55 replies to this topic

[Alex79]

Good Afternoon. As the year 2025 looms around the corner, so does the Dakar Rally ft. Saudi Arabia. EDIT: As usual a "prologue" will kick off the proceedings with a larger section of liaison and a small sprint around the start compound in Bisha. The next day it is the other way around with a small liaison and 400 clicks of special stage immediately. Sounds too easy? The next two days are reserved for another loop around Bisha, the infamous 48h loop makes it's return! And then, after a long grind to Al'Ula the marathon bivouac awaits with no assistance present for the last run to Hail. The second half of the rally is run towards the east coast with a stage to Al Duwadimi and a loop around that city on the next day. The last leg goes from Al Dudadimi to Shubaytah with stops in Ryadh and Haradh. The last two stages loop around Shubaytah



- In the cars, Prodrive is out as an official manufacturer. Dacia is in with a Sandrider buggy. Only, it is a Prodrive built buggy. So what I am curious about, is it just a bodyshell conversion or already a new product. Nevertheless, Nasser Al Attiyah is still attached to the endeavour despite his somewhat controversial exit last year. Sebastian Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez drive the other two Dacia's
- When I started readling about Ford's enterprise to enter a team of Ford Raptors, I was thinking about Martin Prokop and his infamous Shrek green monster. But no, this is no joint venture, Prokop enters another self built Ogre. The Ford Factory outfit comes with a heavily modified buggy built by M Sport that carries a Raptor V8 Coyote engine, hence its badged a Raptor T1+. Apart from Nani Roma already on board, Audi drivers Carlos Sainz (winner 2024) and Mattias Ekström and runner up in the t3 buggies Mitch Guthrie have been drafted in. Queue Marco Beltrami for some ominous music
- Again a large committee of Toyota Hilux Trucks, fielded by Overdrive, Gazoo Racing or HallSpeed. Lucas Moraes, Seth Quintero and Saoed Variawa drive the Gazoo cars. Giniel de Viliers, Henk Lategan and Guy Botterill the Hallspeed cars. And in Overdrive next to buggy contender Rokas Baciuska we have an interesting pair with Toby Price and Sam Sunderland switching from a bike to a car lineup sharing an Overdrive Hilux. Boy Howdy how will this pan out
- Century Racing fields their faithful drivers Matthieu Serradori and Brian Baragwanath and as always they distribute some cars to private entries like Laia Sanz, The Coronel Brothers and Mark Corbett
- The Fall Guys Guirlain Chicerit and Guillaume de Mevius are back as well, although they have switched their movie themed Overdrive Hilux for a pair of Zebra themed Mini X Raid buggies

- In the bikes Honda sticks to its guns with Ricky Brabec, Pablo Quintanilla and Skyler Howes. Tosha Schareina made a splash last year by winning the first stage but he crashed out fairly early. Hopefully the Spanish German rider learned from that experience. Also Honda features a private entry for Frenchman Romain Dumontier
- No Mattias Walkner again at KTM. The bike manufacturer cut back its roster as part of the financial troubles they are going through. Only one factory team with three participants, Daniel Sanders and the Argentinian brothers Kevin and Luciano Benavides.
- BAS Dakar is still there as semi factory Dakar team with a bike for Bradley Cox, newcomer Edgar Canet in the RallyGP class and three bikes in Rally2 for Malle Moto winner Tobias Ebster, Tomas De Gevardo (son of Carlos de Gevardo) and Mathieu Doveze
- Indian manufacturer Hero proudly carries the number one plate this year on the bike of Ross "Kalahari Ferrari" Branch. His teammates are Sebastian Bühler and Jose Ignacio Cornejo
- French manufacturer Sherco has bikes for Rui Gonçalves and Harith Noah. The Indian rider won Rally 2 last year and will try again

- In the buggies Challenger category for the T3 buggies you could say we have a major power vacuum. The Goczal family of Eryk, Marek and Michal Goczal was dominating the first half of the rally in 2024 but where disqualified for illegal parts used ( a carbon clutch iirc). Protest was lodged and dismissed, and now the whole family won't participate the 2025 edition. Some say out of protest, others because of lack of funding. As Gutierrez, Baciuska and Guthrie all have left for the cars, it's open season.
- Can Am South Racing quit their T3 team and focuses on the SSV T4's now. But French company MMP still fields a few adapted Can Am buggies for Ricardo Porem, Christophe Cresp and Claude Fournier.
- The Taurus T3 buggy prepared by Wevers Sport that made a splash last year found a lot of customers. Yasir Seidan, Niclas Cavigliasso, Eduard Pons, Daniela Akeel and Paul Spierings have all bought one of these little monsters.
- The two Overdrive OT3 buggies are still present as well. Saleh Alsaif retained his and enters again as Team Dark Horse. Dutch Dakar classic driver Puck Claassen switches from a Porsche 911 to the OT3 that Kris Meeke used last year. Her father Sebastiaan Klaassen is also in the rally as support personnel

- In the trucks two promiment absentees this year. Janus van Kasteren prepares for a switch to the cars, he and buggy drivers Michel Becx and Roger Grouwels pull together to start a Dutch team with Century T1+ buggies for 2026. The other one is Gert Huzink, who was intended to compete with a new Hybrid MKR Renault. Until the new regulations came out and Huzink had to do so much adjusting to his truck that he threw in the towel and goes back to the drawing board.
- Iveco's two team approach is still in the rally, although a strange dynamic occurs with Dutch drivers now favoring the Martin Macik built Iveco and foreign drivers in the De Rooy trucks. Ales Loprais and Vadotas Zala come in as new entries, Anja van Loon competed last year with an all ladies team, but now shares a truck with her brothers Jan and Ben vd Laar. Kees Koolen, Martin vd Brink and his son Mitchell vd Brink all switch to an MM Iveco, Ricard de Groot even bought Macik's old truck in which the Czech won the 2024 rally. Of course Macik has a new truck for himself as well
- Tatra cuts back to two trucks this year. Martin Soltys who missed last year's rally due to a crash while skiing is back now, thanking Pascal de Baar for collecting data on the EVO3 truck he uses. Karel Posledni makes his Dakar debut as rapid assistance truck. Tomas Vratny enters another private Tatra for the Fesh Fesh team which is Volvo powered
- The cabin, the gearbox and the Scania engine block. That was all Maurik vd Heuvel managed to salvage from his International Lonestar Truck in 2023 after this nasty crash. But now he is back again, with an MM based truck, but still that same Scania block from 2023 which was completely restored. Vd Heuvel crashed out of the rally two years in a row (2022 and 2023) so he tries not to be goaded in showboating for the press again.

- As a last note, I also look forward to the Classics this year. With a bit of bad luck there might be a Dutch driver at the front ánd at the rear. Erik van Loon has put together a team with four Audi Quattro's prepared by Audi Sport Veghel for himself, Peter vd Bosch, former Jumbo director and Max Verstappen sponsor Frits van Eerd and Dakar legend Hans Stacey. Van Loon he just wanted to enjoy the regularity trail the Classics drive (speed limit of 135km/h) and see how far he could get, for Stacey it might become a rally like Adrianus van kasteren had the last two years: forget the regularity and just push to be the fastest. Van Kasteren and Stacey joked that they will run the special Penalty Standings between them as the fastest of the day mostly gets the biggest penalties "What have I got myself into?" he wondered aloud in De Stentor

As usual I try to follow the proceedings through Eurosport Deutschland (for the knowledge of Norbert Ockenga) and RTL7 (for the news of the Dutch competitors who bought themselves in). Start of the rally is Friday January 3rd (EDIT: I missed that there is indeed a prologue on Friday)

Edited by Alex79, 05 January 2025 - 10:11.

[jonpollak]

Thank you , as always, Alex79

The season starts HERE.
Jp

[thegamer23]

Yes!!
One of my favourite periods of the year.

Following these heroes through the desert, for two weeks.

I will follow the Moto class with big interest, expecially the Malle Moto who are the real heroes of the dakar.

But there's big interest in the cars, with Sainz joining Ford.

Can't wait to read the legendary Alex79 reports, bring it on!

[Risil]

At last, the offseason is over! Cheers as always Alex79.

[paulb]

Yay, Alex79! Arguably the most incisive and comprehensive commentary around.

 

Thanks for the OP.

[loki]

For those of us in soon to be southern Canada the US NBC got the rights and it’s on The Cock.  No word on if they sent anyone for extra commentary/interviews but it’s at least the ASO daily round up.  A day late.  I’d gladly pay for an IOMTT type stream.  A 50 spot, even.

 

Sara Price in the golf carts, err SSV could be in the hunt this year.  Factory Can-Am and stage winner last year.

 

Mitch Guthrie is the real deal but his team is deep in codgers so he’ll have his work cut out for him.  Former Robby Gordon co-dawg Kellon Walch will be Guthrie’s co-dawg this year.

[ArnageWRC]

https://forums.autos...r#entry10741415

 

Someone already set up a Dakar 2025 thread......

[jonpollak]

Alex79 OWNS this topic.
The rest are wanna be’s

Here is the event website

https://www.dakar.com/en/

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 01 January 2025 - 13:21.

[paulb]

A bit on the Ford Raptor, https://www.motorspo...rally/10685668/

[loki]

Or the M-Sport with a detuned Coyote….     The Coyotes are pretty reliable even when tuned to the hilt.  An off the lot street legal  Raptor R is about 700 hp.  With the roster of drivers and M-Sport experience it should be a formidable contender.

[loki]

Alex79 OWNS this topic.
The rest are wanna be’s

Here is the event website

https://www.dakar.com/en/

Jp

T’was the same one that posted Dakar should be in the Rally thread.  Too big to not have its own thread with Alex79.  I didn’t start one ‘cause I knew he would.

 

I thought the main site had the topology maps posted by now.  Perhaps they stopped when they quit giving route books the day before.  That had created an industry of people crunching data (from the US and Europe) to give to the teams the morning of the stage.  This was from a dude who did that for some crazy man former Indycar driver.  Apparently even the smaller teams did it as well.

[Alex79]

the Dutch site of motorsport also had a piece on the Dacia car. The BRX chassis is still the basis, they still use the same bi turbo Ford engine. I only hope they ironed out the kinks that made al attiya flip his lid.

edit: also found Mario Galans piece about the update shock absorption

https://www.motorspo...lenge/10685177/

Edited by Alex79, 02 January 2025 - 08:31.

[Risil]

This was from a dude who did that for some crazy man former Indycar driver.

 

Every year I still look at the timesheets expecting to see that Robby Gordon has either put his buggy in seventh or rolled it.

[DevilDare]

Baciuska 4th in the prologue for his first outing in the cars! High hopes for this young guy

[JRodrigues]

Really tough on the guys that already abandoned!

[William Hunt]

Baciuska 4th in the prologue for his first outing in the cars! High hopes for this young guy

 

Rokas Baciuska, had almost forgotten him. I remember him from karting. He did the FIA European KZ2 shifter kart championship in 2017.

 

In 2014 he was racing for the Energy Corse factory team in KF Junior (now called OK Junior) in the FIA European Karting & FIA World Championship karting. Wasn't a top driver but not bad, that year he raced against the likes of:

 

- Enaam Ahmed (Ricky Flynn Motorsport)

- Logan Sargeant  (Ricky Flynn Motorsport)

- Max Fewtrell  (Ricky Flynn Motorsport)

 

- Mick Schumacher (Tony Kart)

 

-  Lorenzo Travisanuto  (PCR)

 

- Dan Ticktum (Zanardi Strakka Racing)

-  Jüri Vips  (Zanardi Strakka Racing)

- Bent Viscaal  (Zanardi Strakka Racing)

 

-  Benjamin Lessennes  (VDK)

-  Ulysse De Pauw  (Birel ART)

-  Gilles Magnus  (privately entered Parolin)

 

-  Felipe Drugovich  (Kosmic)

-  Marcus Armstrong  (Kosmic)

-  Clément Novalak  (Kosmic)

 

-  Alex Quinn  (CRG)

 

-  Juan Manuel Correa  (his Energy Corse team mate)

 

-  Giuliano Alesi  (Babyrace Driver Academy)

-  Lorenzo Colombo  (Babyrace Driver Academy)

-  Leonardo Lorandi  (Babyrace Driver  Academy

 

- Rinus Van Kalmthout  (Keijzer Racing on a Zanardi)

- Sophia Flörsch  (Morsicani Racing on a Tony Kart)

- Marta Garcia  (privately entered Zanardi)

-  Christian Lundgaard (privately entered PCR)

-  David Beckman  (privately entered Tony Kart)

 

- Kush Maini  (RB Kart, Exprit)

- Tom Leuillet  (Birel ART)

 

Seeing this name back is a ...blast from the past, in this case a blast back to 2014 and the karting Junior World & European championship campaign.

Edited by William Hunt, 03 January 2025 - 22:12.

[Risil]

I have to confess I had no idea that people progressed from junior single seaters into rally raids.

[William Hunt]

I have to confess I had no idea that people progressed from junior single seaters into rally raids.

He never did single seaters. He had an international karting carreer, then did rallycross and then rally raids.

[Risil]

Even stranger! But then I don't think you could have kart-cross, the drivers' spines would melt.

(You're going to tell me this exists now and in fact Antonelli, Russell and Leclerc were all multiple offroad kart champions)

[InSearchOfThe]

US Cock schedule.

https://www.nbcsport...m-et-on-peacock

[Risil]

I think they should being back the former Paris-Dakar branding for this event, since the competitors don't visit Paris either.

[William Hunt]

Even stranger! But then I don't think you could have kart-cross, the drivers' spines would melt.

(You're going to tell me this exists now and in fact Antonelli, Russell and Leclerc were all multiple offroad kart champions)

 

There is Belgian Kobe Pauwels who had a nice karting carreer, then was (shortly) succesful in Rallycross before moving to Touring Cars, ending up 3rd in the TCR Europe Cup, in 2024 he then switched again now to GT3 cars still racing for Comtoyou Racing. Still a very young driver and talented.

 

Kobe's grandfather and father had a carreer in rallycross. Kobe is still just...20 years of age but already experience in so many different categories.

Edited by William Hunt, 03 January 2025 - 15:51.

[Alex79]

Indeed, after his karting days, Baciuska must have come up against the wall in motorsport called sponsoring. And since RX and Rally affiliated sports are bigger in the Baltics, he switched to off road racing. Coming 3rd in your first Dakar outing without a factory drive made people sit up and notice, that's when he was signed by Red Bull. In 23 he had heartbreak while driving first in the SSV's last stage and his cardan axle snapped, last year he finished 3rd in the Challenger buggies.

 

And his rally started well today being the 2nd Toyota overall in fourth, 21s off the winner. Who was his teammate Henk Lategan (Hallspeed, Overdrive and Gazoo all use the same service park). The South African was a whole second quicker than Mattias Ekström's Ford. Nasser Al Attiyah started a new Dakar attempt with a third place. Former bikers Sunderland and Price came in 12th. Best dutch drivers were the Coronel brothers in 34th, who complained they lost their second wingmirror already (one snapped off in shakedown). Guillaume de Mevius had a much worse experience, as he punctured and lost 4 minutes changing his wheel.

 

In the bikes it is already goodbye for the last years Rally2 winner. Harith Noah crashed halfway and has to abandon with a broken wrist. Stage's honors were for Daniel Sanders, who beat Ross Branch by 12s. Third is an interesting rider, Edgar Canet. First thought he was a brother of Aron Canet of Moto2 fame, but in his bio Edgar talks about a brother riding motorcross affecting him with the offroad virus. And he took over when his brother turned to football/soccer anyway. Nani Roma seems to have discovered Canet's talent and nurtured him to get a chance in the Red Bull factory. Canet clocked 3rd in almost the same time as Branch. Just hope he learned of Harit's example not to overexert himself early. KTM has a 1-2-3 in Rally 2 as BAS Dakar teammates Docherty and Ebster came in 2nd and 3rd behind Canet. Mason Klein came in 14th on the KOVE bike, just behind Bradley Cox

 

 

In the buggy categories it went well for the USA. Red Bull has replaced Gutierrez and Guthrie with newcomers Corbin Leaverton and Gonçalo Guerrero. Leaverton's navigator is not new, Taye Perry made her debut several years ago as a biker and then as Brian Baragwanath's navigator in the Century team. The RBR juniors managed a 1-2, Leaverton being 4s quicker than Guerrero. Behind them a whole trio of buggies managed by French outfit Bonnevie Baha Racing, Team BBR aka Team Bibber as I will call them (Shivers). Argentinian Niclas Cavigliasso came in third before local teammates Yassir Seidan and Daniela Akeel. Paul Spierings was a surprise in sixth, he joined forces with Rebellion owner Alexander Pesci and so has the money to buy a Taurus Buggy as well (previous years sponsoring from the local Toyota dealer only was sufficient for a second hand Can AM).

