to clock third time, behind the Honda's of Nacho Cornejo and Adrien van Beveren. Van Beveren had his birthday yesterday, but the present was a bit later on arrival. Skyler Howes and Mason Klein both only lost five minutes today, meaning Howes jumps to the overall lead and Klein is now 4th. First six bikers are only 9 minutes apart

 

in the buggys it is a matter of turning wheels of fortune. Mitch Guthrie has had his moments in the sun, now he was stranded with a broken steering rack. He was towed out and will be given a big timing penalty. Now Seth Quintero grabbed a chance to win another stage after his bad luck and he did, beating Chaleco Lopez by 5 minutes. Behind them the two top contenders for general honours are not losing sight of each other. Guillaume de Mevius came in fourth, Austin Jones ended in third. Meaning De Mevius retains the lead by 7 minutes on Jones. After those two the time difference runs into one hour for Quintero and two and a half hours for Lopez and Cristina Gutierrez.

 

 

In the trucks De Rooy had to look over all the trucks as both Janus van Kasteren and Mitchell vd Brink ran into defective injectors meaning the truck would use up the fuel too fast. Mitchell was in luck he'd just crested the last dune before the finish so the engine sprang back on again, but Van Kasteren had to wait for someone to give him 40 litres of diesel. Today that seems to have cleared up, all three remaining trucks ended in top4 right behind each other. Mitchell in 4th, Van Kasteren 3rd and Martin vd Brink in second. Only the nimble Praga of Ales Loprais was a few seconds quicker on the last Dune section, meaning Karl Loprais' nephew wins it by 16 seconds. Pascal de Baar pipped both Macik and Koolen for fith place, Ben en Jan vd Laar continue a string of top10 finishes with an eighth place today. For Jaroslav Valtr his problems with dampers still persist, the Czech lost another half hour today. Loprais and Martin vd Brink remain 1st and 2nd, Van Kasteren climbs to third just in front of Macik

 

 

As the bivouac in tomorrows finish Al Duwadimi is still flooded, the route has been shortened 100 km, so the crews can switch to a bivouac close to Riyadh. It still has 361 hard kilometres left to drive, with sandy stretches, a few sharp pepple beaches and dunes in the end. Are you ready for it, or through with it

Edited by Alex79, 05 January 2023 - 21:57.

[JRodrigues]

Door is open for Nasser to win again: Al Rajhi stopped with mechanical issues, and both Peterhansel and Sainz crashed at the same place! Peterhansel's co-driver, Edouard Boulanger has been evacuated with back pain, while Sainz is trying to repair the car.

[thegamer23]

Damn!!

Really going all towards Nasser at this point. 

But Dakar is still long.

[OvDrone]

Wishing you strong health and to get better Alex, you are our flag bearer. 

LETS GO Howes, bikes are where its at!

[jonpollak]

الله

الله

 

الله

B.O.P. BE DAMNED !!!

 

AL-ATTIYAH !!!!

 

الله

الله

الله

 

 

Jp

[Alex79]

Lots of mugs of tea, ricola sweets and a bale of kleenex at least keeps me somewhat going, although I should not complain when I looked at former TT of Man racer James Hillier who talked with Allard Kalff and had that 1000 yards stare you find in any veteran of the Falklands, Vietnam etc. "I absolutely am DONE with gels and energy bars, someone get me some proper food please." To be honest, I too could kill for some fish and chips, Dutch style (preferably bytesized cod chunks "kibbeling" )

 

But hey, thats for another day. In the desert there's other fish to fry Daniel Sanders seems like he's on the mend, only lost 3 minutes today and came some in seventh, he seems to think a thorn stuck in his leg from a bush he crashed into a few days ago is the problem, so another visit to the doctor then. The top6 stayed very close today, lots of sand, lots of smaller fast changing dunes. One mistake and you out or lose a lot of time. Toby Price had to drive the last clicks without a front brake and that might have cost him a stagewin. Both Husky's managed a one-two today. Luciano Benavides winning a first stage, Skyler Howes getting second and retains the lead overall, Price second by 3m31s. Not a great day for Mason Klein, losing seven minutes because of two crashes and he finished 12th. Adrien van Beveren proves the concept of bonus seconds somehow works as he effectively lost 4 minutes and stays in contact with the top spots. Because of the continuing extreme weather bikers and quad riders do get an rest day tomorrow. They will resume on sunday and have monday as extra R&R.

