Dakar Rally 2016

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

ANOTHER WINN FOR SEBASTIEN LOEB !!!!

[ronin 596]

Thanks Beez for all the info on the Dakar !!! Really enjoying the read and lovely pics every day

 

Fido, couldn't agree more on Loeb. That guy is just phenomenal. For my part he is already up there with the greatest all time, though I know that should not be said about someone still actively racing. Without too many mechanical and other issues, he might very well win this ! Below a nice little vid on him.

 

[Beez 5,091]

Was not able to update this yesterday for Stage 3. However, Loeb won again in the cars and Juan Bang Bang Barreda won it on the bike and then lost it due to a time penalty for speeding in a restricted area. He won today's stage as well and now is winning the overall but that's now in jeopardy due to another possible speeding penalty. EDIT: He did receive a 5 min penalty. Stage 4 won be Paulo Goncalves (#2) Honda who now leads the overall by 2 minutes.

 

Paulo Goncalves

 

Sebastien Loeb

 

In the cars, "Mr. Dakar" Stephane Peterhansel wins the stage with Carlos Sainz coming in 2nd, Loeb in 3rd and 5 time bike winner Cyril Despres in 5th showing that the Peugeot 2.0 is much improved over last year. This is good news for Loeb who still has the overall lead because it meand he will not have to open the track tomorrow which is supposed to have less roads and more open terrain. Pure roadbook navigation will be Loeb/Elena's weakest point but tomorrow all he'll have to do is follow Peterhansel.

 

Stephane Peterhansel

 

Today is the first marathon stage. In case you don't know a marathon stage means the competitors have no assistance from their teams and mechanics. The riders/drivers must do all the maintenance themselves and they don't get fresh tires. This means they must be a little more conservative and preserve their machines because they have to do another stage before they can get a full service. On the big teams like KTM and Honda a junior rider may swap tires with is doing better in the overall if their tires are in better shape. Other than that it's cleaning air filters and making repairs.

 

Stage 4 American bike results before penalties,

9 (14) 048 - RICKY BRABEC (USA) HONDA +00:05:29
36 (43) 106 - IAN BLYTHE (USA) KTM +00:19:44
61 (55) 103 - ALEXANDER SMITH (USA) HUSQVARNA +00:52:26
65 (75) 105 - SCOTT BRIGHT (USA) KTM +00:53:27
85 (89) 145 - CARROLL GITTERE (USA) HUSQVARNA +01:12:14

 

Rickey Brabec

 

Scott Bright

 

Did you know?

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (netherlands) #40 of MotoGP fame is riding in the Dakar. In fact this is his 7th having done it 4 times in a car and once as a navigator in a truck. This is his second time on a bike and this time he is riding in the malle-moto class. Malle-moto means you are on your own, you have no mechanic, no team. You must do all the maintenance on your bike yourself with no assistance. You get a large trunk that the organization transports for you to carry your tent, sleeping bag, clothes and spare bike parts plus a second set of wheels for your bike. Truly the ultimate test. Jurgen currently is in 55th place.

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Awesome recaps Beez

Really looking forward to those every evenings now.

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Another win for Loeb !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful one no less !!! Pure navigation stage !

This guy is amazing !

[Beez 5,091]

Stage 5 is the sencond part of the marathon stage and the first time the competitors will enter Bolivia. The drivers will reach 4,600 meters (15,091 feet) in elevation which brings a host of problems for man and machine. Lack of oxygen will cause cold, altitude sickness and massive headaches for the competitors and will make all the vehicles to run poorly with less power.

 

Toby Price wins!
The KTM rider has just won the day's special in the bike category. The Australian rode a faultless stage and opened the gap at the end of the special with a clever piece of navigation. The KTMs are putting the pressure on.

 

Toby Price

 

Stefan Svitko (#5) from Slovenia finished 2nd and also holds 2nd place in the overall. This is his 7th Dakar and he is aiming for the podium or better!

 

Paulo Gonçalves (Honda) has just crossed the finishing line of the day's special with a time of 4 hours and 12 seconds. In provisional second place at CP2, the Portuguese rider has not seemed as quick today as during yesterday's stage and should therefore lose time to his rivals. Gonk remains about a minute in 1st place overall.

