The waiting is over

• All the preparations in Buenos Aires completed 
• The 2016 Dakar will be kicked off with a prologue 

Just a few more hours until the 12 MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles will roll over the start podium in Buenos Aires. X-raid has completed all the on-site preparations and is ready to tackle the 16 stages across Argentina and Bolivia.

On Saturday, the Dakar schedule features a prologue contested outside of Buenos Aires and the day after tomorrow, the first stage will take the field to Villa Carlos Paz. On the past four days, the Trebur based team worked extremely hard. The last part of the preparations began on 29th December when the team collected the racing and service cars in the harbour. In late November, the team had brought the entire baggage to Le Havre and from there, they were shipped to South America.

 To find out if all the MINI ALL4 Racing cars had survived the shipping unharmed and to conduct the final checks, two shakedowns were executed on 30th and 31st December. At an area located about an hour from Buenos Aires, the drivers covered the final kilometres prior to the start. “In a shakedown it’s not about testing the car,” revealed Nani Roma. “After a few kilometres we know if everything is fine with our MINI ALL4 Racing - and that’s it.”

 On first January, crews and mechanics couldn’t sleep late although it was New Year. After all, the MINI ALL4 racing vehicles as well as the drivers and co-drivers had to come to the Technopolis for the administrative checks and the scrutineering. During the scrutineering it was controlled if the racing cars met the technical regulations. Afterwards. the 12 MINI ALL4 Racing Armada was taken to the parc fermé where working on the cars is absolutely prohibited. Only tomorrow morning, the crews may get back to their cars. In addition, drivers and co-drivers also had to pass the administrative checks and submit all the necessary documents.

“We finally get started. The past days were busy but the tension kept on increasing all the time,” said X-raid team manager Sven Quandt. “When the rally is running, we virtually are getting in a kind of routine. Everybody knows their tasks. We are prepared as well as possible.”

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SPANIARD PONS PUSHES HIS FORD RANGER INTO AN IMPRESSIVE THIRD POSITION ON OPENING DAKAR RALLY PROLOGUE

Chile’s Daniel Mas Valdes finishes opening Prologue in unofficial 45th place 

Spanish driver Xavier ‘Xevi’ Pons was in impressive form to snatch the third fastest time through the opening 11km Prologue that determined the starting order for the first special stage of the 2016 Dakar Rally on a demanding track, north of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, on Saturday afternoon. 

Driving a Ford Ranger, run under a joint venture between DMAS South Racing and Esponsorama, the Spaniard and his Argentine navigator Ricardo Torlaschi belied their lack of Dakar experience together to move into an excellent starting position for the first competitive special stage between Rosario and Vila Carlos Paz on Sunday. They recorded a time of 6min 12sec for the tricky competitive section.

 The Prologue was followed by a short road liaison of 164km that took crews to the first overnight halt in the city of Rosario before the first of the 12 special stages starts on Sunday. Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke set the fastest time of 6min 08sec and that gave him a three-second advantage over double FIA World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz.

 Three-hundred and forty-seven entrants from no less from 60 different countries - comprising 136 motorcycles, 45 quads, 111 cars and 55 trucks - had crossed the start podium in front of millions of fans in Buenos Aires earlier in the afternoon for an event that finishes back in Rosario on January 16th.

 Chilean Daniel Mas Valdes drives the second Ford Ranger run by DMAS South Racing. He and navigator Juan Pablo Latrach completed the Prologue stage in an unofficial 45th place after the first 56 cars had crossed the finish line.

  “This was a superb start for Xavier and Ricardo,” said South Racing’s team director Scott Abraham. “There is never anything to be gained by taking risks on a Prologue stage, but third has given the crew a superb starting position and untold confidence for the forthcoming days.”

Support for Pons’s Dakar challenge comes from Air Europa, Fundación Incorpora Deportistas Solidarios, Avintia Grupo, Power Electronics, KP Sport, Galfer, Jjuan Faura, King Regal, Las Rozas Cuidad Europea del Deporte 2016 and the Palladium Hotel Group.