 

 

In the cars it seems the decision to intervene will haunt the rally, but not like you'd expect. The Audi's of both Peterhansel and Sainz both made a grave mistake at a large dune, instead of slowly scaling down they jumped off and crashed. Peterhansel's car landed on all wheels, but Edouard Boulanger hurt his back and Peterhansel himself seemed a little dazed himself, so they're out. As Sainz copilot Lucas Cruz was also hurt and the suspension on El Matador's car was busted, he seems to have been towed out as well. Edit: just half an hour ago (2200 dutch time) the crew checked in bivouac, Cruz is ok, the car is not, nightwork awaits. Only Audi normally at the finish was Mattias Ekström after a factory reset to his software. He ended up 6th today

 

For one of Al Attiyah biggest rivals it seems at least the hunt for the crown is over. Yazeed Al Rahji tried to take some risks on the small dunes, got lucky a few times and then got stuck and broke his suspension. I just saw him pop at the tracker, Bog Last, 136th place, has been towed out. In front it was about a quartet of cars hunting for glory. Guirlain Chicherit and Sebastian Loeb in the Jag Buggy's, Al Attiyah and Henk Lategan in the Toyota's. Al Attiyah won his third stage in the end. Only at the finish he noticed he'd lost the steering pump and that it could have been close to a bust with all the oil leaking out. A calm day for Erik van Loon, they used some panels from Vanagas' abandoned car to patch up his own, he got an 11th time with it. Lucas Moraes continues to surprise, coming home in 7th and climbing to 3rd spot

 

In the buggys we saw the second Yamaha X Raid Car showing up front, Ignacio Casale rode a quad for many South American editions, then switched to a truck the last two years. Now he's recruited by X raid for their buggy team together notable names like Annie Seel (multiple winner of the womens classement), Camelia Liparoti (multiple competitor on a quad) and Ricardo Porem (last seen driving a DKR Borgward in 2021). He is the best classified in 6th overall, today he got home in fourth. You could see clearly who can drive a bit more careless as a big team will repair it all and who is more cautious because the jobs have to be done later. Hans Weijs had trouble with an exhaust pipe before the start and though he was respectably fast as 7th, he still let the Can AM RBR troop go out and play, hanging back 12 minutes. The rest of top6 was in 5 minutes of each other, but still, the winner was NOT an RBR car. Again, the OT3 driven by Guillaume de Mevius meddled in the proceedings and won the stage a minute faster than Austin Jones, two minutes faster than Seth Quintero. De Mevius also keeps the lead, which is now nine minutes on Jones

 

 

Before the trucks started today Gerard de Rooy was interviewed about the first truck his father drove in Africa in the early eighties. That same DAF 2800 is present again in the Dakar Classic, driven by old De Rooy henchman Hugo Duisters. "He even has the exact same complaints as dad, it's rearwheel drive so it cant take the high sanddunes very well, thats why we came up with the Two Headed Monster and his double engine. That truck is also in the classics, Janus van Kasteren Senior is the driver. See both trucks in this link here

 

As Van Kasteren Senior was for a gentler drive, his son had something to duel about with Mitchell vd Brink. Both Iveco's seem to have lost all their gremlins and just flew today. Ales Loprais was caught in no time and though the Czech tried to keep up he got stuck and lost half an hour. The ASO choppers had a field day shooting images of Van Kasteren and Vd Brink chasing each other for more than 100 clicks. "Then we got to a large dune and I had to break or I would have rammed Janus, that's were we lost him." At the first stop Van Kasteren was leading by half a minute, but I told you, Mo Torralardoña is Mitchell's secret weapon, the Spanish navigator found the quickest route and the '511' reached the finish first, 45 seconds quicker than Van Kasteren, who also had to take it slower as the rear suspension was about to give up. Martin Macik came in third after getting lost twice, Martin vd Brink took a bit longer in 4th, but as Loprais was only 6th with 26 minutes lost, Martin is now very close to his tail, 23 seconds difference, Macik and Van Kasteren are fighting for 3rd place, Yarlos Valtr and Mitchell battling for fourth. Also, Pigs can fly. ASO has notified Gert Huzink that he is now declared winner of the third stage, results were amended. Huzink will return to Dakar next year, the Renault cannot be repaired any more

 

 

Change of plans tomorrow. Only Cars and Trucks are out in an impromptu Marathon stage with only 2 hours of service allowed after finish, before the bunch goes into parc fermé for the sunday finish. The Bikes and Quads will rejoin them there.

Edited by Alex79, 06 January 2023 - 21:58.