Entering Bolivia

 

Three stage wins in a row for Loeb!

“It was a good day. I pushed really hard from the start. Daniel did a great job with the notes, he was just perfect, so absolutely nothing bad to say. I was really happy with the stage. I think we lost maybe twenty seconds at a junction. Daniel told me the right way, but I went wrong, but for the rest it was ok. I had a good feeling and the car was perfect again, so there's nothing to add. It was a good day and tomorrow we will be first on the road so it maybe will be another story, but it's a part of the experience that we have to take. The car and the crew are ok. We had some very high altitude today too. We are ok. Yesterday I tried to manage the car in preparation for the mountain stage. Today it was the second stage and I had absolutely no problems with the car, so I tried to push harder and I got the result. Tomorrow may be more difficult. It's got some navigation like today, but today it was ok, so we will see tomorrow how we can manage that”.

Carlos Sainz 2nd

Peterhansel 3rd

Nasser Al-Attiyah 4th

 

 

 

 

 

Robby Gordon finished 8th but there's rumors of a 1 hour penalty. I don't know why but it might be from getting pulled out of a mud hole on Stage 2.

 

 

Stage 5 American bike results before penalties,

24 (7) #048 - RICKY BRABEC (USA) HONDA +00:14:34
35 (37) #106 - IAN BLYTHE (USA) KTM +00:18:16
51 (63) #103 - ALEXANDER SMITH (USA) HUSQVARNA +00:35:13
64 (66) #105 - SCOTT BRIGHT (USA) KTM +00:46:27
90 (90) #145 - CARROLL GITTERE (USA) HUSQVARNA +01:11:37

Edited January 7, 2016 by Beez

[Beez 5,091]

Quick update.

 

Stage 6

Husqvarna rider Ruben Faria (Portugal) appears to have injured his wrist and has had to withdraw from the rally.

 

Juan Barreda, Honda's #1 rider, was stopped for over an hour with bike problems. His shot at the overall win is most likely over. It is possible teammate Ceci is towing him.

 

Toby Price (AUS) wins the stage again! From start to finish. Paulo Goncalves (PRT) still holds the overall.

Hey you Australians, get in here and cheer your boy!   

 

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Loeb lost more than 8 minutes today and lost his 1st place over all

[Beez 5,091]

Stage 6

Husqvarna rider Ruben Faria (Portugal) appears to have injured his wrist and has had to withdraw from the rally.

 

 

Juan Barreda, Honda's #1 rider, was stopped for over an hour with bike problems. His shot at the overall win is most likely over. It is possible teammate Ceci is towing him.

 

 

Paulo Goncalves finishes 3rd and remains 1st overall by only 35 seconds. Toby Price wins the stage and is in 2nd overall with Austrian KTM pilot Walkner in a close 3rd.

 

In the cars Peterhansel wins the stage and takes over 1st in the overall rankings. Carlos Sainz gets 2nd and Loeb 4th. In the overall, Loeb is less than half a minute behind Peterhansel. Sainz sits in 3rd in the other Peugeot, Nasser in 4th in the Mini and Geniel DeVillers in 5th in the V8 Toyota. God that's a cool truck!!! WRC frontrunner Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) is having an excellent rally and is in 6th overall.

 

Sorry I have not mentioned the big trucks yet. They are awesome but I don't know much about them or the teams. I do know that Yoshimasa Sugawara (JPN) is driving his Hino truck again this year and it's his 33rd Dakar. The 74 year old has raced the Dakar on a bike, can and trucks. He's in 37th place in the truck class currently.

http://www.hino-global.com/dakar/index.html

 

Stage 6 American bike results before penalties, so far

8 (24) #048 - RICKY BRABEC  HONDA +00:08:16
35 (35) #106 - IAN BLYTHE  KTM +00:34:08
47 (51) #103 - ALEXANDER SMITH  HUSQVARNA +00:57:26
55 (61) #105 - SCOTT BRIGHT KTM +01:18:45
-- (90) #145 - CARROLL GITTERE HUSQVARNA + +02:41:50

[Beez 5,091]

As usual I am crap at following the rally on the weekend and even worse keeping this updated.