 

As usual, Wouter Rosegaar was drafted in Dakar as well in this category. The Dutch Navigator already made a name for himself by guiding Sebastian Ericsson to a second place in 2021, and helping Chris Meeke to a stagewin in an absolutely horrible PH Polaris. Now he's the copilot for Richard Aczel, a man who cut his teeth in ultra marathons, but then switched to his other hobby, off road. That was ...a rocky road with a few big crashes in Morocco last year. Gerard Farres Guell and Chris Patterson stepped in to teach him the ropes, which seemed to work to some extent. Aczel tried to convince M Sport in giving him a chance in the Ford team, but.... that was not an option it seems. He's in an Arcane buggy now, Rosegaar was drafted in as friendly advice. The first hurdle is passed as 47th, so participating is more important than a top result.

 

In the smaller SSV's there also was a US win, Xavier de Soultrait's new teammate is Brock Heger from Vista, CA. His normal job would be "driving a tractor, very slow" on the family farm when not running in off road races. He made a good impression by clocking fastest today, 19s quicker than Jeremias Gonzales Ferioli  With the influx of Can AM and South Racing here this promised to be an interesting category once again. De Soultrait came in 3rd today, just before Sara Price and Chaleco Lopez

 

In the Trucks Martin Maçik had some difficulties on arrival. First one of his support trucks had a flat tyre and then customs had one of it's Zootopia Days as it took looooooooong before they could leave Jeddah Harbor. So long even their cab driver wanted to buzz off in search for better clients. But it worked out all right in the end. Maçik came in third today behind Mitchell vd Brink and Vaidotas Zala, the Dutchman beating the Lithuanian by 7 seconds. Martin Soltys first outing in the Tatra EVO ended with a 4th time, equal to Maçik. Kees Koolen clocked a fifth today, Mitchell's father Martin took a somewhat slower approach as he wants to keep his older MM EVO2 Iveco in shape for when Mitchell EVO4 breaks down, he clocked in 8th just behind Maurik vd Heuvel.

 

Tomorrow awaits the first real stage with 400 km special stage. A loop around Bisha with just about everything ranging from fast gravel tracks to a maze of stony paths. And as Tom Colsoul is one of the route designers again, I expect some nasty Pranks and at least one Neuralgischen Punkt (german expression from Eurosports Norbert Ockenga defining really hard and nasty waypoints)

Edited by Alex79, 03 January 2025 - 20:39.

[loki]

US Cock schedule.

https://www.nbcsport...m-et-on-peacock

Nice.  An hour now and same day.  Improvement. 

[loki]

I have to confess I had no idea that people progressed from junior single seaters into rally raids.

Technically Price and Guthrie Jr are from open wheel single seaters….  

 

I know of a couple of amateur racers that went from road race to desert endurance  but I can't think of anyone from the formula car ladder that went into any sort of off road.

[Alex79]

Technically Price and Guthrie Jr are from open wheel single seaters….

I know of a couple of amateur racers that went from road race to desert endurance but I can't think of anyone from the formula car ladder that went into any sort of off road.

Mattias Ekstrom did drive in GT racing and touring car racing before going off-road, don't know if he ever got in karts or formula ladder.

 

EDIT: I am such an Idiot. Carlos Sainz Senior did drive in Formula Ford before switching to Renault and driving a 5 Turbo in rally's. That's when his switch was done

Edited by Alex79, 03 January 2025 - 21:25.

[William Hunt]

Technically Price and Guthrie Jr are from open wheel single seaters….  

 

I know of a couple of amateur racers that went from road race to desert endurance  but I can't think of anyone from the formula car ladder that went into any sort of off road.

- Ex (Tyrrel, Minardi) F1 driver Ukyo Katayama participated in the Dakar, at least twice (2002 and in 2003 in a factory Toyota).

 

- Patrick Tambay, (a former Ferrari F1 driver in '82-'83 and then a Renault F1 driver in '84-'85 before moving to Haas) drove with a factory Mitsubishi and even was 3rd overall in 1989

 

- The 1980 (2nd edition) Paris-Dakar was won by... German-Swede Freddy Kotulinsky who had done a single seater carreer before with even full F2 campaigns in 1976 & 1977 but he only scored 1 point, at Pau, in 24 F2 races. (https://en.wikipedia...ddy_Kottulinsky)

 

- Jean-Pierre Jaussaud was a double Le Mans winner (and someone who had fought for the European F2 title before Le Mans). He won Le Mans the first time for Renault in 1978 (with Didier Pironi) and again in 1980 with Jean Rondeau in his Rondeau. Jaussaud even finished 3rd in Paris-Dakar in 1982 in a Mercedes.

 

- Double F1 vice world champion (1969 for Brabham & 1970 for Ferrari) + 6 times overall Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx is the most famous example, he was actually honoured today at the Dakar.

 

Ickx participated in 14 Dakar editions and won it in a Mercedes in 1983 and three years later came 2nd in a Porsche. He could have won it a second time in 1989 if Peugeot team boss Jean Todt had not decided to use a coin toss up as a result for team orders. Ickx' Peugeot teammate Ari Vatanen won the toss up so Ickx had to finish 2nd behind Vatanen. Disgraceful that was.

 

- Ex F1 driver Philippe Alliot participated in Paris-Dakar in 1998 in a Nissan.

 

- Jean-Louis Schlesser is one of the more famous examples of a former single seater driver participating in the Dakar. Schlesser, had a long carreer in the World Championship Sports Cars that included winning the world title twice and finishing runner-up once as a Mercedes Sauber driver.

 

He also drove in F1 for March in 1983 and famously substituted for an ill Nigel Mansell at Williams in 1988...famous because Ayrton Senna crashed his McLaren with him at the chicane in Monza, handing over the win to Ferrari (a double for Berger-Alboreto just a week after Enzo Ferrari had died).

 

But Schlesser became most know in the last stage of his carreer as the 'sand wolf'. He had already entered the Dakar since 1984 on a regular basis but later he started to build his own famous cars for the event, initially powered by a Porsche engine.

He eventually won the Dakar rally in 1999 & 2000 with his own build Buggy car.

 

He later won the Africa Eco Rally (still held every year, it follows the original Dakar route from Paris to Dakar) 6 times in a row in his own build car off course.

 

- Former F1 driver and Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo also did the Dakar, he even finished in the top 10 (9th) in 2000 in a Nissan.

 

- French Former ski downhill champion Luc Alphand was a regular at both Le Mans and the Dakar a lot. In a factory Mitsubishi he even was twice runner up and once winner at the Dakar (2006).

 

- Former IndyCar star Robby Gordon was also a Dakar entrant. He even drove a factory Volkswagen (2005) and also a Hummer.

 

- Frenchman Philippe Gache had a long single seater carreer, including three FIA F3000 seasons before switching to touring cars and then Le Mans, and then... he became a Dakar regular who entered a lot of editions as an SMG Buggy factory driver and in 2019 he entered the last time for Geely.

 

- Yvan Muller, Frenchman, was a former F3000 driver and British F2 champion who ended up as a touring car superstar. He entered the Dakar first in 2007 in a Nissan and later (2009) returned another time when the Dakar took place in South America.

 

- Romain Dumas, a driver that combines sports cars with rallying, also was a regular Dakar entrant. Even in a factory Peugeot in 2017.

 

-  The most famous recent example of a circuit, even single seater, racer who entered the Dakar was... Fernando Alonso in 2020. he finished 13th overall for Toyota.

Edited by William Hunt, 03 January 2025 - 22:10.

[loki]

Good examples though I’m referring to those that started in formula cars and switched to off road (not just rally raid) prior to making the bigs.  Gordon started in off road and switched pavement.  Same with Jimmie Johnson though he’s not done Dakar.  At least not yet.  Off road types have expected him to do another Baja or Mint.  Most were surprised (some a bit offended) when the announced the Extreme E deal.  Most of the desert endurance off road types are in the gasoline forever camp.

 

ETA:  Wasn’t aware of the El Matador thing.  That’s the sort of thing I was thinking of.  There must be others that quit the formula car ladder before making it and started running off road.

Edited by loki, 03 January 2025 - 22:43.

[Alex79]

What struck me as odd on the prologue is a few statements of the bikers. It seems like the whole top10 of yesterdays stage is nursing injuries accumulated over the last months. Broken ribs, broken hip, broken collarbone, dodgy knee etc etc. Ricky Brabec mentioned no one wants to take it easy on the W2RC stage, they all drive 110% hence a lot more chances for accidents. And even if they remind themselves to start this Dakar easy, it still seems not enough.

 

The route took everyone in a long loop around Bisha and indeed, the first crashes happened already before the first WP. Adrien van Beveren didn't know what happened but suddenly he was launched off his bike, flat on his stomach, thanks to his airbagsuit he could continue shaken but unharmed. His new tablet roadbook was frazzled however. Manual mode did work, but the knob for automatic playback was busted. He had drive more slowly so he could still operate with the manual mode buttons, but operating a dodgy navigation with one hand while riding a dusty trail littered with rocks and trees is not ideal. Antoine Maio also was in trouble, the only Yamaha rider in the biker class fell off and tumbled his bike down a shallow ravine. Everybody blew past him until he literally walked into the road arms wide and begged Daniel Nosiglia to help him get his bike out. Both Frenchmen were shaken and stirred but not a Martini, they finished to drive another day.

 

The same can not be said of Sebastian Bühler. The German Hero rider already had a busted shoulder which was fixed half a year ago with a metal plate, but then he fell off today as well after 68 km. Skyler Howes stopped to help his as it was all wrong. Broken collarbone again, plate is bent out of shape as well. Bühler is out. Jury is still out on Michael Docherty. The South African also had a crash and lost 45 minutes, he had to be checked by the medical post on arrival.

 

Kevin Benavides did not crash, but he has not been riding very much due to injuries, so he felt stiff on the bike. Because of all the dust and assorted hindrances he drove more slowly. Up front Ricky Brabec, Daniel Sanders and Ross Branch did not hold back, the three switched the lead a few times and caught the first starter (a UAE rider who seems to be the national Baha champion called Mohammad Balooshi) already after 20 clicks. He must have felt like a green amateur as he lost 50 minutes today. A few clicks further they also caught Nacho Cornejo, but the Chilean managed 5 minutes of bonus time, so his loss at the finish to "Chucky, "Ricky" and "Roscoe" was not that much, ninth time for Cornejo at nine minutes. Sanders won his second stage, 2m04s ahead of Brabec, 2m20s ahead of Branch. Edgar Canet ran into the same trouble as Balooshi, he lost half an hour overall, but came in second in the Rally2 rankings, one minute behind Tobias Ebster. Milan Engel clocked a third time, 4m01s was his deficit

 

When Tom Colsoul was sparring with David Castera for this years route, he also took in some feedback from riders. "They all asked me, please stop with the endless 100km routes of stones, so we tried to compensate." But by compensating this stage got another suprise. The stone tracks were indeed shorter, but in place came narrow sand tracks which branched out and closed up with a lot of tough little thorny trees. It seemed like "veld" the bushtracks in South Africa. For the bikers this meant a lot of ripped and scratched clothing and bruises as they brushed past, but cars suffered from ripped off body panels, broken headlights, a broken hood here and there and the most common problem, snapped GPS antenna's. Laia Sanz was the biggest victim, first she broke her GPS and then missed a big rock so the Century rolled. Seth Quintero helped uprighting the car and continued. Sanz had to repair suspension and wait for the assistance truck. They came home in 60th place with 2 hours deficit. Norbert Ockenga just stated she has to withdraw as the chassis of the car is too broken. Rokas Baciuska experienced almost the same, missing a rock after GPS cut out and damaging the suspension. The Lithuanian was home in 58th position, 2 up on Sanz.

 

The Coronel brothers, Roma, Loeb, Al Attiyah, Ekström and Baragwanath also reported the breaking GPS antenna issues. For Roma it got worse, as he lost his Sentinel as well, so he used a normal Claxon to scare everyone out of the way. Carlos Sainz got mad at Matthieu Serradori and even rammed him out of the way. After the finish Serradori showed El Matador he also had no GPS or Sentinel, he had not even heard Sainz before he hit him. Toby Price and Sam Sunderland were towed to the bivouac after stage finish as the last big tree they hit scrambled their electrics and the car would not start after Price shut off the engine for a stamp and the interviews.

 

As this nasty little trip in the 'veld' of Saudi Arabia claimed his fair share of trouble and the 48 hour Hell is waiting on sunday and monday, who was mad enough to go for a win? Not Guillaume de Mevius who ripped of the whole hood of the car and had to clean the radiator after ripping out a tree. Both his teammates at Mini tho they were in the mix. First Joao Ferreira came through halfway in first, we saw on RTL's camera he was one of the few to drive straight to neutralisation from a WP, through a riverbed, the rest was taking less risks and drove around, until one of the Fords even landed behind a spectator area   No harm done. Ferreira lost 2 minutes in the trickier closing part to Guirlain Chicherit who also lost the hood of his Mini and did not bother stopping. Maybe that issue of illegal littering is what costed him a 10s time penalty. Added to bonus time for Quintero after his help to Sanz meant that Quintero was gifted the first win in the cars for him, second stage won by Toyota. South African Saoed Wariawa came in third, one second in front of the first Ford Raptor. But it was Martin Prokop in his Shrek Raptor, as all the bigger M Sports Ford were not as nimble going through the veld. Sainz, Ekström and Roma came home 8th, 15th and 17th

 

 

In the Challenger buggies a first (self proclaimed) favourite is already without a chance. Yassir Seidan claimed on Eurosport yesterday he wanted to become the first Saudi to win a Dakar class, but that is not yet to be. Seidan broke his steering on a large rock and was towed out of the stage. If the Bibber team is able to repair his car he can take a joker start tomorrow with 22 hours time penalty. His countryman Saleh Alsaif fared better with a fourth place just behind Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, one of two buggies entered by Nasser Racing, the other is driver by Khalid Al Attiyah, Nasser's brother. Corbin Leaverton was doing well until he clipped a stone and slammed headfirst into a large rock, the car was a bit bent, but the American got out and drove home in fifth, time loss of 15 minutes. Paul Spierings seemed on the hunt for a podium today, but he lost a bit of time on the last stretch to not start first in the 48h loop. That backfired as he got a flat tire and overheating problems, which cost half an hour. Out in front Goncalo Guerrero had a deja vu, again he was second, again at 4 seconds. This time Nico Cavigliasso was a bit quicker. Although he was happy about the win, the Argentinian confessed he tried to back off as he wanted a slower pace so maybe the rest would catch up. That did not happen, Nico has to start first tomorrow

 

In the smaller SSV's Polaris and Can AM had a battle between four cars. Brock Heger lost time with some errors and smashing through a tree, but he came in fourth, seven minutes ahead of Gonzales Ferioli. Chaleco Lopez started slower in the veld, but got on better in the rocky closing stages, he managed to pass Heger and clocked second time. Xavier de Soultrait took a second Polaris win, seven minutes quicker than Lopez

 

Listening to Maurik vd Heuvel in the trucks very dryly summing up his stage was a bit comic relief . "Stones, stones, Trees, branches, more branches, stones again. Didn't mean a lot. Smashed a windshield, flat tire, lost some bodyparts, all in a days work." The Lonestar MM Scania was in the top5, but the flat tyre costed fifteen minutes so he dropped back to 10th. Richard de Groot and Louis, as he called his MM truck, had to take it slow as a cabin spring broke. Also De Groot has to iron out some kinks in communication as his new Belgian Navigator Jan vd Vaet is harder for him to understand than his old navigator Martijn van Rooij, who is now guiding Vd Heuvel. Still they came home 7th after a late navigational error dropped them two places. Vaidotas Zala was chasing a stagewin all day, but halfway he had to stop as he slammed into a tree and had to clean the radiator, he lost 20 minutes at the finish. A large branche also punched out his windshield. It got even scarier for Martin vd Brink who also smashed his windshield and then had to brake hard to not run over a fallen biker. The poor man will not sleep well tonight, dreaming of a large Iveco truck a few metres behind him (think of Dennis Weaver in the all time classic film Duel)

 

Up front, Mitchell vd Brink drove cautiously, did not really care what Zala or Loprais or Maçik were doing. And it was enough, as Maçik made a few errors live on Eurosport, first almost running into Martin Soltys who was stuck and then having to turn as everyone took a wrong mountain pass, all except Vd Brink and Loprais, who was last in the train of trucks and knew he should go left where everybody was messing up on the right. Vd Brink and Loprais drove in 1st and 2nd, the MM truck 1m20s faster than the De Rooy truck. Soltys stayed in the hunt despite his mishap, came in fourth behind Maçik today.

