Dakar 2014

[pearcey]

Here is a small video of Robbie Gordon in his Hummer,


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAwp...e_gdata_player

Gordon can be very quick but this year reliability has been his down fall.
By the way it`s only a Hummer by name abit like every thing else in the open class

[pearcey]

Stage 10
700Ks of fast dirt tracks with some spectacular sand dunes thrown in to sort the men out from the boys.
The battle in the bike section is warming up with just 45mins separating Coma (KTM ) and Barredabort (Honda)
Getting bogged or poor navigation can soon take away any advantage. Also time penalties IE engine change (15mins)
speeding through transport stages (15mins) can hurt real bad
In the cars it`s a bit tighter with Roma leading Peterhansal by 2mins with a hard charging Al-attiyah 45mins back. All are driving MINI`s
Quads Casal and Lafvente being only 24 mins apart both on Yamahas
Trucks well we have a top battle going on here as well with Deroy (Iveco) and Karginov (Kamaz) separated by 7 mins
All the Aussies who are still in the avent are performing strongly a should be there at the finish
Spare a thought for Aussie Chris Watman who is in the truck section as his Tatra truck is 207 hours behind the leader which means that they have been having a few problems. They probably only get 2 to3 hours sleep between stages.Hope they can make it to the finish.
Today we lost Carlos Sainz when he was injured in a big crash in a transport stage. He may have broken a front suspension component as he broke 1 a couple of stages back

[pearcey]

Stage 11
605ks of specials Despite a fall at the beginning of the stage, Marc Coma again demonstrated his status as boss of the Dakar 2014, by picking up his 3rd victory of the year on one of the longest specials of this 36th edition, further reinforcing his position at the top of the general standings. In the car race, the day was marked by the revelation of team instructions by Mini, freezing the leading positions. As a result, Peterhansel eased off the gass, just like Nani Roma and Nasser Al-Attiyah, allowing Orlando Terranova to pick up his first victory on the Dakar 2014. The eleventh stage also witnessed a turning point in the truck race. Taking advantage of terrain that was again favourable to his Kamaz, Andrey Karginov scored his 4th victory in 2014, and 9th on the Dakar, 14'18'' ahead of his team-mate Eduard Nikolaev, but more importantly 15'51'' in front of Gerard De Rooy, a gap which is sufficient to remove the Dutchman from the top of the general standings where he had been since stage 2. Now just 2 stages from Valparaiso, De Rooy trails Karginov by 7'56''.
I myself am very disappointed in the team orders as there is still a great deal of racing to go and any thing can happen
All the Aussie guys are still there and fighting hard

[BigRAWesty]

Yea again thanks. But 530 is such a pain..
Wish they did it on the net,.

[pearcey]

Yea again thanks. But 530 is such a pain..
Wish they did it on the net,.

Blxxdy hell Kallen get your boss to put in an 80inch LCD
There is quite a lot on u tube which is not bad.

[pearcey]

Stage 12
Still all the Aussies are there now all they have to do is finish, Best of luck guys. On the last major sandy special on the Dakar 2014, Cyril Despres once again dominated and picked up his second special stage victory of the year, ahead of Marc Coma. The leader of the general standings is still in full control and all the more comfortable since his closest pursuer Joan Barreda experienced serious mechanical problems. In the car race, following yesterday's team orders, the day witnessed a shift in power between Roma and Peterhansel! At the finishing line, ‘Peter' was the day's winner and took command in the general standings… by just 26 seconds!
Finally, in the truck race, though the special saw a surge of pride from Gerard De Rooy provide him with a third stage triumph in 2014, his 27th on the Dakar, it was Andrey Karginov, second to finish, 31'' behind the Dutchman, who retains the lead in the general standings, 7'25'' ahead of De Rooy. Third to finish and still third in the general standings, title holder Eduard Nikolaev now lies 1:38'38'' behind the rally leader.

[pearcey]

Stage 13 the last stage for 2014 The toughest Dakar held in South America, with just 204 vehicles (78 motorcycles, 15 quads, 61 cars and 50 trucks, or 47% of those that started) making it to the finish, was dyed in the red and yellow colours of Catalonia. With Marc Coma and Jordi Viladoms taking the top two places in the motorcycle category and Nani Roma winning in a car race ten years to the day after doing so on a motorcycle, the Catalan contingent blew the competition away in the 2014 edition. Behind the two KTM riders, Frenchman Olivier Pain rounded off the podium after fending off the late attacks of his leader, Cyril Despres. In the car category, Nani Roma topped the Mini 1-2-3 with a narrow 5′38″ margin over Peterhansel, becoming the third competitor to win in a car after triumphing on a motorcycle. 26-year-old Ignacio Casale also put his name on the prestigious list of winners, as the young quad rider took a home win that will surely earn him a thunderous ovation on the podium in Valparaíso. In the truck category, Russian Andrey Karginov held on to his lead over Gerard de Rooy by a hair's breadth
The 3 Aussie riders who completed the course were O`connor in 37th place overall, Diener 38th overall and Roberts 38th overall. Roberts finished 7th in the Marathon class.
In the trucks Watman who was in the truck entered by Kasak came 43rd overall but they came 2nd in class 3. This class is for trucks giving assistance to a team or individual in other classes
Well done to all who competed and also the organizers for putting on one of the best races on the planet.

[BigRAWesty]

Not a bad outcome.
47% finish. That is tough..

[pearcey]

Not a bad outcome.
47% finish. That is tough..

Well Kallen it`s 1400 euro to enter which does not include your traveling expenses fuel visa charges etc then if you have a service vehicle you could double or even triple your expenses. It`s not cheap but then no motor sport is
This year was a close fort battle in the cars , bikes and especially the trucks
Bring on next year