Copiapo > Antofagasta

Route

After two days in the Copiapo region including the Rest Day, it is time for the rally to press on, Northwards! Today we leave the dunes and return to the mud and rocks for a 477km special which at one point climbs to 3000m. This is the longest stage of the rally, but it is expected to be fast.

Magazine (3min):

At the halfway stage of the Dakar 2012, let’s look at what’s new to the rally. First a visit to the new opening city Mara del Plata in Argentina, before looking ahead to the Peruvian stages coming later in the week which are new to this year’s event.

Stage 8 Summary:

Trouble for Despres and Goncalves..

“Fesh Fesh” is my new favourite term just for how it sounds, but the racers hate it. Fine dusty sand which gets everywhere.

Standings

Today – Bikes

Sadly, Lopez withdrew before this stage due to a fall on stage 7.

After the first seven motorcycles went through and were getting stuck, the organisers modified the course and sent the others around the area. Because of this they have decided to modify the times of those first seven riders to give them back some of the time lost, however Despres still lost time to the rest.

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Ullevalseter (KTM) +1m55s
3. Faria (KTM) +7m00s
4. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +7m10s
5. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +8m44s

Overall – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Despres (KTM) +1m26s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +49m01s
4. Casteu (Yamaha) +1h09m52s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +1h12m11s

Coma to the lead! Goncalves also got stuck and drops a place to 5th, moving Casteu up to 4th.

Today – Cars

1. Roma (MINI)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +5s
3. Holowczyc (MINI) +2m04s
4. Peterhansel (MINI) +5m38s
5. Al-Attiyah (Hummer) +8m09s

Wow, a stage win by just 5 seconds!

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +7m36s
3. Holowczyc (MINI) +7m48s
4. Roma (MINI) +12m27s
5. De Villiers (Toyota) +37m45s

Gordon took 5 minutes from Peterhansel, he’s up to second place and closing in.

Copiapo > Copiapo

Route

Today’s stage is a 419km loop starting and finishing in Copiapo, running through the Atacama desert. It starts with a 154km road section before the competitors hit the soft sand of the desert, with a brief untimed neutralised section roughly halfway through before hitting the dunes.

Magazine (3min):

Tensions are rising for some! (Note – the sound mix is pretty bad here at times, the overly-dramatic music is louder than the guy talking).

Stage 7 Summary:

Incredible footage, some of those dunes are huge!

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Despres (KTM) +2m03s
3. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +2m49s
4. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +3m46s
5. Farres Guell (KTM) +6m50s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +7m48s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +49m39s
4. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +55m33s
5. Casteu (Yamaha) +1h05m38s

Coma took a couple of minutes out of the lead. Goncalves is up a position and Casteu enters the top five with Lopez having dropped to 9th.

Today – Cars

1. Al-Attiyah (Hummer)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +7m30s
3. Peterhansel (MINI) +7m3s
4. Holowczyc (MINI) +14m572s
5. Roma (MINI) +15m191s

A 1-2 for the Hummers, and Al-Attiyah was on a real charge! A stage win by over seven minutes.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Holowczyc (MINI) +11m22s
3. Gordon (Hummer) +13m09s
4. Roma (MINI) +18m05s
5. De Villiers (Toyota) +34m07s

Peterhansel put 6 minutes on Holowczyc today, more than doubling his lead. Gordon gained a small amount of time to the rally leader and moved up to 3rd. Al-Attiyah lies 6th at +42m54s.

In the meantime, the quads are led by Alejandro Patronelli by about an hour, his brother is 3rd sandwiching Maffei.
The trucks are led by De Rooy’s Iveco, who is ahead of the Tatra of Loprais by 17 minutes with De Rooy’s teammate Stacey in 3rd before a trio of Kamaz machines.

The following day was Sunday January 8th, the Rest Day. The rally stays in the Copiaco bivouac to allow everyone to recover from the opening week’s exertions (and to allow late arrivals stuck in the sand on Stage 6 a chance to get in) before hitting the challenges of the rest of Chile and the new stages of Peru. I’ll jump straight into Monday’s Stage 8 with my next post.