 

Tomorrow the first big development claxon sounds the start, the 48h loop takes 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers onto an almost separate route. In fact the return loop for cars and trucks is on the starting tracks of the bikers. They have until 1700h local time drive on and then need to find the nearest bivouac. Ascensores ti salutant

Edited by Alex79, 05 January 2025 - 10:11.

[thegamer23]

Sainz rolled!!

https://twitter.com/...841105801212026

Big damage for the Ford.

Other cars in trouble in the desert too, this is one hell of a stage.

.

Edited by thegamer23, 05 January 2025 - 12:10.

[Dara]

He has to drive this wreck tomorrow as well I presume?

[Viryfan]

Yes

[JRodrigues]

- Ex (Tyrrel, Minardi) F1 driver Ukyo Katayama participated in the Dakar, at least twice (2002 and in 2003 in a factory Toyota).
 
- Patrick Tambay, (a former Ferrari F1 driver in '82-'83 and then a Renault F1 driver in '84-'85 before moving to Haas) drove with a factory Mitsubishi and even was 3rd overall in 1989
 
- The 1980 (2nd edition) Paris-Dakar was won by... German-Swede Freddy Kotulinsky who had done a single seater carreer before with even full F2 campaigns in 1976 & 1977 but he only scored 1 point, at Pau, in 24 F2 races. (https://en.wikipedia...ddy_Kottulinsky)
 
- Jean-Pierre Jaussaud was a double Le Mans winner (and someone who had fought for the European F2 title before Le Mans). He won Le Mans the first time for Renault in 1978 (with Didier Pironi) and again in 1980 with Jean Rondeau in his Rondeau. Jaussaud even finished 3rd in Paris-Dakar in 1982 in a Mercedes.
 
- Double F1 vice world champion (1969 for Brabham & 1970 for Ferrari) + 6 times overall Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx is the most famous example, he was actually honoured today at the Dakar.
 
Ickx participated in 14 Dakar editions and won it in a Mercedes in 1983 and three years later came 2nd in a Porsche. He could have won it a second time in 1989 if Peugeot team boss Jean Todt had not decided to use a coin toss up as a result for team orders. Ickx' Peugeot teammate Ari Vatanen won the toss up so Ickx had to finish 2nd behind Vatanen. Disgraceful that was.
 
- Ex F1 driver Philippe Alliot participated in Paris-Dakar in 1998 in a Nissan.
 
- Jean-Louis Schlesser is one of the more famous examples of a former single seater driver participating in the Dakar. Schlesser, had a long carreer in the World Championship Sports Cars that included winning the world title twice and finishing runner-up once as a Mercedes Sauber driver.
 
He also drove in F1 for March in 1983 and famously substituted for an ill Nigel Mansell at Williams in 1988...famous because Ayrton Senna crashed his McLaren with him at the chicane in Monza, handing over the win to Ferrari (a double for Berger-Alboreto just a week after Enzo Ferrari had died).
 
But Schlesser became most know in the last stage of his carreer as the 'sand wolf'. He had already entered the Dakar since 1984 on a regular basis but later he started to build his own famous cars for the event, initially powered by a Porsche engine.
He eventually won the Dakar rally in 1999 & 2000 with his own build Buggy car.
 
He later won the Africa Eco Rally (still held every year, it follows the original Dakar route from Paris to Dakar) 6 times in a row in his own build car off course.
 
- Former F1 driver and Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo also did the Dakar, he even finished in the top 10 (9th) in 2000 in a Nissan.
 
- French Former ski downhill champion Luc Alphand was a regular at both Le Mans and the Dakar a lot. In a factory Mitsubishi he even was twice runner up and once winner at the Dakar (2006).
 
- Former IndyCar star Robby Gordon was also a Dakar entrant. He even drove a factory Volkswagen (2005) and also a Hummer.
 
- Frenchman Philippe Gache had a long single seater carreer, including three FIA F3000 seasons before switching to touring cars and then Le Mans, and then... he became a Dakar regular who entered a lot of editions as an SMG Buggy factory driver and in 2019 he entered the last time for Geely.
 
- Yvan Muller, Frenchman, was a former F3000 driver and British F2 champion who ended up as a touring car superstar. He entered the Dakar first in 2007 in a Nissan and later (2009) returned another time when the Dakar took place in South America.
 
- Romain Dumas, a driver that combines sports cars with rallying, also was a regular Dakar entrant. Even in a factory Peugeot in 2017.
 
-  The most famous recent example of a circuit, even single seater, racer who entered the Dakar was... Fernando Alonso in 2020. he finished 13th overall for Toyota.

And we also have Petrux!

[Alex79]

For anyone asking themselves how the riders and drivers have to spend their evenings, bivouacs are not well liked this edition. The problem is for three days in a row there are sandstorms coming up at night, sometimes even at the drivers meeting. Dennis Schröder even had a box of covid masks in his backpack in case of emergency. "I also use them in the tent as I don't want to wake up with sand in my mouth." Schröder drives a self serviced VW Amarok and is the last one on stage after the first half of the 48 hour Hell marathon, he was afraid he'd have to sleep at a gas station after a long repair, but still got into Bivouac A.

 

Someone who did not arrive there is Road Racing legend James Hillier. After his ordeal last year the man from Hampshire was back to try again, but he crashed heavily and broke his nose. He almost got into a fight with the Polish rider who picked him up as he did not want to be saved, but the Pole and the doctor were adamant, with a broken nose and unable to breathe it's madness continuing, so Hillier is out. Again this stage Mo Balooshi opened and was swamped by his compatriots. He lost 1h21m and was the last in Bivouac A. Daniel Sanders got almost 100km further into Bivouac E and clocked fastest one the first half of the stage. He also was a bit peeved that his competitors just banded together after the neutralization and acted like a peloton against the lonely cyclist in a Tour de France stage. A group of 20 riders followed Sanders home, Ricky Brabec got a second time, but Ross Branch (3rd) was smart enough to catch stage opener Balooshi first on the 'veld' tracks that openened the stage. This got him 3m30s bonus time which virtually means second place for now. Tosha Schareina almost fell off a dune and had to dig his Honda out of the soft sand, but still clawed back to 4th place when the buzzer rang.. In rally2 Edgar Canet is doing well, he distanced himself from stage opener Tobias Ebster by 12minutes and lost only a minute to Michael Docherty who continues despite a cracked shoulder. Niels Theric brought his Chinese KOVE bike home in fourth, where Paolo Lucci lost a chunk of time to engine problems, he has to start in Bivouac B with almost 3 hours disadvantage.

 

In the cars the first dunes claimed their prize. Again, Guillaume de Mevius was in trouble, this time the MINI got stuck in between dunes. Carlos Sainz was overtaken by impatience and on the first big dune he jumped too aggressive and immediately somersaulted off, that cost him 50 minutes to first upright the car and then repair. For the Century buggies staying in one piece became vital, as both their fast service trucks crashed and had to be uprighted. Sebastien Loeb will probably have to put his dream of winning Dakar on ice again. Yesterday at the finish his car smelt of burned plastic as the heat of the engine melted bodywork and today it got worse when all cooling seized. The Dacia went into safe mode and only after Cristina Gutierrez came to help they managed to get it fixed by swapping parts. Loeb lost 40 minutes, Gutierrez was waiting for an hour before their fast truck arrived. In front it was clear Seth Quintero was not in a hunt for a stage win, his opening the stage cost him 40 minutes. Being later at the start was a huge advantage. Toby Price and Sam Sunderland started outside top10 but in the dunes the two ex bikers surfed up to a 6th time at the buzzer. The battle for the win is becoming an Arabian gambit, as Nasser Al Attiyah and Yazid Al Rahji went toe to toe, swapping the lead a few times before Al Rahji hared off in the stony stretches along a riverbed littered with large stones. The Dacia went very slow there to be safe, Al Rahji plowed through and was one minute faster (don't know about the longevity of his suspension tho).

 

Usually there are of course tankstops in Dakar stages, but this was the first where an Extreme E style paddock was erected for tyre changes and small repairs. Corbin Leaverton was very happy with that, because the Challenger driver got a flat tire 8 clicks away from the stop and was serviced in three minutes, which would normally costed 15 minutes. Yassir Seidan was less lucky, he got a flat after the stop and had to fend for himselves, costed 20 minutes. Paul Spierings had a really good day, he did not drive very fast, but was smooth enough not to damage the car and at the buzzer the Dutch car salesman/racing driver was a surprised second, three minutes behind Nico Cavigliasso, a 1-2 for the Amateurs against the Pro's. Pau Navarro came in third after driving in a group with Spierings and Daniela Akeel, first Pro was Goncalo Guerrero in fifth. Things do not look good for Ricardo Porem, he crashed in the dunes and lost an hour.

