Pisco > Lima

Route

January 15th: The last stage of the 2012 Dakar! A bit of a liaison section before the 29km ride to the finish line, and then a podium ceremony (for all competitors) in Lima itself.

Magazine:

Etienne Lavigne, the man in charge.

Stage 14 Summary:

Videos by ASO.

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Ullavalseter (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +1m08s
3. Svitko (KTM) +1m43s
4. Farres Guell (KTM) +2m01s
5. Botturi  (KTM) +2m11s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +53m20s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h11m17s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h40m56s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h47m28s
6. Ullevalseter (KTM) +2h11m56s
7. Farres Guell (KTM) +2h14m22s
8. Botturi (KTM) +2h59m04s
9. Pain (Yamaha) +3h17m50s
10. Zanol (KTM) +3h25m56s

It turned into a domination by KTM, yet the Yamahas and Husqvarnas were setting good stage times all the way through – reliablility seemed to let them down.

Overall – Quads

1. A. Patronelli (Yamaha)
2. M. Patronelli (Yamaha) +1h20m17s
3. Maffei (Yamaha) +2h14m21s
4. Casale (Yamaha) +6h09m23s
5. La Fuente (Yamaha) +8h19m06s

Not quite so close in this category as the Patronelli brothers have had it their own way for several stages, after Maffei hit trouble. What Yamaha may have lacked in bikes they made up for in quads!

Today – Cars

1. Gordon (Hummer)
2. Leal Dos Santos (MINI) +21s
3. Holowczyc (MINI) +38s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +1m28s
5. Sousa (Great Wall) +1m36s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +41m56s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h13m25s
4. Novitsky (MINI) 2h11m54s
5. Gordon (Hummer) +2h16m53s
6. Alvarez (Toyota) +4h05m52s
7. Sousa (Great Wall) +4h30m24s
8. Leal Dos Santos (MINI) +5h03m18s
9. Ten Brinke (Mitsubishi) +5h11m18s
10. Holowczyc (MINI) +6h59m38s

A fantastic effort from Peterhansel, in charge for much of the way and takes his 10th Dakar win! 6 of those on bikes. Roma is also a former bike winner and this is his best result in the cars, it comes after some under-the-radar solid stages in the first week. De Villiers put in a great effort in a brand new car conforming to next year’s rules (whatever they are).

Big gaps in the end, it just goes to show how difficult this year’s rally was right the way to the final stages. Sometimes the last few stages of a Dakar are fairly easy after the challenges in the middle.. not this time!
It is also a reflection of the lack of manufacturers entering at the moment, gone are the days of the works VWs and Mitsubishis fighting with several cars each. Privateer efforts are the order of the moment.

Overall – Trucks

1. De Rooy (Iveco)
2. Stacey (Iveco) +51m19s
3. Ardavichus (Kamaz) +1h47m45s
4. Karginov (Kamaz) +5h01m10s
5. Mardeev (Kamaz) +5h01m50s

Gerard de Rooy wins 25 years after his father Jan won the Dakar! Ex-WRC star Miki Biasion finishes 6th. 4th position is won by just 40 seconds.

In Closing

I hope you’ve enjoyed these updates and that they gave just a small flavour of the event. These videos are okay but they don’t do it justice, do seek out some of the 30 minute stage highights shows on YouTube – they are there. Alternatively you can always keep up with the official Dakar YouTube channel where they have uploaded everything I’ve posted here plus lots of extras including ‘Best of Bike‘ and ‘Best of Car’.

With every passing year I become more convinced that the Dakar should stay in South America, it seems a tougher challenge even than West Africa! Then the fan support is like nothing else, so many of them come out to watch.

Nasca >Pisco

Route

January 14th: The penultimate stage and the last day with any real competitive mileage. With only a celebratory 29km tomorrow the rally effectively finishes with today’s stage. The 245km special stage opens with dunes almost immediately, with more of them to follow later on.

Magazine (2min):

I think they’ve uploaded this out of sequence, this is a profile of yesterday’s stage 12.

Perhaps with good reason this stage was profiled, it turned out a lot people had got stuck in the dunes. Nani Roma lost some time but it was nothing compared to some. Check this video at the 22m17s mark (spoiler warning – the video pops up early for me, at the point it shows the stage 13 leaderboard, if you’ve not watched the s13 video yet either skip ahead or wait until later). Unbelievable to see many stuck in one place, everyone likes a challenge but perhaps this was a little too far!

Stage 13 Summary:

A final stage of pushing hard… with some mistakes.

Standings

Today – Bikes

Coma was doing well early on and was leading, before making a major navigational error ending up 2km off course. Sadly he was also struck with a gearbox problem. He lost 13 minutes on the stage, and another 45 minutes with a penalty for a second engine change.