The last two season have seen this blog host the ‘Too Much Racing Game’, a.k.a. ‘TMR Game’, a prediction competition in which players weekly choose up to ten drivers from a variety of major series. Players are awarded points based on finishing positions of their picks and by the last major race of the season, the player with the most points wins. The game was based on The Speedgeek’s own All-Racing Fantasy League, a private league run via email.

The TMR Game will not be continuing on this blog this season, just I said at the end of last season I’d like to use my energies writing more frequently and working on another project I have in mind. Thankfully the game will be back in 2012, at a new home!

Sebastian has generously volunteered to run what is now ‘The Motor Racing Game‘ and it now has a dedicated site: http://themotorracinggame.wordpress.com/

You think you know racing? Sebastian has a 100% record after winning both competitions held so far. Head over to the new site from Sunday if you think you can challenge him!

The rules are the same, the format is the same, there are just a few minor alterations but nothing more than the changes between 2010 and 2011.

The best part? The WRC is back! That means the game restarts THIS WEEKEND in order to accept entries for the Monte-Carlo Rally!

And don’t worry if you miss the Tuesday night deadline enforced by the Monte-Carlo schedule, there’s a one-time opportunity to join in time for the Rolex 24 at Daytona without losing points to the competition.

I really do hope that the game attracts both new and existing players and continues to grow, so if you think you know racing or you’d like a great way to learn about series you don’t follow right now, take yourself along to the TMRG site and join in!

Thanks again to Sebastian for his help over the last two years and stepping in now, to Andy for allowing me to rip off his game, and to all of the players who have entered. It’s been fun! It’s also been a bit tiring to run and I really am looking forward to enjoying this game as a player!

Fiambala > Copiapo

Route

Today the rally was supposed to have left Argentina, crossed the Andes mountains by road and then contested a short 247km special just over the Chilean border. However, the weather got the better of the ASO who were forced to cancel the crossing because the advance organisation vehicles (who precede the main event) were unable to cross the mountains the previous day. As a result the special stage was not contested and the competitors crossed the mountain in convoy.

Magazine (2min):

Why do the Dutch love Dakar trucks?

Stage 6 Summary:

No stage = no summary!

Standings

No change since yesterday.

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +9m51s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +47m56s
4. Lopez (Aprilia) +49m00s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +54m47s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Holowcyc (MINI) +4m18s
3. Roma (MINI) +10m39s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +13m32s
5. De Villiers (Toyota) +21m01s

Chilecito > Fiambala

Route

The stage was split in two completely different challenges as the rally reaches the foothills of the Andes, with bikes and quads tackling 265km of sand dunes, dirt and a long section of rocky tracks, whilst the cars and trucks drove not only a different route but in a different direction on a 177km stage of sand dunes and dirt tracks. I have no idea why the bikers always get a harder time of it!

Magazine (2min):

The heat of the desert is a real challenge for everyone, it is important to stay hydrated.

Stage 5 Summary (3min):

The video gives different distance figures to the map I described above, so perhaps the stages were amended. Difficulties today for al-Attiyah.

Videos from the official Dakar YouTube channel / ASO.

Standings

Don’t read this until you’ve seen the videos.

Today – Bikes

Despres and Coma have made this their own battle, nobody else is even close. If you watched the profile of Mattheiu Lagrive the other day, I’m sorry to say he withdrew from the rally in this stage.

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +1m41s
3. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +12m42s
4. Svitko (KTM) +13m55s
5. Viladoms (KTM) +14m17s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +9m51s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +47m56s
4. Lopez (Aprilia) +49m00s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +54m47s

Today – Cars

Orlando Terranova (Toyota) who’d occasionally set top five stage times, was forced to withdraw today because of a huge argument with his co-driver, who refused to work with him any more! Apparently Terranova was running so close to the bikes he was almost knocking them over, and as a rider in other competitions his co-driver Grider didn’t take well to that. Just goes to show it isn’t just the terrain, temperature and dust that you have to deal with, it is temperament as well.