 

In the SSV's a fun battle went on between the three Polaris cars. Former Kayak sporter Florent Vayssade is usually at home on water, but in the drier parts of the world he also made his mark, the Frenchman was third at the buzzer. His teammates Brock Heger and Xavier de Soultrait were literally neck-and-neck in 75% of the track, until the last dunes where De Soultrait had to back off and try again. That gave Heger the fastest time, 2m30s quicker(edit: mixed the Polaris guys up I see). First Can Am is newcomer Alexandre Pinto in a privately entered car, both aces of the factory team ran into a lot of trouble. Sara Price got no further than the WP at 452 km, Chaleco Lopez lost an hour. Enrico Gaspari arrived a bit singed as a broken fuel line almost set his buggy on fire, but a camera crew alerted the Italian he was about to be in trouble. Gaspari lost half an hour with that stunt but is still in 5th

 

 

The gamble that Martin vd Brink took this year to forget his own result and help his son Mitchell payed off today. Mitchell got stuck and got a flat tyre, Martin was close enough to save him some time. Later in the stage Mitchell damaged a rim so he had to continue more slowly, losing almost 25 minutes to his Czech rivals. Both Martin Maçik and Ales Loprais feel at home in the dunes and maximised the result. Maçik was quickest at the buzzer, 1m30s before Loprais. Vaidotas Zala also clawed back time lost on the stones in the dunes, he got in third. Martin Soltys got stuck on top of a dune and had to dig himself out, costing him 45 minutes. Lots of trucks were having trouble with clearing high dunes in  one go, Ricard de Groot and Kees Koolen needed more runs a few times, Anja van Loon damaged her rear suspension when a tire blew, their pitstop took an hour.

 

The conclusion of the 48h Hell is tomorrow. Those in Bivouac F and E only have 300 clicks to go, those who were unlucky with time loss need to 150 clicks extra. Boy Howdy.

Edited by Alex79, 05 January 2025 - 23:53.

[thegamer23]

Difficult day for Sainz & Loeb.

This super hard 48h stage set so early on in the Dakar is going to create big gaps in the standings

[Dara]

Anyone know why the #326 challenger of Al-Attiya dissapeared from the standings? He's not in the withdrawel list.

Edited by Dara, 06 January 2025 - 18:51.

[Alex79]

Today was the finish of the 48h Loop of Hell, and even in those situations, in the middle of the Desert, unforeseen things can happen. Ben de Groot started this morning as one of the first trucks, but he did not reach the finish. EDIT: "We were going around 100kmh, into a blind corner and suddenly a big truck is standing in the middle of road. We were too late to swerve and hit him hard, a bit of luck the owner was a few metres aways, or else this would have ended badly." Both trucks are destroyed, De Groot broke his thumb in the accident. As for Khaliffa Al Attiyah as the last poster asks, he was reported at a standstill with a suspension problem. He is indeed not in the standings, that means he's towed out of stage. I will see if he gets a start time tomorrow, which would mean they repair the car and let him continue with 22 hours time penalty

 

In the bikes Tosha Schareina started first, but was caught rather quickly by Adrien van Beveren. The Frenchman scooped up ten minutes of bonustime and though he was the first to pickup a speeding ticket of three minutes at the last tankstop, he came in second, which after his ticket became 4th place on the stage. He would become the first in a very long list of offenders who all braked too lately, the first stage where Der Grüne Tisch (as Eurosports calls the Stewards) is playing a role. In the last part of the stage the soft dunes were claiming a number of victims. Van Beveren got stuck live on camera but also got out. Antoine Maio was lost just like a group of 10 bikers looking for a waypoint, but he crashed as well and lost an hour altogether.

 

Kevin Benavides will not play a big role this rally, the Argentinian clearly still feels his injuries of a very heavy crash he had half a year ago and even put him in an artificial coma. That means he went slowly and lost an hour, clocking the 18th time Ricky Brabec smashed the exhaust off his Honda, so he lost 10 minutes trying to repair it and came home 8th. His teammate Schareina managed to stay in the tracks of Van Beveren and even got some bonus time himself as the Frenchman got stuck. He clocked a third time behind Skyler Howes and the unstoppable Daniel Sanders, who is the first winner of three stages in a row since 2017. In the standings he has 12 minutes on Howes, who is 4sec ahead of Ross Branch in 3rd. In Rally2 Michael Docherty won a stage for BAS Dakar, Edgar Canet leads the standings with an advantage of four minutes on Docherty and Tobias Ebster.

 

In the cars Mini and Ford are not in a good position. Guirlain Chicherit lost the hood of his car again after a few crashes and got stuck a few times, losing 1h05m, and De Mevius must have the black cat curse, as he stopped and was repairing his car for 2 hours. At Ford, we saw Sainz already rolled yesterday and today Nani Roma stopped with engine trouble. He was towed out by a service truck, latest message is he has to quit the rally. And after the finish the stewards took Sainz out of the rally as the rollcage was damaged. Which leaves only Mattias Ekström in the rally, clocking an eight time at the finish. Might be a good idea to start an alliance with Martin Prokop. Flying under the radar is Lucas Moraes. Moraes got stuck a few times on sunday but clawed back some time today, still losing 28 minutes.Toyota had a trying day. First Seth Quintero stopped with a battery problem, losing 50 minutes, then Giniel de Villiers and Saood Wariawa collided as Wariawa was retracing his steps after a navigational error and both cars crashed head on. De Villiers is at the finish after 2 hours, Wariawa is towed out.

 

 

Henk Lategan also started slowly, but today he surged back into top10 and even got lucky with all the penalties dished out. Al Attiyah got 4 minutes, Serradori 3 minutes,Mitch Guthrie 4 minutes and Oprah gave a whopping 8 minutes to Joao Ferreira. Meaning after all the tickets where added up, Lategan clocked a fourth time seven minutes behind the winner. That was NOT Yazid Al Rahji, who arrived first but also was handed a penalty by Oprah. Rokas Baciuska came in 3rd but he got some time back for a tankstop where the refuel equipment malfunctioned, costing him four minutes. He got that back and suddenly was in first. In the standings Lategan takes over the lead, 4 minutes ahead of Al Rahji, Al Attiyah is 3rd by 11m14, Price and Sunderland are a surprising fourth.

 

In the Challengers it was a day of carnage. I already mentioned K Al Attiyah, Yasir Seidan hit problems again with a börked turbo, which was unrepairable in the circumstances, so he was towed out again. Both Yamaha buggies are out it seems, Pedro Goncalves was stuck in a dune and Mario Franco broke his steering for the second time, the first time was in the prologue. Even Nico Cavigliasso almost did not make it as he lost a cardan axle, but it was 8 minutes before the finish. Despite that mishap he seemed to win the marathon stage, 2m58s before his pesky pursuer Paul Spierings. But then! (shouts RPMH), Oprah smiled and hands A Penalty! of three minutes. Spierings was already giddy about finishing second as an amateur paydriver, but now he is the first Dutch winner of a stage in the class and the first winner of a car class since Bernard ten Brinke in the South American Dakars.

 

In the SSV the same happened as in the Challengers. Two competitors scooping up everything in front, the rest was left in the dust. Sarah Price had to quit the rally, her Can AM;s engine gave up the ghost. Chaleco Lopez and Jeremias Gonzales Ferioli also lost more than 2,5 hours. In front Polaris was smashing it with De Soultrait and Heger who picked up their duel again, the penalty the Frenchman got from Oprah did not matter, Heger won fair and square again, 7 minutes advantage. Florent Vayssade could have made it a 1-2-3 for Polaris, but Oprah did not agree, 1 minute penalry and Alvaro Pinto got third place.

 

In the trucks de Van den Brink family, Vadotas Zala and Ales Loprais all looked like the walking dead in the bivouac. Zala wondered aloud what the hell he was doing and that was despite a third time at the finish. Mitchell vd Brink thought he had damaged a rim yesterday, but it was worse, his whole rear axle and differential played up. Together with father Martin they fixed what they could, but the MM Iveco only had 3 wheel drive, at every soft dune Martin had to tow or push to get his son to the top. Both trucks lost 1h17m today and where almost overtaken by the small Hino of Teruhito Sugawara, the smallest truck in the field which shines in the dunes.

