Dakar 2013, étape 11 : Spéciale stoppée par les crues

The 11th Car/Truck stage of the 2013 Dakar was halted at Passage Control 1 (Km83) as a result of flooding in the mountains near Fiambala. The stage win went to Robby Gordon (Hummer), ahead of Ronan Chabot (SMG buggy).

La 11e spéciale du Dakar 2013 a été arrêtée au CP1 (km 83) pour les autos et camions en raison de rios en crue dans les montagnes de Fiambala. La victoire revient à Robby Gordon (Hummer) devant Ronan Chabot (Buggy SMG).

Etape 11 : La Rioja-Fiambala (481 km)

The Catamarca region has been responsible for a few nasty surprises for competitors on this year’s Dakar. Last Saturday’s SS8, which visited the same area, had to be neutralised at Passage Control 2 after numerous drivers were caught out by fast-rising water in several rios. Today, the vehicles were blocked once again by raging torrents, this time to the north of Fiambala.

The organisers took the decision to stop the cars after PC1, just 70km after the new start to the stage which had already been shortened by 32km. Competitors still had a chance to enjoy the first dunes but, after that, they were requested to drive straight to Fiambala via a direct route.

“When we reached the bank of the rio, I saw Novitskiy’s Mini floating backwards in the strong current,” related Guerlain Chicherit after the stage. “That was a little scary, so we drove on for three more kilometres before we found a narrower spot to cross, about seven or eight metres wide. We took a run at it and jumped over the river,” added the former freeride skiing champion!

Leonid Novitskiy spent several minutes caught in the river at Km70 and his co-driver Konstantin Zhilstov was even forced to swim to the bank. This evening, the X-Raid mechanics will have to strip the Russian driver’s Mini entirely so that it can dry out.

Like the Motorbike category, the cars battle was won by an American, namely Robby Gordon (Hummer) who finished ahead of Ronan Chabot (Buggy): “It’s a shame, I was glad to be back in more open territory.” Lucio Alvarez was awarded the day’s third best time.

Stéphane Peterhansel got off to a poor start today but continues to top the leaderboard: “We got lost looking for the best solution up a long climb that had been rutted by the heavy rain.” The Frenchman still enjoys a comfortable advantage over Giniel de Villiers who was the fastest driver over the early part of today’s stage.

Décidément, la région de Catamarca a réservé de mauvaises surprises aux concurrents du Rallye Dakar 2013. Samedi dernier, tout près d’ici, la 8^e spéciale avait été neutralisée au CP2 à cause de rios en colère ayant piégé de nombreux véhicules. Aujourd’hui, c’est à nouveau des torrents infranchissables qui ont bloqué autos et camions au nord de Fiambala, en fond de vallée.

Les organisateurs ont décidé d’arrêter la spéciale après le CP1, c’est-à-dire après seulement 70 km parcourus contre le chronomètre (le départ avait déjà été reculé de 32 km). Les concurrents ont tout de même pu goûter aux 1ères dunes avant de rejoindre Fiambala par une piste directe.

« Quand on est arrivé au bord du rio, j’ai vu la Mini de Novitskiy emportée en marche arrière par les eaux en furie », expliquait Guerlain Chicherit à l’arrivée. « Ca m’a peu refroidi. Alors on a fait un détour 3 km plus loin, à l’endroit où le rio était le plus étroit, entre 7 et 8 mètres. J’ai pris mon élan et on est passé par-dessus. Les sauts, je connais… »

Leonid Novitskiy est resté de longues minutes dans ce rio au km 70. Son copilote Konstantin Zhilstov a même dû nager pour rejoindre la berge. Ce soir, les mécaniciens X-raid vont devoir démonter entièrement la Mini du pilote russe pour un séchage complet.

Comme en Motos, l’étape a été remportée par un Américain. Au CP1, Robby Gordon (Hummer) devançait Ronan Chabot (Buggy) : « C’est dommage, on avait retrouvé les grands espaces que j’aime bien ». Lucio Alvarez est crédité du 3^e temps.

Au classement général, Stéphane Peterhansel reste en tête malgré un mauvais début de spéciale : « On s’est perdus en cherchant la meilleure voie dans une longue montée creusée par les pluies. Demain, plus de rios, mais des dunes et je redoute de rester coincé dans une cuvette » Le Français compte toujours une avance confortable sur Giniel de Villiers, virtuel leader en début de d’étape.

Dakar 2013 – Leg 11: Caselli claims muddy Fiambala stage

The USA’s Kurt Caselli (KTM/Michelin) notched up his second stage win of this year’s Dakar in the mud near Fiambala. Today’s action also saw Cyril Despres extend his overall lead over Faria and Chaleco Lopez.

Leg 11: La Rioja-Fiambala (483km)

For most of the day, it poured down along Ruta 60 between La Rioja and Fiambala, filling the drainage ditches with water. After Tuesday’s heat wave, the riders consequently faced a cocktail of rain and mud over today’s 191km stage, but at least the sandy base prevented the surface from cutting up too badly over the dunes, making life easier for the amateurs. But that was only over the dunes…

“It was muddy for 180km,” reported Cyril Despres, visibly exhausted when we talked to him in the comfort of his camper van at tonight’s bivouac in Fiambala. “At Km120, the rain was very heavy and the muddy sections were about 30 or 40 metres wide. I had to drive along a flooded stream to get past in one place. There was fog, too, and I wasn’t sure of my heading at times. Along with Joan Barreda, I went in the wrong direction right at the beginning. It was an extremely tricky stage, and I’m glad it is over…”

The win went to Kurt Caselli: “I caught Cyril at Km60 and stayed with him to the finish. I went ahead of him but we ran together the rest of the way. It was a bit like motocross in places; I loved it.”

Helder Rodriguez (Honda) ran with the American rider initially but was halted at Km198. Fellow Honda rider Gerard Farres Guel got no further than Km47.

Joan Barreda, Paulo Gonçalves, Chaleco Lopez, Joan Pedrero and Ivan Jakes settled in behind Despres at around Km140 but they then dropped back during the final section, except Gonçalves who went on to post the second best time. “The navigation was quite hard but I didn’t make any mistakes, so it was a good day.”

The provisional leader Cyril Despres is now 13m16s clear of his team-mate Ruben Faria. Lopez is third (+18m8s), ahead of Ivan Jakes (+23m33s) who followed a wrong heading at Km33. Alessandro Botturi (Husqvarna/Michelin) rounds of the Top 5 despite taking a 15-minute penalty following an engine change.

Stage 11 positions:

1, Caselli (KTM), 2h55m1s. 2, Gonçalves (Husqvarna), +4m45s. 3, Despres (KTM), +6m24s. 4, Pedrero (KTM), +10m18s. 5, Lopez (KTM), +10m51s. Etc.

Provisional positions after Leg 11:

1, Despres (KTM), 33h48m29s. 2, Faria (KTM), +13m16s. 3, Lopez (KTM), +18m8s. 4, Jakes (KTM), +23m33s. 5, Botturi (Husqvarna), +29m32s. Etc.

Monte Carlo : