2009 Dakar Rally

Marcel vd Aa · Jan 13, 2009

Stage 9: La Serena - Colpiapo

This 9th stage of the Dakar held all its promises with spectacular landscapes and imposing dunes. It was the first act of a probably decisive trilogy that will take place in the Atacama Desert, and was won by Dutchman Frans Verhoeven, even though he started in 33rd position this morning. Marc Coma remains in the lead in the general standings. Sainz won the special stage in the car race, consolidating his position in the general standings, whereas Roma lost 24 minutes.

The bike race started very early this morning, without the fourth-placed rider in the general standings and winner of the special stage in San Rafael, Jonah Street. Having injured a wrist, the American was forced to withdraw, in spite of being second to Coma on leaving Argentina.

After an introduction to the South American dunes several days ago, but on the other side of the Andes, the bikers got to grips with the first part of a sandy triple whammy on this edition of the Dakar, with enough dunes to drive even the bravest crazy… Though, this was not the case for the leading lights on two wheels in this rally. The three leading performers from the day before, namely Despres, Coma and Lopez soon caught up with each other and spent the day together, with Coma thus neutralizing Despres.

However, it was left to other riders to create the headlines. Firstly, having started 10 minutes after Despres, David Frétigné toiled alone to get close to the leading trio. The Yamaha rider posted the best times at the first three CPs (after 131 km, 218 km and 235 km). Yet, the situation was rocked during the last part of the special stage, where the riders had to confront a section of dunes.

Secondly, Frans Verhoeven, who started in 33rd position, surprised everyone by putting in the best time after the 399-km mark. Thirty kilometers later, it was indeed the Dutchman who picked up his second special stage victory after his success in Puerto Madryn. Verhoeven beat Frétigné by 3.09 and Lopez by 3.40.

In the general standings, Coma now possesses a lead of 1 hour and 4 minutes over “Fretos” and 1 hour and 34 minutes over title holder Despres, a comfortable cushion indeed!

The first major day of racing in the dunes saw the advantage swing towards Spaniard Carlos Sainz. It is not really his preferred type of terrain, but the native of Madrid has a hand on outright victory, after having raced through the stage alongside his team-mate Miller who led for almost all of the 430-km long special stage. However, Miller hit a boulder, damaging his steering, a mishap which handed victory to Sainz. The prospects of overall victory for the former two times WRC champion are starting to become more likely every day. The hierarchy is now more ordered, both in the Volkswagen team and in the general standings where Sainz leads his two team-mates Miller and De Villiers by 19.52 and 22.58 respectively.

The fourth placed driver and 7th on the stage, 24.41 behind, was Nani Roma, probably one of the major losers of the day. The last representative of Mitsubishi is now 58.12 behind Sainz after choosing to follow Giniel De Villiers down the wrong track. This navigational error in turn also cost the South African the leadership of the Volkswagen team, his second place in the general standings and probably his last hopes of outright victory. In third position today, Robbie Gordon is well installed in fifth place in the general standings, 1 hour and 34 minutes behind Sainz. The other point of interest in this eventful day was the reappearance of the Argentine virtuoso Orlando Terranova. Having set off in 21st position this morning, he finished at the foot of the day’s podium, moving up from tenth to eighth in the general standings.

Still in the car race, but in the T2 category, Ronan Chabot was the quickest driver today, finishing in 24th place. The French Toyota driver beat Spaniard Xavier Foj by a mere 21 seconds. In the general standings for the production category, Nicolas Gibon (Toyota) is still in the lead, 1 hour and 10 minutes ahead of Foj.

source: www.dakar.com

Bram Hengeveld · Jan 13, 2009

Big big surprise by Frans. Really proud about the dutch crew this year

Marcel vd Aa · Jan 13, 2009

yep dutchies really shine this year.