1. Holowcyc (MINI)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +1m01s
3. Peterhansel (MINI) +3m52s
4. Roma (MINI) +7m47s
5. Novitsky (MINI) +8m18s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Holowcyc (MINI) +4m18s
3. Roma (MINI) +10m39s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +13m32s
5. De Villiers (Toyota) +21m01s

Holowcyc up to 2nd, Gordon up a spot and De Villiers drops 3 places.

Finally, one of the top competitors in the trucks class, Nikolaev in the Kamaz, hoping to do well after the top two Kamaz drivers didn’t enter this year, was disqualified I believe either due to hitting a car competitor or for unsportsmanlike conduct.

San Juan >Chilecito

Route

The first 100km of the special stage sees competitors climb from 1000m to over 3000m in altitude, before descending back down again on this 326km stage. And this coming after an equally long road section in the morning. The special’s terrain is much the same as yesterday, mud, stones, and the occasional river crossing.

Magazine (2min):

There’s an electric car on the Dakar this year..

Stage 4 Summary (3min30s):

The only thing missing from the video updates is interviews with the main players, you don’t get to see the personalities, and personalities are half of what makes sport so interesting. The official channel has the stage winner but that’s it. I’m sure there are other videos around online if you want to take a look.

Videos from the official Dakar YouTube channel / ASO.

Standings

Don’t read this until you’ve seen the videos.

Today – Bikes

Marc Coma fastest again, after his error yesterday he recovered 2 minutes on Despres. This race is a battle between these two men.

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Despres (KTM) +2m02s
3. Verhoeven (Sherco) +8m26s
4. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +9m01s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +11m18s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +8m10s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +26m48s
4. Lopez (Aprilia) +29m50s
5. Casteu (Yamaha) +30m37s

Today – Cars

Trouble for the Hummers, the MINIs and Toyotas capitalise.

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Terranova (Toyota) +5m19s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +6m42s
4. Roma (MINI) +7m35s
5. Holowcyc (MINI) +10m51s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. De Villiers (Toyota) +5m41s
3. Roma (MINI) +6m44s
4. Holowcyc (MINI) +8m10s
5. Gordon (Hummer) +16m23s

The breakdown for Al-Attiyah forced teammate (and team boss) Gordon to stop, since their repairs truck was delayed and hadn’t yet caught the Dakar convoy. Their only saving grace was that this stage was tough for everybody, so Gordon still lies 5th. Peterhansel impressively moves from a 2m41s deficit to a 5m41s lead! De Villiers is also doing well in a Toyota which is still in the first year of development.

San Rafael > San Juan

Route

Nearly 300km of road driving opened the day before the competitors tackled the timed special stage: cars and trucks raced 208km but the bikes and quads took a different route over 270km including an extra summit to climb, a long day for them. The terrain on the SS for all vehicles was rocky mud tracks all the way.

Magazine (2min):

A profle of the French rider Matthieu Lagrive (#97 Yamaha), a Superbike racer who has made the transition to dirt biking for the Dakar.

Stage 3 Summary (3min):

And a navigation mistake from moto leader Marc Coma who followed the car route for a short while, such are the perils of being the opening rider. My favourite thing about these videos is the French pronunciation of ‘Hummer’ and ‘Robby Gordon’.

Videos from the official Dakar YouTube channel / ASO.

Standings

Don’t read this until you’ve seen the videos.

Today – Bikes

Big time gaps today, except for the 2s gap between 2nd and 3rd!

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Verhoeven (Sherco) +8m37s
3. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +8m39s
4. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +10m03s
5. Casteu (Yamaha) +11m42s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +10m12s
3. Casteu (Yamaha) +17m16s
4. Lopez (Aprilia) +17m37s
4. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +19m49s

Today – Cars

1. Roma (MINI)
2. Holowcyc (MINI) +1m09s
3. Al-Attiyah (Hummer) +1m29s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +1m33s
5. Gordon (Hummer) +2m08s

Overall – Cars

1. Holowcyc (MINI)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +54s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1m40s
4. Roma (MINI) +1m50s
5. Peterhansel (MINI) +2m41s

Big gaps among the bike contingent (and quads and trucks too), but the cars are very close together and the order is changing daily! Lots of drama still yet to unfold, the challenge in all classes is not just to beat the competition but to beat the rally.