[jonpollak]

World class posting.
Jp

[Alex79]

The first half of the Frankenstein marathon stage. Bits and pieces of two separate stages were stitched together to create a somewhat new stage that ends back in the Ryadh bivouac for the cars, buggys and trucks. Bikers and quads have some extra downtime today.

 

Alas "bits and pieces" is the code word for chaos for at least three crews. The last remaining Audi in the top10 was the vehicle of Mattias Ekström, despite protesting software. But today it ran into the same "feature" as the other vehicles, the suspension broke after a fast stretch and a hard jump. It's fine to be gifted 11 bhp, but if you start driving like a madman because of it the whole BoP thingie gets even more farcical than it already sounds. Sainz came to help his stricken teammate, swapped out parts and then waited for the towtruck himself, they arrived as 129th and 131st, 3,5 hours late to the party. For Erik van Loon the pillory is over. Again he was a bit too fast today and he rolled the car again, this time breaking the rear suspension and injuring his back again. As he was unconcious after the crash codriver Sebastien Delauney had no other alternative then to call the emergency services, they are out. Tim en Tom Coronel also had a nasty accident in the last 5 km, when they missed a little knoll in the sand

 

 

Front suspension gone, rear suspension wrecked, one wheel lost. They got the wreck to the finish and got towed to bivouac by Pascal de Baar, It will be real interesting if they could do ANY sort of salvage or that it is over for them this year.

 

Up fronta little convoy formed up with two Jag Buggys and three Toyota's. As Al Attiyah could or would not find a WP it was a comical scene of cars trying to pursue each other until Giniel de Villiers broke the spell and drove off, pulling the whole through with him. Al Attiyah lost 19 minutes with all the shenanigans and came home 14th. Winner was the very late starting Al Rahji, who came in last yesterday, had to repair the car and started somewhere in in 70th spot. Driving on everybody's tracks helped and the Saudi was 8 minutes faster than the Jags of Zala and Chicherit. In the standings Al Attiyah still leads by an hour, but the battle for number two with Lategan and Moraes becomes really interesting (only minutes between the two.

 

A small interview with Gregoire de Mevius today, father of T3 buggy driver Guillaume and former dakar and rally driver himself. "If I would have been a bit smarter, I probably could have driven with him, instead of handling team matters for him. De Mevius Senior crashed heavily in his last African dakar and had to abandon motorsports because of the injuries to his back. Despite opening the route, Guillaume did well and lost only a few seconds to Austin Jones, the rest was not a threat for now. The first five buggys were only five minutes apart, Mitchell Guthrie managed to win another stage. In the smaller SSV's it seems only Rokas Baciuska can give a challenge to the threat of the Goczal family, the young Lithuanian won another stage and is now 5 minutes ahead of Marek and Eryk Goczal, Michael is a bit further back because old fox Gerard Farres Guell had snuck up the order in 4th

 

 

In the trucks we have a very angry man in the field. Adwin Hoondert, a friendly trucker from Zeeland, driving a Renault for Riwald. But this Dakar he turns into MISTER HYDE whenever the starter engine sparks to life. Reason is a dumb mistake by the ASO, who did not register the Renault Kerax as a competitor, but as an assistance truck. Meaning, Hoondert has to start Bog Last every stage despite overtaking almost 40 competitors every day. He already complained about the situation, his competitors already complained about that towering Renault looming large in their wing mirrors every day. But the ASO does not make mistakes, there are no errors move along everyone. So Mr Hyde Hoondert has Dakar Definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different routes and ruts in the landscape. He clawed himself to twelve today, is 17th overall, and will scare the living daylights out of all the poor backmarkers again tomorrow. Shout out to you Mister Hoondert.

 

 

The other competitors had a field day chasing down Ales Loprais. Because Martin vd Brink was very close to taking the lead, but a stupid time penalty on an impossible location (who puts a speedzone on a downhill dune but our ASO "friends") meant a chase was on. Janus van Kasteren flew off in the distance playing the hare, Loprais and Vd Brink tried catching up. They did not get close enough. Van Kasteren won his first Dakar stage by three minutes   Loprais still held on to second, winning one minute on Vd Brink. Even Mitchell vd Brink would have caught his father, but for a time penalty in the last sector. Loprais still in the lead, Vd Brink two minutes behind him, Van Kasteren is third, shaking loose Macik by twenty minutes

 

Tomorrow the Frankenstein marathon will conclude with an added condiment of bikers and quads to liven things up. It's chaos, infuriating, confusing, comical, farcical and somehow highly entertaining this year. How will this end?