 South Racing also has support from Rudy Project, OMP, TW Steel, Gold Nutrition, Michelin, MotoGP Argentina, Argentina Tourism and Ecomac.

 Tomorrow (Sunday) is the first of the proper Dakar specials and the day features a special stage of 258km and liaison sections of 404km between the bivouac in Rosario and the famous WRC rally town of Vila Carlos Paz in the Córdoba Province.

The special features many tracks and trails that are ideally suited to competitors with a WRC-type background and will provide Pons with a perfect special on which to settle into the pace and the competitiveness of the Dakar.

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The calm before the storm. The 2016 Dakar Rally heads out tomorrow

Team HRC made the most of a day off in Buenos Aires today after a busy couple of days of final preparations which culminated with the entry of the vehicles into the parc ferme.

 The five Team HRC riders spent New Year’s Day relaxing before taking up the great challenge tomorrow that is the 2016 Dakar Rally. There was nothing on the agenda bar the preparation of the first stages which are expected to be complicated due to the presence of rain in and around the city of Buenos Aires. Likewise, storms are expected over the early stages, especially in the opener from Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz. Changes in the race route look increasingly likely too.

 Tomorrow, 2nd January, sees the curtain raising event set off from the Buenos Aires’ Tecnopolis complex. The starting order will be a reversal of the rider’s numbers, meaning that last year’s runner up, Team HRC’s Paulo Gonçalves from Portugal, will be the last rider to take the starting line. It is expected that by 17:00, local time, all the participants in the bike category should have completed the prologue in the Arrecifes area to the north of the Argentine capital. The prologue will dictate the starting positions for the first full stage of the Dakar 2016 and will establish the race’s first leader. 

TOMORROW’ STAGE 2016
January 2.
Prologue: Buenos Aires – Rosario
Special section: 11 km
Total: 346 km

 THE FIFTEEN MINUTE WARM-UP

The competitors are timed over a distance which is long enough to separate them into a logical starting order for the next day, but not really long enough to talk about a first day of competition. The mini-special section and the liaison section to the light bivouac of Rosario should not cause any damage… unless drivers are really unlucky and/or reckless!

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OVERDRIVE RACING AND TOYOTA GAZOO RACING SOUTH AFRICA MAKE FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR EIGHT-CAR DAKAR CHALLENGE

· Vasilyev, Ten Brinke, Chabot, Dabrowski and Prokop in new Overdrive Hiluxes 

· De Villiers, Al-Rajhi and Poulter crew Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa cars 

· Dakar Rally starts with timed Prologue in Buenos Aires on January 2nd 

Overdrive Racing and Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa have seen all eight of their new Toyota Hiluxes safely pass through the technical and administration checks for the 2016 Dakar Rally at the Technopolis in Buenos Aires. The team is making its final preparations for the ceremonial start and the 11km Prologue stage in the Argentinean capital, tomorrow (January 2nd).

 Months of meticulous planning and intricate preparations will be put to the test when the eight cars begin the punishing 12-stage rally that crosses some of the remotest terrain in Argentina and Bolivia and offers 4,803km of competition in a route of 9,583km before the finish in Rosario on January 16th.

 Former Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers and Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi head the Toyota Hilux octet in their Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa cars. De Villiers has finished second and third overall with the Japanese marque in the past and has a superb chance to reach the top step of the podium on this occasion with the eight Toyotas now all equipped with the latest fully independent suspension.

 Al-Rajhi held a podium position until the 11th stage in 2015 and is also confident that he can reach the top three in Rosario with German navigator Timo Gottschalk. “I am really happy to be a part of the official Toyota team,” said the Saudi. “This will help me reach the highest level. We have worked on the development of the Toyota to improve still further and the Rally of Morocco was a great chance to get used to the car.”

 The former FIA World Cup champion, Vladimir Vasilyev, and navigator Konstantin Zhiltsov crew the third Hilux, run by Overdrive Racing under the G-Energy Team banner. Vasilyev finished fifth in 2015 and followed that performance with victory in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and second place in Qatar’s Sealine Rally and the Pharoahs Rally in Egypt on his way to second place in the FIA World Cup.

