I love the fact Robby Gordon is being beat by a MINI. Even though it is really a monster X3 wearing colorful MINI pajamas. That's gatta a be tough on his manhood. :smilewinkgrin:
He's making up ground though. He came 2nd today behind Al-Attiyah in the other Hummer. I've been looking for an update on that team's logistical status. I heard Gordon talking a couple days ago about how some of their support/supply trucks were stuck in customs and without them they would probably only be able to make it through half the rally.
Stage 8 results: 1 - MINI 2 - Hummer 3 - MINI 4 - MINI 5 - Hummer 6 - Toyota 7 - Great Wall 8 - MINI 9 - MINI 10 - Toyota
Top 10 after Stage 8: Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 Rank Driver/Co-Driver Manufacturer Time Gap to 1st 01 #302 Peterhansel/Cottret MINI 20:04:15 02 #303 Gordon/Campbell Hummer 20:11:51 00:07:36 03 #304 Holowczyc/Fortin MINI 20:12:03 00:07:48 04 #305 Roma/Périn MINI 20:16:42 00:12:27 05 #301 De Villiers/von Zitzewitz Toyota 20:42:00 00:37:45 06 #300 Al-Attiyah/Cruz Hummer 20:49:40 00:45:25 07 #312 Novitskiy/Schulz MINI 21:11:48 01:07:33 08 #307 Sousa/Garcin Great Wall 21:27:44 01:23:29 09 #319 Alvarez/Graue Toyota 22:08:30 02:04:15 10 #315 Van Loon/Scholtablers Mitsubishi 22:23:19 02:19:04 #309, Leal dos Santos/Fuiza, finished 9th on the stage today and moved up to 15th place (23:48:10, 03:43:55).
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEKaIBhmWs]Dakar Stage 5 -- MINI Dominates First Real Test. - YouTube[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjDUtqXw4zE]Dakar Stage 6 -- Cancelled Due to Rain and Snow. - YouTube[/ame]
Great stuff. Odd that Monster/ X-Raid has the money to go for a championship, but BMW doesn't. :lol: Jim
Part of that is having a title sponsor. That's one of the things Prodrive has been talking about. Apparently the expectation all along was that they'd find the cash to fill the budget gap to enable them to run the full 2012 season (and on) by signing a title sponsor, but they haven't yet found a cash-rich source willing to provide the right sort of money.
Gordon is on a charge in the Stage 9-winning Hummer but it looks like Al-Atiyah may have dropped out of the rally. Stage 9 results: 1 - Hummer 2 - MINI 3 - MINI 4 - MINI 5 - MINI 6 - Toyota 7 - Great Wall 8 - Toyota 9 - MINI 10 - Mitsubishi
Gordon is catching up but it looks like Al-Attiyah might be out. Top 10 after Stage 9: Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 Rank Driver/Co-Driver Manufacturer Time Gap to 1st 01 #302 Peterhansel/Cottret MINI 024:41:14 02 #303 Gordon/Campbell Hummer 024:47:12 00:05:58 03 #304 Holowczyc/Fortin MINI 024:58:03 00:16:49 04 #305 Roma/Périn MINI 025:00:40 00:19:26 05 #301 De Villiers/von Zitzewitz Toyota 025:35:24 00:54:10 06 #312 Novitskiy/Schulz MINI 026:10:34 01:29:20 07 #307 Sousa/Garcin Great Wall 026:25:41 01:44:27 08 #319 Alvarez/Graue Toyota 027:12:49 02:31:35 09 #313 Vos/Howie Toyota 027:25:55 02:44:41 10 #315 Van Loon/Scholtablers Mitsubishi 027:40:26 02:59:12 12 #309 Leal dos Santos/Fuiza MINI 028:38:54 03:57:40
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-WQug-S5CE]Monster Energy / X-Raid Team 2012 Dakar Rally - Stage 7 - YouTube[/ame]
Things are getting close up front with Peterhansel now just under 6 minutes ahead of 2nd place Gordon. Here's MINI Motorsport's spin. Peterhansel keeps Gordon in check. (minimotorsport.com)
105 cars started today's stage (#10), that's down from 161 at the start of the rally. One of the MINIs -- #304, Holowczyc/Fortin, classified 3rd overall at the start of the stage -- had some sort of issue early in the stage and lost about an hour on the leader by the second waypoint.
Stage 8 video from MINI Motorsport: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSyNwhrAmDs]Dakar Stage 8 -- Roma Top Dog in Chile's Rocky Desert. - YouTube[/ame]