Edited by Alex79, 07 January 2023 - 20:58.

[thegamer23]

For sure the toughest Saudi Arabia Dakar so far.
From what i've seen & read, temperatures are freezing cold in the morning and the rain is making the course harder & more unpredictable.

A shame 2 of the 3 Audis basically dropped out of the competition and the issues for Loeb in the first few stages, could have been quite a bit closer for the win.
However, the bike race is amazing, and should go down to the wire.

 

Amazing reports everyday Alex 

Edited by thegamer23, 07 January 2023 - 21:19.

[Alex79]

Well, time to finish the Frankenstein Marathon today, 361 km left with the complete pack of competitors that still is in competition. Alas, Gerrit Zuurmond had to park his MAN with a broken gasket. "We don't if it breaks the whole engine after 1000 metres or 1000 km, but it will break." so they decided to drop out, finish as Rally2 if it can be repaired.

 

In the bikes finally another good day for Ross Branch. "Kalahari Ferrari" managed to arrive 3 minutes quicker than Daniel Sanders and Mason Klein. Klein might have gotten 2nd if he was not caught speeding and docked 2 extra minutes. Both Skyler Howes and Toby Price had their issues today, ending up 20th and 17th, losing more than 20 minutes each. Last stage winner Luciano Benavides even ended 21st, after losing his way on camera. For Howes it did not matter that much, he still has 3 minutes on Kevin Benavides and Klein, buth Price landed back in fourth because of it. And a new surprise from Henk Hellegers's bottomless well of talent. Michael Docherty was already making waves on days two and three, but then he crashed and lost a possible top5 finish. Now the South African biker came come in sixth: eight minutes behind branch

 

 

In the cars Carlos Sainz might be out for the crown, he still wanted a stage win. And he might have gotten it as he was fastest in every WP, but a 5 minutes time penalty for driving 70 where 40 was allowed shoved him back to third. Al Attiyah got 2nd, Sebastien Loeb won another stage. After a rather anonimous Dakar until now, Kuba Przygonski showed up in front in his Mini buggy, fifth between the squabbling Toyota's of Lategan and Moraes who still want podium honours. Even the stricken Century of the Coronel brothers made the finish, battered, bruised but not out. In today's stage the provisional repairs only just held and they had to stop a few times for oil and coolant refills. The restday is not only for the drivers, also for the machines

 

 

in the T3 buggys the Yamaha X Raids really start to annoy the RBR brigade, both Casale and Ferreira decided to fight along for a stage win and it was Ferreira who was quickest by only 17 seconds. Chaleco Lopez clocked in 2nd, Mitchell Guthrie in 3rd. Austin Jones did win some time back on Guillaume de Mevius, he was in 4th and 5 minutes quicker. In the smaller ssv's a nice surprise from Paul Spierings, Dutch amateur who mostly ends up around 18th place, but now clocked an eighth time seven minutes behind stagewinner Jeremias Gonzales Ferioli. Both don't play a very large roll in the standings, there Baciuska and The Goczal clan still lead.

 

In the trucks a two way fight starts to turn in a four way brawl. Ales Loprais is still out in front and manages to gain a few seconds every stage. Martin vd Brink has the quicker truck, but in the difficult dune sections he loses too much on the smaller nimbler Praga. Behind him Martin Macik seems to find a rhythm not only for stagewins, but the Czech also becomes a podium threat. Janus van Kasteren overdid it and had to change a flat tyre, which costed 18 minutes. Macik wins the stage and closes up to 47 seconds behind van Kasteren. Mitchell vd Brink got really close but at the finish he was 59 seconds too slow, 2nd place today and he seems stuck on fifth, an hour deficit to Macik, an hour ahead of Valtr in fifth.

 

 

Tomorrow, a rest day and on tuesday the pack drives from Ryadh to Haradh, 358 km with canyons, dunes, nasty navigational tricks. I wonder how many will hear the alarm on that morning and think: "nay, not for me."

Edited by Alex79, 08 January 2023 - 20:11.

[thegamer23]

More drama in the bikes & cars.
Barreda crashed out and was taken to the hospital by helicopter. 

Sainz rolled over and was about to be taken to the hospital too for back pain, but he wanted to stay with his co-driver to repair the car.

 

Sainz shunt

https://twitter.com/...739851677478912

Edited by thegamer23, 10 January 2023 - 10:36.