 

At front the spotlight was on Martin Maçik and Ales Loprais again and both did great. Loprais' new mechanic Darek Rodewald told the only problem was the nose, which got banged up in the dunes and had to be shut by a large tension strap:  "Effe uitkloppen" the Pole joked with a clear Brabants dialect. Loprais lost seven minutes on Maçik who had problems of his own  as he had to take a few steep inclines multiple times to avoid getting stuck on top. "The dunes are more soft on top, which caught us out." Still Maçik won the stage and leads Loprais by eight minutes, Zala passes Vd Brink for third place.

 

Tomorrow the stage towards Al Henakiya has been shortened, as storm warnings and rainfall threaten the region. The special stage only is 327km long

Edited by Alex79, 06 January 2025 - 21:08.

[JRodrigues]

What a brutal edition this has been!

 

Loeb still hanging in there, just 14 minutes from the lead.

Edited by JRodrigues, 06 January 2025 - 22:28.

[JRodrigues]

Well.. spoke too soon. Game over for Loeb!

 

[DevilDare]

To quote Brundle, if Loeb had no bad luck at Dakar, he'd have no luck at all.

 

Some races are just always out of reach. 

[JRodrigues]

The crash:

 

https://x.com/dakar/...561967324004686

[Alex79]

The problems with GPS and sentinel are already bugging the dakar competitors from the first day. We had this 'veld' stage where tree branches snapped antenna's and scrambled electronics, but the hiccups continue, leading to dangerous situations. Laia Sanz was the biggest victim, crashing when her GPS cut out. Anja van Loon was stuck behind an SSV who did not hear her, only when she used the real claxon the buggy swerved, and in her anger she rammed a rock, breaking her front diff. It might have been Annet Quandt and Anni Seel, who rolled their Fennec buggy and limped to the end of the stage. The engine was ok, but the electronics were not and the car only could drive 40 kmh max. In the dust they were hit by a passing truck which did not stop, leaving only a large tyre mark on the door. Oops

 

 

In the bikes the No Connection issues cost Daniel Sanders all his hard work of the last days. Halfway his GPS tablet cut out and would not reset anymore. So Sanders had to wait for the peloton following him and be reliant on them to get to the finish. It costed "Chucky" 9 minutes at the finish, clocking a 17th time. He was not laughing any longer. Adrien van Beveren also had a trying day, but that was his own fault to start with. He tried to keep up with Tosha Schareina who wanted to make up some ground, but the Frenchman crashed and lost seven minutes checking the bike over. One bit of luck, he found out Schareina was heading the wrong way and turned back, pulling Ross Branch along. Both riders came into the finish together, Van Beveren clocking 11th (, Branch was 4th. Schareina came in 18th, one place behind Sanders.

 

The surprise in front was Lorenzo Santolino who started late after a difficult 48h loop and just followed the tracks 75% of the time. The 25% where some made an error he was on point, so Sherco picks up a suprising stagewin. Edgar Canet picked up Santolino's trail when his landsman caught after a near-crash trying to keep up with BAS Dakar riders Ebster and Docherty. And thanks to following Santolino Canet avoided getting tripped up by Der Neuralgischen Punkt and won by a minute in Rally2. In the standings Sanders is still leading, but only 1m30s in front of Howes and Branch. Ricky Brabec claws back some time in fourth. Bradley Cox looked to score a surprising stagewin for BAS Dakar, but he was caught by Oprah, 6 minutes time penalty

 

In the cars starting late was definitely a plus. Saood Variawa was a zero yesterday, but the young Toyota driver could start again with 22h penalty. And he surged up to become the youngest ever stagewinner in the cars, beating another late starter Guirlain Chicerit by 30sec. The Oprah penalty for speeding wasn't necessary, the South African would have won anyway, as Chicherit got only 10 seconds of it. Guillaume de Mevius got a bigger slap on the wrist, the Belgian got 1m10s penalty and dropped from 3rd to 4th

 

As already shown, Sebastien Loeb is done. He crashed after 12 clicks and tho he drove on, a trackrod snapped after 63 clicks. Again Cristina Guiterrez played ANWB/ADAC/RAC and delivered spares, so Loeb clocked at least an 82nd time. But the FIA stewards did the same as with Sainz' car, it was declared unsafe. The ex bikers Price and Sunderland also hit trouble where their cooling seized, losing 16 minutes, but because they drove cautiously, Oprah did not hand over a speeding ticket

 

Further back Mike Willems had a 52 hour loop, as he had to stop yesterday afternoon with a broken rear axle and managed to limp home very early this morning Enough for a quick nap while the mechanics did a checkup of the car and then off again. He clocked a respectable 47th time for someone who is 73 years old. Tim and Tom Coronel had just about the same routine as Willems, as the rocky path first broke their gearbox then the wheel housing and the uprights. "Everything just shaken loose" a dejected Tim stated. In the standings Henk Lategan still leads, even though his GPS also cut out and he had to gamble on following tracks. Al Attiyah pulled back some time because of that and is 2nd now 7m17s behind the Toyota. Mattias Ekström profited from a cautious Yazeed Al Rahji who was afraid of punctures in the stone fields and jumped to third overall, putting 3 minutes between him and the Saudi in fourth

 

In the Challengers Gert Jan vd Valk has an adventurous Dakar, but not like he imaged. "To sum up. Before the start of the 48h loop we still were finishing stage 1, and were rammed in the dark by a another buggy. Then on the loop we ran out tyres, broke a rear axle, came in very late. Second half we got dirty fuel and got a misfire, again we used up all our spares and to top it off we drove in on three wheels as we missed a rock in the dust of the convoy of buggies in front of us."Just like biker Tobias Ebster Vd Valk wondered if the bivouacs for the second week are maybe too small and Castera and Colsoul created such a harsh rally to lessen the load of competitors so everyone has more room. With all the comedy capers the cranky Dutchman still got a 37th time, an hour slower than his friend and teammate Lex Peters, who got a call from his daughter that he has become a grandpa. It might have lit a fire under him as he clocked 15th in the older Arcane buggy that Hans Weijs used two years ago.

 

Up front the duels between pro, semi-pro's and amateurs raged again. Halfway the difference between Cavigliasso, Spierings, Daniela Akeel and Corbin Leaverton was only half a minute. At the finish, the Argentine seemed to have won it by 13 seconds. BUT THEN...... Oprah smiled and handed number two Spiering a whopping 8 Minute Penalty! So Cavigliasso kept his stagewin this time. Yasir Seidan started almost bog last, together with Khalifa Al Attiyah as both have more than 48 hours time penalty. K Al Attiyah came home in 15th, Seidan even got gifted 2nd place as Spierings fell down to 6th, Akeel was third, both only 30sec behind Cavigliasso. The Argentinian leads the standings with 19 minutes advantage on Goncalo Guerrero, Spierings loses one place here to Akeel, falling back to fifth.

 

In the Trucks Mitchell vd Brink tried to claw back some time today and after half of stage 3 he seemed to have done that, leading Loprais and Macik by 15 minutes. But then a tyre blew and he was very lucky Martin vd Brink played shepherd again, donating two spare tyres and helping in the changing process. That only costed five minutes, but the second blown tyre costed 10 minutes, meaning the lead became 3rd place. The gain on Maçik is only marginal by 3 minutes, most of it because the Czech also had to change a puncture which might cost him another stagewin. That went to Ales Loprais who was pingponging fast times with Vadotas Zala. In the end Loprais 53sec left on his teammate. Anja van Loon lost 1,5 hours after driving too angry in 17th, Martin Soltys can forget the standings as well after losing more than 3 hours with overheating and malfunctioning electronics (i'll have to check Buggyra's YT channel to see details of that). The gap between Maçik and Loprais shrinks to 3m24s in the standings, Zala is still within half an hour, but Vd Brink will have to hope on gaining back time in the coming marathon stage.

 

Which starts tomorrow. 415 km of special stage towards Al'Ula without any assistance afterwards, so fingers crossed nothing big breaks and your teammates (if you have any) carry enough spares.

Edited by Alex79, 07 January 2025 - 21:50.

[loki]

Digging the Mission 1000 class.

[thegamer23]

Honorable mention to Petrux, Danilo Petrucci, who's driving the wheels off that Italtrans truck.

Almost everyday in Top 10 so far.

This man can ride and drive everything

 

Edited by thegamer23, 08 January 2025 - 09:51.