1. Rodrigues (Yamaha)
2. Despres (KTM) +47s
3. Viladoms (KTM) +3m00s
4. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +5m13s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +5m46s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +56m03s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h11m27s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h41m12s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h49m36s

So a disappointing end to the bike rally especially as I’m a bit of a fan of Coma, he has a great attitude, but what a great fight to remember with a deserving winner, all the way from the start until today!

Today – Cars

Following his run-ins with the officials and his rivals protesting his vehicle, Gordon set out to dominate the MINIs today and for a while he succeeded – until his car rolled on to its side. It took half an hour to right it, which has basically cost him 4th overall.

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. De Villiers (Toyota) +8m29s
3. Novitsky (MINI) +12m55s
4. Sousa (Great Wall) +13m39s
5. Alvarez (Toyota) +14m57s

Great Wall get a top five! Roma lost 23 minutes after a stop. Gordon came in 10th, 36 minutes down.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +42m57s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h15m09s
4. Novitsky (MINI) 2h12m56s
5. Gordon (Hummer) +2h20m05s

Novitsky takes Gordon for 4th.

These tables should represent the final classifications, give or take a minute or two.

Arequipa > Nasca

Route

January 13th: ‘Robby Gordon likes Nasca‘ – Carlton Kirby, Eurosport. The rally reconverges as one after a long road section, before a special through the sand dunes. The stage had to start further along the course than planned due to flooding.

Magazine (2min):

Something comparing the rally raid MINI against a roadgoing version.

Stage 12 Summary:

Comeback kid.

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +2m43s
3. Viladoms (KTM) +3m10s
4. Despres (KTM) +3m57s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +5m25s

Overall – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Despres (KTM) +1m35s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h13m49s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h40m34s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h41m45s

Coma takes the lead! With just a couple of stages to go this bike rally could still go either way. Viladoms retakes his 4th place back from Svitko.

Today – Cars

1. Gordon (Hummer)
2. Novitsky (MINI) +15m18s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +22m06s
4. Ten Brinke (Mistubishi) +23m15s
5. Roma (MINI) +23m38s

Several of the MINIs got stuck in the sand for a while today. Peterhansel came home 7th at +26m27s. It was an impressive performance from Gordon to both miss the worst of the sand and also put in a fast drive, Novitsky didn’t get stuck but finished quarter of an hour behind.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +20m00s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h06m40s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +1h44m04s
5. Novitsky (MINI) 2h00m01s

This rally is still Peterhansel’s to lose, but if he does the impressive Roma is waiting to take over. De Villiers is doing well in a first-year programme car. Gordon not only got inside the 2-hour mark again but took another quarter of an hour. He’s out of time though, there are only two stages left – only one ‘real’ one.

Arica > Arequipa

Route

January 12th: The rally’s first ever day in Peru. Today is split into two stages separated by a road section, the quirk here is that the second section diverges with the bikes and quads doing extra mileage to their own bivouac, with no assistance vehicles allowed! The riders will have to rely on each other. The bikers were actually due to do more of their own stage mileage but were sent the car route after some dry river beds become a bit less dry.
The cars and trucks follow a similar route for much of the way before heading into the town of Arequipa for the night, where they’ll have access to the usual facilities.

Magazine (3min):

Cyril Despres tells us how to ride in the Dakar.. I can’t imagine doing that for 400km on dirt and sand.

Stage 11 Summary:

Navigational errors for the bikes, and problems too for Robby Gordon despite leading early on.

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Farres Guell (KTM) +1m39s
3. Coma (KTM) +2m01s
4. Aubert (KTM) +3m30s
5. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +4m53s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +2m22s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h08m40s
4. Svitko (KTM) +1h34m56s
5. Viladoms (KTM) +1h39m46s

Rodrigues and Viladoms took an engine change penalty of 15 minutes. Svitko is up to 4th but is the only one of the top 12 not to have incurred a penalty so far.

Today – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +3m44s
3. Leal Dos Santos (MINI) +8m56s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +9m28s
5. Novitsky (MINI) +10m15s

Robby Gordon lost 1h50m40s with technical problems which he stopped to try and fix.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +22m49s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h11m01s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +2h10m31s
5. Novitsky (MINI) 2h11m10s

Gordon’s loss promotes de Villiers to 3rd, but Robby was lucky not to drop further than 4th thanks to some big time gaps in the top five, but it goes to show that even with these gaps it is important to keep your vehicle running and get to the end. In 6th is Alvarez at +3h53m51s, these stages are really biting now.