 Talented Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke and his Belgian navigator Tom Colsoul crew the fourth of the Toyotas. The pair achieved some useful performances in the FIA World Cup and Ten Brinke is confident that he can improve on the seventh overall he earned at the Dakar with Overdrive Racing in 2015.

 The French duo of Ronan Chabot and Gilles Pillot crew Toyota number five on the capacity entry list. Chabot first took part in the Dakar in 2003 and has finished his last five rallies in South America in 13th, 12th, seventh, 18th and 10th overall.

 South Africans, Leeroy Poulter and Robert Howie, drive the third of the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Toyotas and the sixth of the Hiluxes at the top of the starting list. Poulter finished 16th last time out and set some impressive stage times, including the second fastest time on the final stage. He is relishing the event in the new Toyota where he thinks the omission of stages in Peru gives the petrol-engined Hilux a slight advantage.

 The seventh of the Toyota Hiluxes is crewed by the Polish former enduro-riding duo of Marek Dabrowski and Jacek Czachor with backing from Orlen. Since switching from a career on two-wheels, Dabrowski finished seventh and 23rd at the Dakar in a Toyota and is confident that he can reach the top five on this occasion.

 Dabrowski said: “In 2015, we competed in nine rounds of the FIA World Cup in the new version of the Toyota and we did as many kilometres as possible. We’ll need to find a good tempo and avoid mistakes. So much can happen in the car race. Our lives changed when we started our first Dakar. It’s now going to be my 16th and I want to do well.”

 Czech WRC star Martin Prokop makes his Dakar debut with Overdrive Racing and co-driver Jan Tomanek in the eighth Toyota Hilux. A regular on rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship, Prokop will feel quite at home on the WRC-type stages around Vila Carlos Paz, but will find the tricky dunes around Fiambálá an altogether different proposition.

  “To start the Dakar has always been my dream,” said Prokop. “Jean-Marc Fortin, the team director of Overdrive Racing, asked me if I wanted to test the new Toyota Hilux and it went well and I was then invited to do the Dakar. It’s a new challenge. After the Catalunya WRC Rally, I began to prepare with a lot of driving in the dunes in Dubai. I know I don’t have too much experience and I need to learn how the car behaves and how I will adapt to long stages in extreme conditions.”

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SPANISH FORMER WRC STAR XAVIER ‘XEVI’ PONS RELISHES START OF HIS FIRST DAKAR RALLY IN ARGENTINA ON SATURDAY

- Pons’s Ford Ranger to be run by DMAS South Racing and Esponsorama 

- Second DMAS South Racing Ford Ranger for Chilean Daniel Mas Valdes 

Spanish driver Xavier ‘Xevi’ Pons has safely passed technical and administration checks at the Tecnopolis exhibition centre in Buenos Aires and is making his final preparations for the start of his first Dakar Rally, tomorrow (Saturday).

 The 35-year-old former WRC star is driving a Ford Ranger run through a joint project between DMAS South Racing and Esponsorama. A second Ford will also be run by DMAS South Racing for the Chilean driver Daniel Mas Valdes and his navigator Juan Pablo Latrach.

  “I cannot wait for the start tomorrow of not only the race but a new chapter in my racing career,” enthused Pons. “The Dakar has been a dream of mine. The Ford Ranger is ready to go and the team has worked tirelessly in the months leading up to the event.” 

Pons will benefit from test and development work that has been carried out by South Racing and its Chilean partner DMAS Competicion this season. His Argentinean navigator Ricardo Torlaschi is also looking forward to the challenge of bringing the Ford to the finish of the punishing 12-stage rally in the city of Rosario on January 16th.

  “It is great, once again, to be racing the Dakar and to be sitting next to Xevi, who has so much international experience. It is a great opportunity and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead.” 

