We’re starting to get little bits and pieces of information trickling in from sources and readers who are paying attention to this year’s Dakar race. We’ll post the full story once we have it, but in the meantime, here’s a post for random things as they get sent in. Starting with the above photo from the starting line
Introductory video about the race, shows route and some of the top contenders in each class. Countyman is included. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C86HaE817is]YouTube - 2011/01/01 - Summary - Tanking up on... emotion![/ame]
15:55 Cars: In the end, Chicherit already looses 57'45! Victim of a mechanical problem that forced him to stop twice in the day's special stage, Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (Mini) just completed the day's route and finished with the 18th time, 57’45 behind the day's winner Spain's Carlos Sainz (VW).
Some notes... At waypoint 1 was 0:55 behind leader in 10th place Waypoint 2 moved to 7th 1:36 behind Waypoint 3 dropped to 8th 3:38 behind Waypoint 4 still 8th now 7:12 behind Waypoint 5 8th 8:02 behind Waypoint 6 9th 8:33 behind Waypoint 7 10th 9:25 back, only 1second behind the 9th place Mitsubishi Waypoint 8 No info Waypoint 9 No Info Finish 77th overall 55:45 back from lead. Still a lot of ground to cover, while it does not look that great today there are 14 more days and lot can happen.
Photos from Day 2 Note: Day 1 was just a parade to the first real starting point from the Ceremonial starting point. Stage 1 Photo More later as it is posted on the Dakar site
Comments from driver: Guerlain Chicherit: "It is very hard" "It's hard. It's very hard. After 3 km we already had an alarm due to bad cooling. We managed up to 30 km before the end, then the brake discs gave in, splintered into the rim and blocked everything. I tried to unblock and go on like that but it was impossible. It's hard. One year of work to get to this... it sure was a bad start. There is a lot of expectations on the car. A bad start indeed. Trouble is that tomorrow we will pay for today's problems because it will be a long stretch and it will be very hard to pass other cars."
I feel sorry for them, all that work & not even into the real competitive part of the event. Already an hour behind. It is a very long event so hopefully they can claw some time back. Thanks for the updates!
Thanks for the updates on the rally. I look forward to daily updates and some video coverage. Hopefully there will be a television special on the rally at some point in the future.
The Verses Channel will have a 1/2 show every day starting tomorrow (Jan 3) at 3:30 PM Eastern with updates from the Rally.
Off topic, but there is BTCC, DTM & FIA Touring racing tomorrow on Speed! Back on topic Dakar coverage......
Just checked my channel listing and I get that one. I can't set my DVR, so I'll just have to watch it. Thanks for the info. Jim
....tis a very long race and a lot to make up, but anything can happen in this event... Hopefully they will get over the mechanical woes and at least be able to race for a decent finish ...
Agreed, I hope they can finish again with the issues they have. Getting the MINI back on top in the rally would be great.