 

I will update soon. However right now Nasser (mini) is on a tear and leading all the Peugeots. Maybe they bolted another turbo on that car during the rest day?

 

TODAY IS THE FIRST REAL DAY OF DUNES!!!

Edited January 11, 2016 by Beez

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Good thing it was rest day yesterday

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Nooooooooo !!!!

Loeb got trapped in some sand dunes !

He lost a lot of time. Stage 8 still ongoing.

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Dakar is over for Loeb

He made a mistake 30km from the finish line and apparently he's still there, trying to get his Peugeot to the Bivouac.

He's more than 1 hour behind overall now so no way he's gonna win.

Would have been a miracle but the first week made me believe.

[Beez 5,091]

Stage 7, Saturday

It was the weekend so I was busy and didn't have time to follow the rally much.

#49 Antoine Meo (FRA) won his first Dakar stage ever on the bikes.

Austrian Mattias Walkner on the factory KTM team had a bad get-off and broke his femur. Out of the rally.

Also out is Jean Bang Bang Barreda. After getting towed in has injuries that prevent him from continuing.

In the cars, Carlos Sainz (ESP) won the stage in the Peugeot but Loeb still held the overall.

 

Rest Day, Sunday

Mechanics were busy, drivers were resting.

 

Stage 8, Monday

The special today is split into 2 sections and the first real off-track navigation and sand dunes happens finally!

 

Australian Toby Price wins the stage again and now takes 1st in the overall by 2 minutes. Bad news is has to open the stage tomorrow and Gonk can just follow his dust, catch up and get the time back. Speaking of Gonk he had a terrible crash but made it in 2nd place.

 

“In the middle of the stage on the off-piste area with a lot of bumps I had a crash. I was lucky not to have any injuries. The bike only broke a little on the tower. At the end I needed to ride more slowly to fix the tower back on with my hand and avoid breaking the cables whilst trying to finish as best as possible. In the end, I'm happy because at the end it was a normal day because I caught the riders who started in front of me. The guys, especially the fast riders, started behind me so they caught up with me, but it's like this. I'm happy and tomorrow I really hope to have a good day. For the moment the damage is not really bad because I finished, but it could have been serious if the tower had broken completely. Maybe the bike would have stopped. But luckily it's a strong bike and I finished well. The marathon stage is only tomorrow, so I'm a lucky guy”. Gonk

 

In the cars is was Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) in the Mini at the front all day. He won the stage by 12 sec over Sainz and 31 sec over Peterhansel. According to reports he had a much bigger lead for most of the stage but it was taken back by the Peugeot drivers later in the day. At the time of writing this...

 

.@SebastienLoeb Stopped 30km to finish line after bad move. Working on car. /

 

Could be more than 40 minutes, devastating for Loeb. Mikko Hirvonen moves into 4th overall and the Toyotas are coming. Now that we are finally in the dunes, what will have more of an advantage, the RWD cars or the 4WD cars?

[Beez 5,091]

302

-

STEPHANE

PETERHANSEL

“He crashed into the hole and rolled” - Talking about Loeb

“I don't know what happened because 100 kilometres before the end we overtook him in the off-track part. I don't know if he had a problem but he was not really fast. After that, when we started to drive on the tracks again he was faster than me. I stopped and he overtook me again… no, no, not again, he overtook me, and after that, 20 kilometres from the end at a large river, with the speed at around 120 kmph, there was a big hole and he crashed into the hole and rolled. I don't know how many rolls, but he was ok, he was out of the car and told us it was ok and we could go. We have lost one car, so it's less comfortable than before”.

 

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

[Beez 5,091]

Noooo!!!!!

 

At Way Point 4, Toby Price (KTM) has confirmed his stranglehold on the stage. He now leads Kevin Benavides (Honda) by 7'10'' sur Kevin Benavides and Stefan Svitko (KTM) by more than 10 minutes. As for Paulo Gonçalves, he is still stuck at CP2.