Mas Valdes, who finished fifth overall at this year’s Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina and eighth in Portugal’s Baja Portalegre 500, took part in the 2013 Dakar as a navigator for Macarena Pizzaro and finished 55th. He is relishing his opportunity to challenge for honours with South Racing as a driver. 

Co-driver Latrach, on the other hand, has taken part in the Dakar on three previous occasions. The Chilean said: “We have enjoyed a great year and to be at the Dakar is the culmination of all the hard work that DMAS South Racing has put in this season. The Dakar is a long race and anything can happen.” 

South Racing was founded in 2013 and has gained considerable experience of cross-country rallies across the globe in that time. “Our team is ready and we have a great line-up,” said South Racing’s director Scott Abraham.

  “I think Xevi will surprise some people, but we are realistic and the team’s goal is to have a solid result and to bring the Ford and our other cars to the finish in Rosario in the best possible positions. Out team have worked hard for the entire season developing and racing the NWM-constructed Ford Ranger with great results. We hope to carry that momentum into the Dakar over the next two weeks.”

 Support for Pons’s Dakar challenge comes from Air Europa, Fundación Incorpora Deportistas Solidarios and Avintia Grupo. South Racing also has support from Rudy Project, OMP, TW Steel, Gold Nutrition, Michelin, MotoGP Argentina, Argentina Tourism and Ecomac.

 The Dakar Rally starts in Buenos Aires tomorrow (Saturday) with the ceremonial send-off in front of millions of fans and a global television audience. Then a capacity entry of cars, bikes and quads tackles an 11km Prologue stage that will determine the starting order for the first 258km stage between Rosario and the town of Vila Carlos Paz on Sunday.

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Embraiagem atrasa Ricardo Leal dos Santos

Equipa conseguiu terminar, evitou penalização mas perdeu 4 horas 

A participação de Ricardo Leal dos Santos no Africa Eco Race está a ser marcada por inúmeras contrariedades e a quarta etapa, hoje disputada, foi um verdadeiro calvário para a dupla luso-brasileira da equipa BAMP.

 Os 409 quilómetros cronometrados da etapa que ligou Assa a Remz el Quebir, disputados num percurso feito essencialmente em pista e que tinham todos os condimentos para o piloto levar a sua Nissan Navara V8 a lutar pelo triunfo, acabaram por ser percorridos a um ritmo muito lento, com inúmeras paragens e gastando quase o dobro do tempo da equipa vencedora, fruto de uma avaria que ocorreu ainda na fase inicial da etapa.

  “Começámos a etapa num ritmo muito forte. Já estávamos a ganhar bastante tempo aos carros que partiram à nossa frente quando fomos travados por um problema na embraiagem que não mais nos permitiu imprimir um andamento normal. Tentámos resolver o problema mas não havia nada a fazer e a partir daí foi apenas tentar perder o menos tempo possível e lutar por conseguir chegar ao final do troço sem penalizar”, salientou à chegada ao bivouac Ricardo Leal dos Santos.

 O vencedor do dia foi o Buggy do francês Jean Antoine Sabatier, vencedor do Africa Eco Race em 2015, mas no comando da corrida está agora o Kamaz do russo Anton Shibalov, que tem uma vantagem de 17m03s para o cazaque Kanat Shagirov, em Toyota.

 Amanhã, entre Remz el Quebir e Dakhla disputa-se a quinta etapa do Africa Race que compreende um setor seletivo de 453 quilómetros cronometrados, que se inicia logo à saída do bivouac. Em Dakhla a caravana do Africa Eco Race irá gozar um merecido dia de descanso antes da passagem para a Mauritânia.

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Elisabete Jacinto foi 2ª na etapa e entra no pódio dos camiões

A piloto Elisabete Jacinto conquistou hoje no final da quarta etapa do Africa Race, que ligou Assa a As Skan, o segundo lugar da categoria T4 e o oitavo piloto mais rápido da classificação conjunta auto camião. A equipa OLEOBAN® cumpriu de forma exemplar a especial com 378,93 quilómetros cronometrados conseguindo ultrapassar com sucesso todos os obstáculos do setor seletivo. Neste momento, e após terem sido disputadas quatro etapas desta grande maratona africana, a formação lusa ascende ao terceiro posto da classificação geral dos camiões e à 13ª posição da tabela conjunta, a apenas 23 minutos do top 10.