The Motor Racing Game is a prediction competition involving WRC, F1, IndyCar, NASCAR Cup, WEC, DTM, MotoGP and the 24 Hours of Daytona. Pick up to ten drivers/riders per week and try to outdo the opposition. There are no prizes except for pride.

Head HERE to enter! Heed the early closing time which was forced by the Monte’s schedule.

If you miss it don’t worry, there’s a special limited-edition offer to pick up 99% of this week’s worst score if your first entry is for the next event, the 24 Hours of Daytona. New entries after that will be at a disadvantage.

I’ll post no further notices about the game on this site. Good luck, I hope you all return to play, new players are very much welcome, and I’ll see you over there!

Iquique > Arica

Route

January 11th: A loop to the South before heading back on the trail North. A variation of surfaces and a few dunes are the order of the day, before a road section to Arica near the Peruvian border.

Magazine (2min):

Stuck in the mud. Give us a tow.

Stage 10 Summary:

Drama for Gordon as the officials find an illegal part, but he’s allowed to continue under appeal as he says it is legal, he checked it with them beforehand and he’s run it on every Dakar he’s contested so far. A bigger disaster for Holowczyc – he lost 5 hours today!

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Barreda Bort (Husqvar)
2. Coma (KTM) +1m32s
3. Despres (KTM) +3m39s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +8m48s
5. Svitko (KTM) +9m44s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +21s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +45m56s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h18m52s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h24m38s

Coma pulled back 2 minutes today and is now just 21 seconds behind! Amazing considering the distance travelled each day: today’s stage took over 4 hours.

Today – Cars

1. Roma (MINI)
2. Peterhansel (MINI) +21s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +7m44s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +14m14s
5. Ten Brinke (Mitsubishi) +29m47s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +19m05s
3. Gordon (Hummer) +19m51s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h01m133s
5. Novitsky (MINI) 2h00m55s

Roma jumps Gordon for 2nd. Holoqczyc drops from 3rd to 13th, and he’s lucky so many others had dropped back or incurred penalties – if this had been a race with 2 or 3 official manufacturers he might’ve been much further down the list. This promotes Novitsky to 5th despite being two hours down, I think from the daily shows I’ve watched that he’s running as MINI’s ‘fast assistance vehicle’ so has to stop to help whenever the other MINI’s run into trouble.

Trucks: de Rooy’s lead is now an hour over his team mate Stacey.

Antofagasta > Iquique

Route

January 10th: The total stage mileage today is 556km but that includes a lengthy untimed neutral section as the stage is split into two parts. Again this day contains dirt, fesh fesh and rocky tracks. The second section features one of the highlights of the whole rally: a 3km, 32% incline descent – on sand – into the Pacific town of Iquique; Bolivia is not far away, and you may have seen this same descent on the ‘Top Gear Bolivian Special’!

Magazine (2min):

A look at the organisational side of the rally. What happens if something goes wrong?

Stage 9 Summary:

A mixed day for the Hummers.

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Rodrigues (Yamaha)
2. Despres (KTM) +3m16s
3. Svitko (KTM) +4m35s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +5m58s
5. Verhoeven (Sherco) +7m02s

Coma, Despres and several others took the option of a 15-minute time penalty for an engine change. David Casteu broke down with engine failure and lost several hours, entering this stage lying 4th overall he’s now out of contention.

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +2m28s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +44m19s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h13m432s
5. Farres Guell (KTM) +1h18m05s

Today – Cars

Nasser al-Attiyah is out with alternator belt problems, having stopped three times to fix it he gave up and went home. Robby Gordon was not pleased! Expected him to wait for assistance then continue. Nasser says he’ll be back next year.. but not in a Hummer. Gordon must’ve channelled his anger well, he was fastest.

1. Gordon (Hummer)
2. Peterhansel (MINI) +1m38s
3. Roma (MINI) +8m37s
4. Holowczyc (MINI) +10m39s
5. Leal Dos Santos (MINI) +15m23s

A horde of MINIs, but de Villiers wasn’t far behind them and neither was Carlos Sousa in the Great Wall – a Chinese manufacturer entering the Dakar for the first time I think.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Gordon (Hummer) +5m58s
3. Holowczyc (MINI) +16m49s
4. Roma (MINI) +19m26s
5. De Villiers (Toyota) +54m10s

Quads: 2nd overall entering today, Tomas Maffei lost 44 minutes today which means the Patronelli brothers sit first and second.

Trucks: Sad news as Ales Loprais exited the rally today after his truck rolled on to its roof. Both he and his co-drivers are okay apart from bruises, but as one of the top challengers to de Rooy it is a shame to see him go.

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!