 

A major surprise in the car category at Way Point 1 and in more ways than one: Orlando Terranova (Mini) has been credited with the best time ahead of Leeroy Poulter (Toyota), 31 seconds behind. The most surprising fact in the provisional standings on the stage is that the Peugeots are being dominated by an armada of Minis. Cyril Despres, the quickest of the DKRs, is in fifth place, 1'01'' behind the stage leader, Stéphane Peterhansel lies in eighth, 2'38'' behind Terranova and Carlos Sainz occupies ninth place, 3'50'' of the lead!!!

 

CONFIRNMED:  Paulo Speedy Goncalves is out of the 2016 Dakar with a broken radiator. He was my favorite this year. Oh well, good luck to Toby Price. If Toby wins he will be the first Australian to win it.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Beez

[Beez 5,091]

Poor translation probably from French:

11:24: The race is stopped at CP2
Today was expected a difficult race because of the appearance of the stage. The dunes of Fiambala and ambient heat heralded indeed a complicated day. A fear checked very quickly and before the number of competitors already in trouble, especially in the bike race management has taken the right decision. To guarantee maximum safety to the entire plateau, the race is Arrested at the height of CP2.

Supposed to be a lot of off piste and dunes today. This sucks.

[Beez 5,091]

There may be hope for Speedy!

Latest news: today's stage is stoped at CP 2.

Paulo Goncalves managed to arrive at CP 2 so there are some chance that he can continue his race.

Paolo Ceci

and Michael Metge will help him to arrive at Fambalà Marathon bivuac in order to change the engine, With

Paulo Gonçalves

 I've seen no new on the cars class so far.

[Beez 5,091]

PHOTOS

Carlos Sainz


Stephane Peterhansel


Marek Dabrowski (POL)


Ginel DeVillers


Nasser Al-Attiyah


Cyril Despres


Sebastian Loeb


Jordi Viladoms


Helder Rodrigues


Antoine Meo


Toby Price


Helder Rodrigues

[Beez 5,091]

Stage 8

 

Toby

 

CARS

With the best time at CP2, Carlos Sainz has won another stage, his 29th in all, for the Peugeot team. The Spaniard has saved the day for the French team which seemed to be heading for a tough day at CP1. However, like yesterday, Sainz managed to find the will and power to inverse the trend on the stage. Only ten seconds behind him, Erik Van Loon (Mini) achieves a surprising result, with Mikko Hirvonen (Mini) 17 seconds behind the Spaniard. Stéphane Peterhansel, who finished 9'12'' behind his Iberian team-mate, loses the command of the general standings to Sainz, with Carlos now leading the Frenchman by 7'03''.
 

This stage is a marathon stage for the bike and quads only. They will have a different bivouac from the cars, trucks and their teams. They get 30 min. to work on their machines and then they go in a parc ferm. Now there are some grey areas in the rules where a rider can get assistance from their team in the liaison section. This is where Goncalves might be able to get an engine swap and his bike repaired and be able to get back in the rally. He has apparently been towed to CP2 which has been declared the end of the stage today. If you swap engines you get a time penalty, add that to all the time he lost today and any hopes of a podium are gone, all he can do is finish, if he is allowed by the officials.

 

From HRC Racing Facebook
Latest news: today's stage (EN 9) is stopped at CP2. Despite his problems with a bush that caused a hole in the radiator and liquid leakage and, later, an engine problem, Paulo is officially in the race. He arrived at CP2 to team mate Paolo Ceci and will repair his bike today in Fiambala bivouac in order to start tomorrow.

 

Looks like Loeb rolled it again (or these are from yesterday)

 

 

Final update

Stage 9 American bike results before penalties, so far

8th #048 - RICKY BRABEC  HONDA +01:02:42
32nd  #106 - IAN BLYTHE  KTM +04:06:29
40th  #103 - ALEXANDER SMITH  HUSQVARNA +06:03:17
56th  #105 - SCOTT BRIGHT KTM +08:19:56
--  #145 - CARROLL GITTERE HUSQVARNA no info

Edited January 12, 2016 by Beez

[Beez 5,091]

Stage 10

 

Yesterday 18 year old Sheldon Creed and his navigator, Dakar veteran Jonah Street, were disqualified in their Gordini buggy for missing too many waypoints. They had damaged the clutch and decided to bee-line it to the bivouac to reduce milage and get repairs. The knew they would get time penalties for missing the waypoints but didn't realize missing too many would get them disqualified.

 

 

Ricky Brabec (USA)

 

Frans Verhoven (NLD)

 

Today unusual start was delayed for weather. Unusual in that instead of starting in intervals like they normally do, Stage 10 the top 10 bikes start in a mass wave, then the top 10 cars then the top 5 trucks. I'm sure they are doing this for media exposure and interesting photos & video. After the waves everyone else starts normally.

 

Actually, that's close and what most thought but this shows the actual start order. It's in intervals but it mixes up the classes. What a mess. Also not sure why Brabec starts 2nd.

 

 

Paulo Goncalves is back in the rally and was apparently able to repair his motor and radiators so no time penalty for and engine change. He's around 30 min behind the leader and has lost time looking for CP1.

 

Despite some navigational trouble at the beginning of the special, Carlos Sainz (Peugeot) is setting an infernal pace. He flew past CP2 with a lead of more than 7 minutes over Giniel de Villiers (Toyota).

 

Ok I will not try yo "live tweet" today's stage.

[Beez 5,091]

Slovak Štefan Svitko claimed stage 10 after it was shortened by just over 30 km due to a swollen río just after CP5 (km 244). It's the KTM rider's first ever Dakar stage win!

 

 

Toby Price remains in the overall by over 22 minutes. Ricky Brabec (USA) comes in 8th and is 8th overall and amateur USA rider Ian Blythe gets 11th, a best for him.

 

Carlos Sainz out with a gearbox issue. Peterhansel wins the stage despite having some freakouts and 5-time bike winner Cyril Despres (FRA) gets 2nd. Mr. Dakar holds the overall with Nasser exactly an hour behind. Anything can happen in this rally. DeVillers in 3rd only 12 min back from Nasser. Robby Gordon is way back in 18th and vows this will be his last Dakar because the Org is so crappy. We will see Robby, I think he really wants to be the 1st American to win it.

 

Only 3 stages to go.

 

Rally Pan Am Facebook
"Ian came in before the marathon stage with a broken oil cooler line. He caught it early on, and managed a decent repair. Then purchased some oil and kept the bike going. We considered an engine swap, but KTM Factory mechanics Roland and engine guru Fritz said it was no problem after coming by for an inside look at the motor. Regardless, another late night fixing that and preparing for the second marathon stage. He finished an impressive 24th on the stage and moved to 29th overall. Well done, junior!"

 

Nasser

"We did a barrell roll after we hit an embankment 10 km into the special, and it took us a while to put the car back upright. We had to take risks today... After that things got tricky because the car was damaged and we had to finish the stage without further problems. At the end of the day, I'm happy to make it to the finish. The ceiling and the cooling system were broken, and we had to stop several times to check whether everything was in order. Despite the adversities, we limited our losses to Giniel and Mikko. We're second overall, and now we have to try and defend this position."

 

Stage 10 American bike results before penalties, so far

8th #048 - RICKY BRABEC  HONDA +01:12:08
27th  #106 - IAN BLYTHE  KTM +05:41:54
38th  #103 - ALEXANDER SMITH  HUSQVARNA +08:15:16
--  #105 - SCOTT BRIGHT KTM no info, not on withdrawal list
--  #145 - CARROLL GITTERE HUSQVARNA no info, not on withdrawal list

Edited January 13, 2016 by Beez

[Beez 5,091]

The Boston Globe always does an online photo gallery of dramatic pics from the rally that they hand pick.

Once again they do not disappoint with their 2016 selections.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture/2016/01/13/dakar-rally/zRxz2JUwIjIgtIA2neaYNK/story.html?event=event25

[Beez 5,091]

Well we all know how fast our Aussie crew members are and there's a long tradition of fast Australian motorcycle racers but never has one won the Dakar Rally. Until today when Toby Price became the first to win it for his country. He is one of these guys who makes it look so easy, like he's just cruising when in reality his pace is very quick. And he young so I expect this is just the beginning in a long career of victory sin world rally forPrice.

In the car class Mr. Dakar, Stephane Peterhansel got his 6th win in the car class. I'm not sure how many total that is but he won a bunch in the moto class too. This is a first win for Peugoet since they left the Dakar scene in the mid 90's.