 Para além do seu bom desempenho nesta jornada, Elisabete Jacinto beneficiou ainda dos que surgiram ao longo da etapa ao russo da equipa Kamaz Sergey Kuprianov e ao checo Tomas Tomecek: “hoje correu tudo bem. Foi uma etapa bastante dura, no entanto, não tivemos problemas nenhuns. Apanhámos muitas zonas de pedra e trilhos bastante complexos e, apesar de termos levado os nossos pneus ao limite, não tivemos furos. A meio da etapa apanhámos o Tomecek e o Kuprianov com problemas e conseguimos ultrapassá-los. Hoje estamos verdadeiramente contentes com o nosso trabalho e isso reflete-se na classificação final. Neste momento, tenho que gerir bem a corrida porque é preciso poupar o material. Ainda temos muitas etapas pela frente e não podemos correr riscos”, revelou Elisabete Jacinto.

 O Kamaz de Anton Shibalov foi, mais uma vez, o camião mais rápido em pista. O Russo assume, neste momento, a liderança absoluta da corrida tendo uma vantagem de 17m03s para o segundo classificado o cazaque Kanat Shagirov que compete aos comandos de uma Toyota. A equipa OLEOBAN® segue amanhã para a última etapa marroquina ocupando um lugar no pódio da sua categoria.

 Na quinta etapa do Africa Race, que se disputa amanhã entre Remz el Quebir e Dakhla, os concorrentes entram em ação assim que abandonam o bivouac. A comitiva percorrerá 453 quilómetros cronometrados e depois começam a deslocar-se para sul rumo à cidade de Dakhla, que fica junto à costa. Já em Dakhla a comitiva vai gozar do merecido dia de descanso antes de passarem a fronteira da Mauritânia.

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Ricardo Leal dos Santos atrasa-se, mas não descola

Dureza “à moda antiga” agravada por problemas de suspensão 

A terceira etapa do Africa Eco Race, a derradeira a ser disputada em 2015, não correu da melhor forma para a dupla luso-brasileira da equipa BAMP. O 8º lugar entre os automóveis (10º da geral auto/camião), reflete um somatório de problemas que marcaram esta jornada que ligou Tangounite a Assa e que incluía uma especial cronometrada de 451 quilómetros.

 Ocupando o lugar do lado direito da Nissan Navara V8, o brasileiro Maykel Justo salienta que “já nem me recordava de uma etapa assim tão dura. Tanto eu como o Ricardo chegámos aqui, ao acampamento, com muitas dores nas costas, fruto de tanta pancada que levámos neste troço. O dia começou mal quando, ainda bem cedo, um pneu descolou da jante numa zona complicada e perdemos imenso tempo a retomar a corrida. Depois, havia a tal zona muito dura e para a qual a suspensão da nossa Nissan não estava afinada da maneira mais adequada. Foi um verdadeiro martírio. Felizmente que a parte final do troço era mais suave e conseguimos até diminuir a diferença para o vencedor da etapa”.

 O vencedor do dia foi o cazaque Yurity Sazanov que, com o seu Hummer, confirmou a liderança da prova. Ricardo Leal dos Santos baixou para o quinto lugar da classificação auto (7º da geral auto/camião) a escassos 33s do piloto que o precede.

 Depois de uma noite de passagem de ano que não será longa em festejos, o Africa Eco Race cumpre, no primeiro dia do novo ano, aquela que será, provavelmente, a etapa mais bonita de toda a competição. Ligando Assa a Remz el Quebir a 4ª etapa inclui 409 quilómetros cronometrados, disputados num percurso feito essencialmente em pista. Até Msied, a primeira parte da especial, conta com alguma areia e navegação. Depois o traçado é composto por trilhos de pedra e será muito sinuoso.

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