NOW FOR THE LONGEST STAGE...
author: Leon Botha
It would have been easy to report back on the sixth stage of the 2010 Dakar - if it was round six in a boxing match rather than a rally.
The opening paragraph would have read something like this: "After being knocked out in the fifth round Stéphane Peterhansel jumped up in the cloak room and beat the hell out of everyone standing upright around him!
Carlos Sainz however ran through the cloak room and dished out two "klappe" and a kick and kept on going like a man possessed!" …or something to that effect?
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Crazy King Carlos or King King Carlos?
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He must be wary of Al-Attiyah or he stepped into something that affected his judgement? Last year he did exactly the same thing and then ran around trying to carry the Touareg and his navigator on his shoulders after a big off!
Stéphane Peterhansel won stage 6 of the Dakar after losing the lead and for that matter the rally in stage 5 on Wednesday.
What was surprising however was the ease maybe unnecessary so, that Carlos Sainz stayed with him? The Spaniard finished only 47 seconds behind the Frenchman who will now obviously do all he can to get as much publicity for BMW as possible.
I wonder if the performance of their cars will wake BMW's management up for 2011 or will they rather sponsor horseracing in Tibet and eat Bratfisch mit Kartoffelsalat allowing Volkswagen to play the lead guitar in one of, if not the biggest sport event in the world?
The event Thursday 7th January 2010
After crashing into a ravine Wednesday afternoon, South Africa’s Alfie Cox and Germany’s Jürgen Schröder suffered mechanical problems on their South African built Nissan Navara, but they did everything in their ability to soldier on to the overnight point. Getting towed by other competitors, a support truck giving assistance, etc. saw to it that they arrived at the overnight bivouac at close to midnight. This morning they were at the start ready to continue, but the damage caused by the crash was just too much and they were finally forced to retire. “Terribly disappointed,” was a devastated Cox’s only remark.
A whole lot of cars went down the embankment exactly where Cox and Schröder had their disastrous accident. Although a number of competitors were lucky to stop on the edge or just hanging over the edge, quite a few cars either had more damage or similar damage to that of the Navara pairing. One car stood on its nose in the ravine for 5 to 10 counts before it fell back against the embankment wall and later continued the stage.
“The technicians immediately started working and repaired whatever they were allowed to do in the engine, they did a magnificent job” said Alfie Cox afterwards.
“Disaster actually struck when our service truck blew a turbo on Tuesday, which meant that we started yesterday’s second longest special stage knowing that we did not have a race truck behind us if we needed them for support. What can one do, it left me nervous, but we continued as normal, driving very carefully and then we landed nose-down in the ravine. It is a total disappointment - we were going so well…” commented Cox.
“We are staying on until the rest day at least, assisting our team mate Holowczyc and any of the other Nissans that was built by Glyn Hall’s Team,” said Alfie Cox at tonight’s bivouac in Iquique.
Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel (BMW), who had started in 14th position this morning after his mechanical mishaps of yesterday, wins his 20th stage in the car category in a Dakar, his 53rd all categories included in a Dakar! This is a new record for the man who arrived today 47" ahead of Spain’s Carlos Sainz (VW), and 8’55 ahead of US driver Mark Miller (VW).
However, nothing to worry about for Volkswagen that still has three of its Race Touaregs at the top 3 positions in the overall standings with "El Matador" Sainz respectively 15’24 and 17’47 ahead of his two teammates Mark Miller and Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW)… "Peter" is now 2h04’02 behind the Dakar leader.
Small revolution however in the Open category where for the first time in this edition, it is not US driver Robby Gordon (Hummer) who wins but his teammate Robert Baldwin (Hummer), with a 15th time at scratch. Finally on the product car side, Japan’s Jun Mitsuhashi (Toyota) gets a second stage victory in this 32nd edition 4’07 ahead of his teammate and title holder Frenchman Nicolas Gibon (Toyota), who keeps the lead in the overall standings of the category.
Giniel de Villiers moved up into 16th position and the next three positions will be in his sights today when the competitors tackle the longest stage from Iquique tp Antofagasta in Chile.
The teams will hardly have time to warm up as they will only do 37km liaison before tackling the 600km stage and then they will only have 4kms in which to cool down!
The 600km stage has a number of climbs through mountain passes although the altitude does not vary a lot. The overnight point will mark the most northern point of this year’s event.
This stage takes the caravan back south to Antofagasta, where the teams will spend Saturday to repair and prepare their machines for the second half of the rally. There are sections of the stage that goes through crystallised salt lakes called "Salar" where speeds could be drop as slow as 10km/h. At the same time speeds in other areas will be in the vicinity of 160km/h. The rules determine that competitors are allowed to finish at 18:00 on the rest day (Saturday) and it is expected that some competitors may only arrive at the bivouac by then.
Once again - nothing is certain and tonight may turn out to be a very long night for many competitors?
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1
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303
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SAINZ (ESP)
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CRUZ (ESP)
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VOLKSWAGEN
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20:35:33
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00:00:00
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2
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306
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AL-ATTIYAH (QAT)
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GOTTSCHALK (DEU)
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VOLKSWAGEN
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20:50:57
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00:15:24
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3
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305
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MILLER (USA)
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PITCHFORD (ZAF)
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VOLKSWAGEN
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20:53:20
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00:17:47
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4
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314
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SOUSA (PRT)
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BAUMEL (FRA)
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MITSUBISHI
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22:09:37
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01:34:04
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5
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308
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HOLOWCZYC (POL)
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FORTIN (BEL)
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Nissan Overdrive
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22:19:13
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01:43:40
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6
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302
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GORDON (USA)
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GRIDER (USA)
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HUMMER
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22:23:58
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01:48:25
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7
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307
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CHICHERIT (FRA)
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THOERNER (CHE)
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BMW
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22:27:15
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01:51:42
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8
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301
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PETERHANSEL (FRA)
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COTTRET (FRA)
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BMW
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22:39:35
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02:04:02
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9
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322
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SPINELLI (BRA)
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PALMEIRO (PRT)
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MITSUBISHI
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22:47:51
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02:12:18
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10
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310
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NOVITSKIY (RUS)
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SCHULZ (DEU)
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BMW
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23:45:51
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03:10:18
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11
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332
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BARBOSA (PRT)
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RAMALHO (PRT)
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MITSUBISHI
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23:58:13
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03:22:40
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12
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313
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LAVIEILLE (FRA)
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FORTHOMME (BEL)
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NISSAN
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24:03:30
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03:27:57
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13
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325
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HENRARD (BEL)
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BEGUIN (BEL)
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VOLKSWAGEN
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24:10:55
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03:35:22
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14
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336
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LEAL DOS SANTOS (PRT)
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FIUZA (PRT)
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BMW
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24:16:50
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03:41:17
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15
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323
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ERRANDONEA (AND)
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GARCIN (FRA)
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SMG
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24:27:13
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03:51:40
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16
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300
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DE VILLIERS (ZAF)
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VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU)
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VOLKSWAGEN
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24:50:05
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04:14:32
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17
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318
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MISSLIN (FRA)
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POLATO (FRA)
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MITSUBISHI
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25:01:33
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04:26:00
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18
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317
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VAN DEIJNE (NLD)
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ROSEGAAR (NLD)
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MITSUBISHI
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25:12:30
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04:36:57
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19
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311
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TERRANOVA (ARG)
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MAIMON (FRA)
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MITSUBISHI
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25:12:56
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04:37:23
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20
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338
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GIBON (FRA)
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MIURA (JPN)
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TOYOTA
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27:31:58
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06:56:25
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