[Alex79]

Sidenote, Claudio Bellina is driving the truck, Petrux is on board as mechanic, or rather Machinist, as Jan vd Vaet used to call it in his MAN days next to Hans Stacey, dealing with engine setting, tyre inflation and deflation and suspension. And the occasional bootcamp excercise known as "changing a flat tyre"

Edited by Alex79, 08 January 2025 - 12:07.

[thegamer23]

Sidenote, Claudio Bellina is driving the truck, Pertux is on board as mechanic, or rather Machinist, as Jan vd Vaet used to call it in his MAN days next to Hans Stacey

They're actually taking turns at driving during the stage, they're both driving.
Bellina said Petrucci is driving the truck like a ktm bike, he's very impressed.

You can follow Petrux adventures in his instagram.

Edited by thegamer23, 08 January 2025 - 12:07.

[Alex79]

Yesterday Paul Spierings was one of 59 competitors falling afoul of Oprah, who dished out an enormous amount of penalties. Although I thought Spierings was caught speeding, his codriver Jan Pieter "JP" vd Stelt had a different cause. "We were very late at the start of the special, 15 minutes. Our sponsor and second car Alexander Pesci had problems with the steering of his Taurus so we helped out and totally forgot about the time. That's why we were called up afterwards." In fact it almost happened again today as Spierings arrived just about five minutes before he was to start, this time the steering on their own car malfunctioned on the liaison part.

Despite all this, the first part of the Marathon stage went well for our friendly neighbourhood Toyota salesman. He stayed within seconds of buggy pros Leaverton and Guerrero and even had a small gap on Nico Cavigliasso and David ZIlle. That is until Spierings became one of many victims of the stones today, The Fakir Nailbed Roads around all Al'Ula still have sharp stones, the canyons are called Rocky Hell Mountain in bivouac. Pau Guerrero lost 22 minutes, Dania Akeel even 52 minutes as a blown tyre ruined their rear axle. Spierings himself only lost 5 minutes and managed to stay in the tracks of Leaverton to get home, it meant a fourth time for him. Leaverton got a second time, three minutes slower then Cavigliasso. The Argentinian is now 25 minutes ahead of both RBR Junior cars, Spierings climbs back to fourth. In the Arcane buggy team they also struggled with tyre management, and because of reasons you cannot change a flat tyre in the neutralisation. So Lex Peters drove 100 meters out of the tankstop on three wheel and waited for Gert Jan vd Valk to come and give him the fourth wheel. Then Vd Valk had to wait for the third Arcane of Rene Streppel who is playing RAC member today. Peters got 18th, Vd Valk 22nd. Richard Aczel also surfaced again after being towed out of stage yesterday, 30th by two hours.





In the bikes the Shenanigans with the Stuttering Roadbook Tablets continues, and people are getting angry. First on the stage was last days winner Lorenzo Santolino, who drove 10 clicks before the tablet crashed. Lucky for him Brabec, Howes and Branch caught him and took him along, the unlucky part happened later in stage as Der Neualgischen Punkt caught them out, the quartet got the wrong canyon entry and searched 20 minutes for the right route. Neither one was very happy, Santolino looked as if he wanted to make an ASO official eat the damn tablet.

It wasn't done there. Both Rally 2 leaders Tobias Ebster and Edgar Canet were gesticulating frantically at their start that their tablet had not unlocked. The point is, when you get in the starting zone, the tablet gets its data downloaded, to stop any pesky "home garage" of sifting through satellite data hours before the stage and create an ideal route that is then briefed to the drivers. Many top drivers used this methods over the year until Castera and Colsoul decided to step in. Alas, the equipment is not up to snuff. It took the IT crowd 15 minutes to replace the faulty tablets, but unlike Spierings Ebster and Canet had no penalty. Santolino also got time back, but in return Nacho Cornejo lodged a complaint that he and Daniel Sanders should also be granted time bonuses for their troubles earlier in the rally.

Anyway, between all that jazz, there still was some driving to do. As the top got it wrong in a peloton, Lone Cyclist Sanders got it right again. He was not actually pushing, but his fourth Dakar stage win this year was gifted to him by Tosha Schareina. The Honda rider had been the fastest, but did not want to open stage and backed off in the last part. losing with 15 sec to Sanders. He hoped Sanders could pull him along tomorrow. As Chucky already is annoyed by that sort of behavour, he could pull a move Cyril Neveu did once in Africa by driving full sprint 20 clicks in the wrong direction, dive behind a rock, watch everyone go by and turn back In the standing Schareina moves in 2nd place now, 25 minutes disadvantage, Ross Branch is close behind in third.

In the cars, Dacia decided to appeal the decision to remove Loeb from the rally. That did not automatically mean he could start "under protest" as Robbie Gordon once had done when his car was declared illegal, he will have to wait until the appeal is presented. Dacia did not have a good day. Nasser Al Attiyah stopped with suspension damage and 45 minutes he could continue more slowly, later he stopped again to change flat tyres. The same happened to Yazid Al Rahji who stopped three times, but came one spare short when the fourth tyre blew. As it was close to the stage, the Saudi risked it to get to the finish on the rim. That worked and surprise, Al Rahji even won the stage by five minutes.

Henk Lategan also lost time with a tyre change, 2nd at the finish by 5 minutes. Yesterday's winner Saood Variawa was back in the pack again, after opening the stage getting caught, getting lost and getting punctures. The South African lost 45 minutes. Because of all the punctures, slower driving was rewarded. Juan Cruz Yacopini did well again with a 3rd time, Martin Prokop's Shrek Raptor was fourth at the line, Mattias Ekström also lost time with tyre problems but still retained a top 5 spot in the standings as he lost only five minutes in 8th. Lategan continues to lead with Al Rahji 6 minutes behind, Ekström is third, leading Serradori and Lucas Moraes, Al Attiyah falls back to 7th place, 35 minutes adrift.

In the smaller SSV's the stranglehold Polaris had is weakening. Yesterday, Florent Vayssade could not even start as the car broke down in liaison. After repairing and 22 hours time penalty he continues today. And also his ace Xavier de Soultrait stopped with punctures and suspension problems. He ended up back in 14th, losing almost 2 hours. Brock Heger did not win the stage, Oprah slapped him in the face with a 15 minute timepenalty. Sarah Price (back from a died engine) and Chaleco Lopez both benefited even tho the standings are done. Price wins the stage, Lopez is second. A nice suprise in tenth as local hero Roger Grouwels (lives in Thorn 10 clicks away from me) clocks a surprising 10th place, he is planning to buy a Century next year, but uses the SSV to test the waters and see if he can keep up as semi amateur. In the standings Heger is leading by a mile now, De Soultrait has 1h21m to make up. Alexander Pinto could get dangerous in third, only 3 minutes behind De Soultrait

In the trucks, Martin Soltys was begging for a NORMAL stage. "Massacre" was the code word he used for the 48h loop "We ran in on five cilinders, were dead tired and could not even set up tents as it was storming. We tied tents to the car and even thought about sleeping in the cabin." A loose turbo hose frustrated the Tatra crew yesterday and today, finally, things looked sunny again. Only 22 minutes lost for two punctures. Soltys came home in fifth. Something strange happened today, Kees Koolen was supposed to be the RAC member, taking extra spares in case, Maçik or Mitchell needed them.

Well, the Dakar veteran had to stop at both his teammates when they punctured, but Koolen himself had nothing and sailed through without problems, clocking third in Al'Ula. Vd Brink and Macik went on a rampage behind him and clocked faster times, but everyone was a bit surprised that Koolen got in bivouac first. Maçik again won a stage, 3 minutes faster than Mitchell who took back some time on Vadotas Zala, who lost 21 minutes. In the standing Mitchell needs to make up 10 minutes more for third place, Macik is still more than an hour ahead. Ales Loprais had not a good day, getting three punctures and having to wait for Zala to give him a spare. Loprais lost 42 minutes and sees the Lithuanian pursuer coming back to 15 minutes disadvantage. Claudio Bellina and Petrux had a bad day, losing 2 hours and clocking in 14th

Tomorrow, the marathon stage ends in Ha'il, with flat and fast stage at the start, but dunes and fesh-fesh to finish. After that, a long awaited day of rest

Edited by Alex79, 08 January 2025 - 23:28.

[paulb]

Has there been a Dakar as brutal as this one?

[pup]

Can someone explain the Oprah reference? I don’t get the joke.

[loki]

Plotting the route book using sat nav and maps wasn’t a “home garage” thing.  It was part of what all the teams did the night before using people that weren't in the bivouac.  The guy who did Robby Gordon’s is active on another forum.  No one was hiding it.  It was out in the open.