Articles tagged with "Dakar Rally"
Dakar Rally canceled due to terrorist threats
January 5, 2008 For the first time in its 30-year history, the Dakar Rally has been canceled, the day before it was due to start, due to direct threats launched against the race by terrorist organizations based in the area. It appears the event may be moved to sub-Saharan Africa from 2009 onwards. We commiserate with race fans, organizers and the 550-odd competitors for many of whom this "Everest of off-road" event is a lifelong dream. (read more...)
Mitsubishi claims seventh successive Dakar Rally Victory
January 22, 2007 Given that Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart had won the last six Dakar Rallies, it was logical to expect the seventh consecutive victory which came about on Sunday with the top two placings on the podium, but that would not have paid the respect due to the fleet of VW 285-hp 2.5-litre TDI turbodiesel Race Touareg and the massive effort of the Volkswagen factory team. As it was, the Volkswagen team led the event for the first eight days and won ten of 14 possible stage victories, and but for one catastrophic day where the team’s two best placed drivers suffered valve-train failure, the results might have been different. The success was a record-breaking 12th win in the team's 25-year history of competing in the world's toughest and most famous off-road rally. The French crew of Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret won the event for the third time in four years in their Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution and beat their team mates and defending champions Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard by a margin of just seven minutes 26 seconds, after 15 days of bruising competition across Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal. (read more...)
KTM again dominates Dakar Rally for Motorcycles
January 22, 2007 The world’s most dangerous sporting event is always full of surprises and this year the Dakar Rally continued to write remarkable scripts for its competitors. There was some predictability in that two more competitors died this year - Elmer Symons and Eric Aubijoux – maintaining the average of two competitor deaths a year, with the spectator death toll indeterminate. There’s another given about the motorcycle section of the competition and that’s that KTM will win - the Austrian brand filled the first four spots and 23 of the first 30 finishers. The winner was Frenchman Cyril Despres (Gauloisses KTM) who finished more than half an hour in front of the field. Despres’ win was unexpected as 2005 winner and the dominant rider of the last year, Marc Coma, had led Despres by 52 minutes with just one timed stage remaining of the 8686 kilometre event, after leading the field since January 9. Sadly for Coma, he crashed and could take no further part in the event. Coma and Despres rode identical 72 bhp KTM 690 Rally machines, built specially for the event and competing for the first time. (read more...)
Mitsubishi moves to dominant position on last Mauritanian stage of Dakar Rally
January 9, 2006 As the Dakar Rally moved into its second half today, the Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Team continued to tighten its grip on a sixth successive victory in the 28th Dakar Rally, as overnight leaders Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret extended their overall lead in the daunting 599 kms special stage between Nouakchott and Kiffa in Mauritania. As the Volkswagen Touareg challenge faded, Mitsubishi teams now hold first, second and fourth in the car section. (read more...)
Dakar Rally Day 5: KTM versus KTM
January 5, 2006 KTM’s dominance in the motorcycle section of the Dakar Rally continued yesterday with the fierce competition in the class now focussed between the Gauloises (second, third, fifth) and Repsol (first, fourth, sixth) sponsored KTM teams and a monumental battle between the teams’ lead riders, Cyril Despres (Gauloises KTM) and Marc Coma (Repsol KTM). Yesterday Despres carved 3 minutes and 41 seconds from Coma’s lead during an 800 km stage down the Adraa Valley in Southern Morocco, but Coma still leads the rally by one minute 25 seconds. KTMs fill 13 of the first 14 places on the leaderboard with one third of the rally distance covered, with only the two-wheel-drive Yamaha of David Fretigne (seventh) preventing a complete whitewash of the results. (read more...)
Dakar Rally (Day 4): VW takes the lead
January 4, 2006 The Dakar Rally, from Lisbon to Dakar (Senegal), began on Saturday 31 December 2005 with a 370 kilometre stage from Lisbon to Portimao, followed on New Year’s Day with a further 567 kilometres to Malaga, Then followed a seven hour ferry crossing to Morocco for the entire rally contingent before racing got underway in Africa. There have been no surprises to date with Mitsubishi (questing for its sixth consecutive win) and the massive Volkswagen factory Touareg effort alternately holding the lead. In the bikes, the winning marque is already a foregone conclusion with KTM machinery holding the first six places. Yesterday Volkswagen hit back strongly with multiple WRC champion Carlos Sainz skipping out to a five minute lead and Volkswagen taking the first three places overall. Last year our extensive coverage of the Dakar Rally dubbed it the “Most Dangerous Sporting Event in the World” and compared it with the famous road races of 100 years ago. This year our coverage will be written separately for motorcycles and cars. (read more...)