[skinnyman]

Boah, crazy crash, but amazing footage of that Audi gliding around beforehand.

 

Am I wrong or the mistake was touching the brakes before the jump ?

(no idea about brake balance on that thing but I am thinking it might have shifted the weight too much to the front)

[dweller23]

Barreda, not again, he never wins and he almost always crashes.

[Alex79]

Finding rain in the desert is hard, but not impossible as we saw. Finding barbed wire in a desert is harder, but Martin Michek succeeded. In the last part of the Frankenstein marathon on sunday he crashed and first did not understand why his tyre was completely off the rim, until he noticed he'd driven over a fence a few clicks before which destroyed his rear tyre. With help of a local and Simon Marciç who recorded the whole episode on his Dakar camera he somehow used tierips to keep everything together and got to the finish.

 

Today Michek had a really good day as 9th and second R2 rider behind Tony Mulec between the carnage and the surprises. Bart vd Velden (BAS Dakar) and Henk Hellegers (HT Husqvarna) were both instructing their riders along the same lines: have fun, don't crash and don't get penalties. Did not really work. Mason Klein fell off in Der Neualgischen Punkt, a muddy river crossing, which destroyed his roadbook. He caught up to Adrien van Beveren but he should have kept his distance a bit, because when the Frenchman swerved to hit a WP Klein hit his backwheel and both tumbled off. Van Beveren must have flipped his lid big time because Klein looked like a scolded high school boy at the finish: 22nd, muddy, and in pain. He lost 21 minutes, Van Beveren (14th) lost 14 minutes. Somewhat similar was the altercation between Daniel Sanders and Joan Barreda. Searching for WP's and crashing after a jump. Sanders got up and could eventually continue. Barreda hurt his back and had to be airlifted out. Dakar is over for Bang Bang

 

Still, BAS Dakar and Husqvarna had a good day. Luciano Benavides started late and could navigate easier, he won the stage just before the two main competitors Skyler Howes (3rd) and Toby Price. Animal is still second, but it is now only 3 seconds to Howes (Haa Haa Haa). Behind them Tosha Schareina (riding on a BAS bike with Aspar Money) and Romain Dumontier (bought a Husky package) came in 4th and 5th, where do Bart and Henk keep finding. Or is it the other way around now they've seen results with Howes and Klein? Mirjam Pol had a nasty problem at the start, roadbook was broken even before she started. She came to an agreement with David Pabiska who took her along for the ride. It worked, Pabiska a 38th time, Pol clocked 43th

 

 

In the cars Audi seems to have modified the rear of the Optimus Etron a bit, they removed some body panels to get to the rear suspension quicker. Carlos Sainz might have had plans, but that did not work, after 10 clicks he misjudged a jump and crashed. I think he braked too late when he saw the chasm loom.... second time this happens. He was airlifted off as he complained of shoulder pains, but either it was not the feared dislocated shoulder, or Sainz is plain stubborn. Because the Spaniard made the helicopter turn around when he wanted to bring the car in for tomorrow. Henk Lagetan also sees a podium go up in smoke, broken suspension after a jump. After scrounging parts from Al Rahji und customer driver Urvo Manama he got to fixing the car, losing 51 minutes but still in the top5.

 

In front it was a Jaguar day, all the Prodrive buggies were in attack mode. Guirlain Chicherit came in third, Vaidotas Zala was greeted by a flock of Lithuanian Countrymen who celebrated a win, too prematurely, because then The Winged Hussar arrived. Like Jan Sobieski Sebastien Loeb was a bit late (the car would not start and the Frenchman lost 13 minutes) but he drove like he needed to save Vienna again and despite an added time penalty Loeb won and made it a Jag 1-2-3. Mattias Ekström came home fourth in the remaining Audi, both Al Attiyah and Lucas Moraes drove a bit calmer, clocked 8th and 10th time. Because of Lategan's problems Moraes climbs to second, Loeb is now third.