Santa Rosa de la Pampa > San Rafael

Route

Over 200km of road section leads into a 290km special stage on dirt and rock tracks, with some dunes at the end.

Magazine (1min):

Some of the top entries in the car category.

Stage 2 Summary (3min):

The Hummers on a charge!

Videos from the official Dakar YouTube channel / ASO.

Standings

Don’t read this until you’ve seen the videos.

Today – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Despres (KTM) +1m18s
3. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +2m33s
4. Lopez (Aprilia) +2m44s
5. Przygonski (KTM) +4m17s

Overall – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Lopez (Aprilia) +2m30s
3. Despres (KTM) +2m52s
4. Przygonski (KTM) +4m52s
4. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +8m16s

Today – Cars

1. Al-Attiyah (Hummer)
2. Peterhansel (MINI) +54s
3. Gordon (Hummer) +2m42s
4. Holowcyc (MINI) +3m31s
5. Roma (MINI) +4m15s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +2m28s
3. Holowcyc (MINI) +2m33s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +3m49s
5. Roma (MINI) +5m32s

Only on stage 2 but the time gaps are starting to appear. This rally is about survival though, it can all change yet.

The organisers release ~3-minute highlight packages of each stage which are a great way to get a Dakar fix without a lot of commitment, so if you haven’t followed much of this year’s rally or want to relive it, do take a look. There are also short ‘magazine’ segments of about a minute. I’ll be posting videos here over the next week, all you have to do is come back here every day and watch no more than ten minutes of amazing footage. I wish I’d remembered these videos earlier rather than on the day the competitors contested Stage 10, so I’ll aim to post two stages per evening to catch up.

For those wanting more detail, there are 30-40 minute recap shows available on Eurosport (Europe), NBC Sports (USA), SBS (Australia), France Television (France) and other networks around the world. I watch those shows because they are good fun, but obviously it is a big commitment to ask everybody to do that for a fortnight. Do watch these shorter 3min videos for a taste of the action.

This year the rally travels from the Atlantic coast of Argentina to the Pacific coasts of Chile and Peru.

Again the rally is contested by different vehicles: bikes, quads, cars and trucks. My main interest lies with the cars (a fleet of (big) MINIs against Robby Gordon and Nasser al-Attiyah in Hummers, what a contrast!) and then the bikes (featuring an epic battle between Marc Coma and Cyril Despres), but the trucks and quads can be fun sometimes too. The videos should typically open with the bikes and then cover the cars.

Stage 1

Mara del Plata > Santa Rosa de la Pampa

Route

A short warm-up stage of just 57km to get things going, but with a long road section of 700km afterwards to get the competitors deep into Argentina.

Intro (1min):

Stage Summary (3min):

Sadly one of the characters of the Dakar was out on day one, Alfie Cox’s Volvo went up in flames.

Videos from the official Dakar YouTube channel / ASO.

Standings

Don’t read this until you’ve seen the videos – spoilers!

Bikes

1. Lopez (Aprilia)
2. Coma (KTM)
3. Pizzolito (Honda)
4. Cody (Honda)
5. Przygonski (KTM)

Cars

1. Novitskiy (MINI)
2. Holowcyc (MINI)
3. Peterhansel (MINI)
4. De Villiers (Toyota)
5. Gordon (Hummer)

Early days yet though.

IWTMR Motorsport Calendar for May 2012 (click for Large)

If you want to track some of your favourite series and events, just load your selection of racing categories into your calendar so that you can make plans to watch live or set the DVR – and hopefully never miss another race!

Please go to the Calendar page for futher details and updates.