Most liked posts in thread: Dakar 2014

Steve · Jan 17, 2014

Peterhansel reclaims Dakar lead, despite team orders (racer.com)

January 17, 2014

Stephane Peterhansel moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally on Friday, despite the X-raid team calling off the fight for victory on the previous day.

The Frenchman trailed team-mate Nani Roma by over five minutes going into Friday's 12th stage from El Salvador to La Serena, and the team had decided it did not want to take any risks.

"The game is over," said Peterhansel on Thursday. "We've had a good laugh and enjoyed ourselves. Yesterday evening, the team asked us to not take any more risks."

However, Peterhansel won Friday's stage and overtook Roma at the top of the standings.

He now leads the Spaniard by 26 seconds ahead of Saturday's final stage.

Peterhansel's was his fourth stage victory of the rally. He finished over three minutes ahead of Nasser At-Attiyah and almost six ahead of Roma, who was third.

Toyota's Giniel de Villers was again the first non-Mini driver at the finish line, coming home in fourth ahead of Krzysztof Holowczyc, who completed the top five despite suffering a puncture.

Saturday's deciding stage from La Serena to Valparaiso is only 157km.

Leading stage 12 times:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 3h38m19s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah X-raid Mini +3m38s
3. Nani Roma X-raid Mini +5m58s
4. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota +10m48s
5. Krzysztof Holowczyc X-raid Mini +18m06s
6. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy +18m24s
7. Boris Garafulic X-raid Mini +25m26s
8. Lucio Alvarez Ford +26m15s
9. Orlando Terranova X-raid Mini +29m50s
10. Christian Lavieille Haval +31m09s

Leading overall positions after stage 12:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 48h45m45s
2. Nani Roma X-raid Mini +26s
3. Nasser Al-Attiyah X-raid Mini +54m07s
4. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota +1h21m13s
5. Orlando Terranova X-raid Mini +1h27m57s
6. Krzysztof Holowczyc X-raid Mini +3h57m25s
7. Marek Dabrowski Orlen Toyota +5h26m09s
8. Christian Lavieille Haval +5h34m59s
9. Martin Kaczmarski X-raid Mini +6h55m33s
10. Vladimir Vasilyev X-raid Mini +7h00m59s

This article originally appeared in Autosport.com
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Steve · Jan 18, 2014

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB8jBwXzmEQ"]ENÃ‚Â -Ã‚Â Stage 12 - Car / Bike - Stage Summary - El Salvador / La Serena - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Jan 18, 2014

Stage 13: Watch out for the needles

Before admiring the hillsides brought to life by the houses in Valparaiso, the drivers will have to climb the hills planted with cacti during the rally's last special stage.
The pride and joy of crossing the finish line is drawing closer, but the statistics are formal: every year one or several drivers come unstuck during this final exercise so prudence is required! Even this close to the finish, vigilance is the competitors' best ally to ensure their presence on the final podium: the first one organised at night in the history of the Dakar.
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Steve · Jan 18, 2014

A few of those needles.

Steve · Jan 18, 2014

Roma secures Dakar Rally victory (racer.com)

January 18, 2014

Nani Roma won the Dakar Rally as X-raid Mini teammate Stephane Peterhansel slowed on the final stage.

Roma led the majority of the event after a variety of dramas dropped main rivals Peterhansel, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz back during the opening days.

Peterhansel recovered from nearly 40 minutes behind to catch Roma with three stages left, but X-raid was concerned about the risks its drivers were taking and ordered them to back off.

Roma duly kept the lead on Thursday, although he lost it to Peterhansel again with a puncture on the penultimate day.

Peterhansel carried a 26-second advantage into the closing run from La Serena to Valparaiso, but drove steadily and soon fell behind in the overall classifications. He then parked 24 kilometers from the end so that he, Roma and Al-Attiyah could cross the line in formation to celebrate X-raid's top-three sweep.

Roma's first Dakar win in cars comes exactly 10 years after he won the motorcycle category on a KTM.

Giniel de Villiers was fastest on the final stage and finished fourth overall.

While Al-Attiyah got back up to third following his opening week delays, Sainz crashed out four days from the finish.

Marc Coma was the motorcycle winner for the fourth time in his career.

This article originally appeared in Autosport.com
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Steve · Jan 19, 2014

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCLMVv-SXEo]ENÂ -Â Stage 13 - Car / Bike - Stage Summary - La Serena / ValparaÃso - YouTube[/ame]

Dave.0 · Jan 23, 2014

The running of the BEER trucks. EXCELLENT !

Steve · Feb 24, 2014

Over 1 Ton Of Cocaine Stashed In Dakar Truck Tires Seized By Police

French authorities have made "one of their largest cocaine seizures in years" finding 1.393 tons of the drug in plastic bags hidden in the tires of an 8x8 Dakar support truck belonging to the Spanish Epsilon Team.

As OppositeLock author BORSUQ brought to our attention today, "two members of the Spanish based Epsilon Team, a 27 year veteran of Dakar, were arrested in France after 1,5t of cocaine was found in their vehicle." Three other Spaniards have also been arrested as alleged international drug dealers.

The truck rolled off a ship in the French port of Le Havre straight from Valparaiso, Chile last Wednesday. Apparently it only took a few hours for French port authorities to smell something shady and start busting heads.

Epsilon claims to operate a fleet of seventeen different race support vehicles they hire out to teams who need them while running their own race efforts. Twelve are Mercedes-Benz AK trucks in their support fleet, and six of those are 8x8s. The truck reeled in as the cocaine mule could have been a 34.35, 35.44, 41.40, 41.50, or one of two 41.54 8x8s.

Euro Weekly News says the cocaine is believed to have originated in Bolivia and Colombia. Insight Crime says that drug traffic has not been a major issue in Chile in the past, but the nation's relevance in international narcotics trade has increased recently.

Latercera puts the value of the drugs seized at "some 270 million euros" (370 million US dollars). If that's true I bet the blokes involved in this nonsense are just praying the cops find them before whoever's money they lost does.
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Full article on Jalopnik.

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