 

 

In the T3, the RBR brigade cannot seem to get rid of that pesky Belgian driver in their old car up front. They all went at it today, and all of them ran into problems. Cristina Gutierrez and Chaleco Lopez lost time due to punctures, Austin Jones got stuck at the Neuralgischen Punkt and both and Quintero had little errors in navigation. Only Mitch Guthrie came veeeery close to beat Guillaume de Mevius, but he stranded at 12 seconds. And then David Zille swoops in as a late starter and surprises even the Dakar site who already gave De Mevius the win, Felicidades David. In the standings De Mevius gains 10 minutes on Jones, unless something really bad happens (and it is Dakar, so chances are 50% on that) it's between those two, the rest can only hope that the OT3 finally has a mishap

 

Big, big Mishaps in the trucks. A "Chote" Pascal de Baar called Der Neuralgischen Punkt, which is a very muddy point in a river crossing that is covered in a hard crust of mud. Lighter cars might travel over it , but a 10 ton truck breaks through and digs in up until the axles. Martin Macik was the first to bog down, Martin vd Brink the second. De Baar saw it happening, stopped and swerved off left, crossed at another point before approaching the WP from the other side. Another Fantastic Prank of the comical duo Castera and Colsoul. Mitchell vd Brink copied the Renault and backtracked as he was the RAC/ANWB/ADAC helper today. First he collected all the towing cable from five trucks (the Martins, Jaroslav Valtr, his own and Ben vd Laar who also bogged down), and then towed out everyone. Macik lost 51 minutes there, Vd Brink 46 minutes.

 

 

Janus van Kasteren saw everything happen: 'I could not stop, only swerve more to the left, close my eyes and Pray that we could get through. He did and was waved on by the Vd Brink family, go get Ales Loprais and De Baar. Those two were the only one who did not get stuck. The little Praga did well in the technical sections, but on the broader and flatter stretches the grunt of the Renault was a bit too much, Loprais ended up fourth. De Baar was aiming for a second Riwald team stage win after Gert Huzink, but Van Kasteren's modifications worked (he removed the stabilizers on the Iveco to feel the dunes better and drift a bit more) and he won a second stage today, 3 minutes quicker then De Baar, four minutes quicker then Valtr who clocked in third. Van Kasteren slashed the deficit to Loprais in half, 26 minutes he has to make up, jumpinfg to second. Martin vd Brink drops to third, Macik is fourth and Valtr jumps over Mitchel vd Brink to fifth.

 

Tomorrow, a short and very snappy first appetizer of the Empty Quarter, a legendary piece of Desert, which, honestly, I only know because of Viggo Mortensen's movie Hidalgo, a cross between a western and a horse race. 114 km of sand, sand, sand, fesh fesh and sand.

Edited by Alex79, 10 January 2023 - 20:23.

[thegamer23]

Unfortunately a spectator was hit by a veichle today on the course, and didn't make it to the hospital.

 

https://www.autospor...&utm_content=uk

[Alex79]

various sites, including Motorsport are reporting that Ales Loprais is going to leave the rally. apparently it was his truck that jumped over a dune and hit the spectator which he had not seen. Loprais says in a statement on Facebook he did not notice anything and only after the stage viewed footage of the accident. hence his decision to quit the rally

[WouterF1]

various sites, including Motorsport are reporting that Ales Loprais is going to leave the rally. apparently it was his truck that jumped over a dune and hit the spectator which he had not seen. Loprais says in a statement on Facebook he did not notice anything and only after the stage viewed footage of the accident. hence his decision to quit the rally

Ales Loprais leaves Dakar after collision and death of spectator

More details have emerged on Wednesday morning about the accident that took place in the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally.
An Italian spectator died after - as it now appears - colliding with class leader Ales Loprais.
 The Czech trucker left the race.

Loprais: "When we came back from the ninth stage, they informed me of this sad news," Loprais said in a statement. "We were already in bed, but the Dakar stewards showed us footage of an accident during the race. We hit a man who was photographing us while standing in the dunes. He was injured. He became unwell after two or three hours and had a heart attack when he was taken to hospital. It took a human life, and indirectly it is my fault because I was driving. I have to acknowledge that we didn't notice anything at all. We have onboards and other video footage to prove that, but that does not change the fact that the man died."

 "I would like to convey my sincere condolences to his family and friends. I am extremely sorry that this incident took place.
I will carry this with me for the rest of my life."

The organisers and local authorities have launched an investigation into the incident. Loprais dropped out of the Dakar Rally.
He was the overall leader at the start of stage 10.
 His abandonment means that Janus van Kasteren is the new leader in the race, although that is obviously of secondary importance at the moment.

Translated with www.DeepL.com

https://nl.motorspor...rsoon/10419290/

[thegamer23]

Skyler Howes showing off for the TV cameras...than crashing  

 

https://www.instagra...aTVqBqlG/?hl=it

[Roadhouse]

Just saw a video of the fatal crash. The spectator was hit behind the crest of a dune riddled with tracks, I don't know why anyone in their right mind would be there.