[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Xu6EyKZJM]Leg 3 - 2013 Dakar - Best-of-RallyLive.com (GB) - YouTube[/ame]
Sad news, but at least it's not the entire Race2Recovery team. Race2Recovery confirms Harris' exclusion (iRallylive.com)
Robby Gordon was doing well but it looks like he might be out. From the live feed: "It was expected that Robby Gordon would attack today (like every day, in any case), but he has perhaps pushed a little too hard because it has been reported that the American's Hummer is lying on its roof after 29 km of the special stage. The crew is unharmed, but it remains to be seen whether the American will be able to set the car up right and continue the race."
Also, officials may have added back the 21 mins they deducted from Sainz' time when he protested that it was a result of a faulty GPS or bad GPS signal. Apparently further analysis showed that his secondary / back-up GPS was working just fine, so he slips 21 mins down the list. That is, I think that's what happened, so hard to get get good, official, up-to-date info during the Dakar. :crazy:
Robby Gordon Stage 3 phone call [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAj2DAmP_Cw]Toyo Sport 2013 - Robby Gordon Stage 3 phone call (www.infotyres.com) - YouTube[/ame]
Referencing 'nice seats' above. Wow, those are some really great shots. I would love to hear on the the MINIs climbing up one of the dunes. Any vid with sound out there? Great coverage Steve!
Last year, while working in Alberta, I met a guy who threw his motorbike into the back of his pick-up truck and drove down to participate in the Dakar Rally. He did it on a $20K budget. In comparison to MINI or Robby Gordon, who were dead serious in winning the thing and probably had a $1M+ budget. He was within 5kms of finishing when his motorcycle's front suspension gave out, but came home with some great stories and insights on the race.
Don- That would be some spectacular spectating. You'd hear BMW's not MINI's though. :wink: Thanks for the great work Steve!
Other than the engines coming from BMW, there's likely little to nothing (probably nothing) under that body shell that resembles anything out of a MINI Countryman, but as far as I know the same can be said of the BMW X3s they looked like when they first ran the Dakar. Those things were never BMWs. X-Raid built a vehicle to compete in the Dakar that would fit under an X3-shaped body shell and used a BMW engine. You know, like lots of others in the Dakar and many other racing series'. Then they altered the same vehicles so they would fit under stretched / bloated Countryman-shaped body shells, also with BMW engines. I believe that means they're not X3s dressed like MINIs, they're purpose-built Dakar racers dressed like MINIs...just like they were originally purpose-built Dakar racers dressed like X3s. Am I wrong? I'm happy to admit it if I am ... Back to our regularly scheduled program. Despite what it says above in post #26 and the appearance of the pics below, Robby Gordon did complete the stage today. I'm not sure how much he had to do other than getting the car right side up but once he finished -- more than 5 hours later -- he continued and ran at good speed. Looks like his time between the rest of the way points nearly matched those of the front runners. He may be able to continue tomorrow but will he bother given he's now more than 5 hours off the podium? We'll see.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEL6IfLvCcA]Leg 4 - 2013 Dakar - Best-of-RallyLive.com (GB) - YouTube[/ame]
Found this video, sorry do not have any other details. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN2ZJA4gHEw]Krzysztof Ho[/ame]
That ^^^ happened on Stage 3. I forgot to mention it as he just dropped off the live timing list and out of sight. An early report said the co-driver was unhurt but the driver had injuries to back and ribs. Haven't seen anything since.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc19SKqNnn8]2013 Dakar - Discovery - XtreM Adventure powered by Michelin - YouTube[/ame]