Marcel vd Aa · Jan 14, 2009

Stage 10: Copiapo - Copiapo

The longest special stage of the Dakar ended up shorter due to the low lift level of the sand. But on the remaining 476km of the stage, the contenders did still have to face the huge sand dunes of the Atacama desert plus some navigation tests as well. In the bike category, Jordi Viladoms benefited from the dubious navigation of the first starters and enjoyed his first stage victory in this edition of the Dakar. Marc Coma glued to the wheel of Despres remains leader in the general standings. In the car category, Carlos Sainz - who gets here his sixth stage victory of the year - has reaffirmed his superiority on sand included.

It’s under slightly clouded skies that the bikers started stage 10 this morning, a large loop starting and finishing at the splendid Copiapo bivouac. Starting 5th today, it took about 100km to Cyril Despres to catch up on the four riders driving in front of him, i.e. Verhoeven, Frétigné, Coma and Lopez. The title holder recorded the best clocks at each of the four first CP.

But after km 300, the situation changed radically. In the lead of the stage, Cyril Despres had his main contenders e.g. Coma and Lopez in his wheel and drove them - and himself - astray.
By a way of consequence, Viladoms and Duclos who had started the stage later benefited from the error and achieved best clocks at km 423 with some significant lead over the top riders in the general standings.

All that remains was the trickiest line of sand dunes but the two bikers in the lead passed it without trouble. Having won a stage in Zouerat two years ago, Jordi Viladoms now gets his second stage success in a Dakar raid. He arrived in front of Franco-Malian biker Alain Duclos who is 1’06" behind the winner and Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues at 8’29".

In the general standings, Coma’s strategy of tailing Despres paid off again despite the navigation error of the Frenchman. The Catalan looses 3’37" on two-time Dakar winner but wins some ground over David Frétigné, now at 1h24’. The Yamaha rider also had the opportunity of enjoying a long time of going astray and as to the Despres, he is now 1h31’ behind the Catalan
leader.

After a top-notch performance in yesterday’s stage, the loop around Copiapo could have been feared as the ultimate test for Carlos Sainz, still self-proclaimed beginner in driving through sand dunes. Well, it’s precisely on this particularly familiar terrain for him that he kept writing a new page in the history of the Dakar, winning his 15th special stage victor in his short Dakar career. Amongst the nine drivers who did as well as he did, Sainz is the only one who never actually won a full Dakar.

However, today’s achievement might help him do just that! In addition to a fourth consecutive stage victory, Carlos Sainz has indeed increased his lead in the standings, relegating his first contender and still team-mate, Mark Miller, more than 27 minutes behing. As for Giniel De Villiers, he has lost precious minutes remaining stuck on the way down, at the base of a sand dune. He might now consider giving up in front of the obvious superiority of "El Matador". As to Joan ’Nani’ Roma, blocked by the threat of the engine of his Lancer overheating, he can not hope for more than a fourth place 1h13’ behind Sainz.

The ’skimming’ of the first week of racing is giving new people the opportunity of taking center stage in the ’facebook’ of stage winners. This is most certainly the idea at the back of the mind of Orlando Terranova who will have this as a strategy from Copiapo onwards. The Argentinian - often in the standings but never a winner - has immediately given the right pace to his X3 and was timed with the best clock at the first two CP. But as it sometimes happens within the X-Raid team, Orli mistook rushing for speed: after going off trail and sommersaulting several times at km 180, the dreams of a first stage victory on home turf on this Dakar vanished for him. Robby Gordon, who has already won 3 stages in past editions of the Dakar, still has won none in this year’s edition. After spending his day tailing Sainz, and even being timed with the best clock at the last two CP, the US driver missed victor by a short 21". Other stage victory opportunities will be rarer for him in the remainder of the race.

Maurice Hurkmans · Jan 15, 2009

Stage 12: Fiambala - La Rioja

Confirmation that Carlos Sainz has abandoned the race!

The Spanish driver Carlos Sainz and his French co-pilot Michel Perin have just arrived by helicopter at the bivouac in Fiambala, thus confirming the withdrawal of Volkswagen Race Touareg No. 301, leader of the general standings until the start of the 12th stage this morning.

The leader of the general standings, Spaniard Carlos Sainz (VW) is said to have careered into a ravine after 79 km of the day’s special stage. It appears that his co-pilot, Frenchman Michel has received a shoulder injury and has been evacuated to the bivouac for medical attention... This would mean withdrawal from the race for the Spaniard, who has won 6 special stages out of the 10 already completed.

Hans Sneep · Jan 18, 2009

Tim and Tom Coronel finished on 70 place (because of a 200 hour penalty)but they made it:highfive:

Hans

Bram Hengeveld · Jan 18, 2009

I hope they will write a book about their adventures, knowing them they must have had BIG fights and arguments in that Nemesis

Wido Rossen · Feb 4, 2009

Mitsubishi ends Dakar programme

Mitsubishi today announced its withdrawal from the Dakar Rally and all other cross country rallies.

The Japanese manufacturer has won the Dakar Rally 12 times, including seven consecutive victories between 2001 and 2007, but has pulled out for financial reasons.

A statement released by Mitsubishi said: "The sudden deterioration of the global economy made it necessary for the company to focus its resources more tightly, and for this reason the decision was taken to withdraw its Mitsubishi Motorsports (MMSP) works team from all cross-country competitions."

Mitsubishi's exit follows those of Subaru and Suzuki, who both withdrew from the World Rally Championship before the start of this season.

Christophe Berton · Feb 4, 2009

no dakar

Akos Veres · Mar 4, 2009

It's a shame!

Wido Rossen · Jun 5, 2009

“Rally Dakar” – KTM withdraws!

The limiting of motorcycles with a displacement of 450 cc forces the long term dominator of the Dakar Rally to withdraw.

Following the announcement at a press conference on June 4, 2009 of the French “ASO” - the organisers of the “South American Dakar“ that from 2010, only motorcycles with a maximum displacement of 450 cc will be permitted to compete, KTM, after eight consecutive victories, has decided to immediately accept the consequences and announces its withdrawal from the “Dakar”.

The company will no longer be represented at the rally in South America either with an official factory team or a KTM-supported team. At the same time, KTM underlines that the company remains committed to rally sport and will now concentrate its efforts on the world championship and other important rallies.

The organiser’s short term change to the rules, designed to end the dominance of KTM, and which comes without any advance warning, hits the KTM factory hard. Today, just six months before the start – and at a time when not only the factory team but also dozens of private teams are deep in preparations for this extremely complex rally, the immediate withdrawal of the worldwide market leader of offroad sports motorcycle is the only possible consequence.

“Every sport regulation needs changes and adjustments to new developments to retain an interest in it, but this also require the appropriate lead times. We have the entire material for the 690 Rally motorcycles for our factory team as well as that for 50 customers’ motorcycles in our storage facility ready to be constructed in June. Riders’ contracts have been finalised and all the team members have been engaged. The financial consequences that results from this decision are enormous. Quite apart from this, we are shocked by the organiser’s lack of loyalty, above all because of the huge efforts we made following the cancellation of the Dakar in 2008 by contributing to the new edition - even during a period of extreme economic crisis,” said KTM Motor Sport Advisor and “Rally Legend” Heinz Kinigadner in a first statement.

Following the decision for the deployment of 450cc motorcycles, which are unthinkably unsuitable for use in long distance rallies, KTM can no longer economically justify a commitment to be engaged in the Dakar in the future. KTM Motor Sport Director Winfried Kerschhaggl: “Rally sport serves to prove the efficiency and stability of our large volume series single cylinder. There is no question that we will remain active in rally sport! Having said that, for KTM, the rally in South America is now history. We will now fully concentrate on the Rally World Championship and we will seek out alternatives. Maybe we will soon again see full KTM Rally engagement on African soil – back to the roots!”

With its commitment to rally sports, KTM naturally takes the obligations to its long term worldwide customers seriously because it is they who have decided to put their trust in the products and in the unique service of the Austrian company for rally sport by choosing KTM motorcycles.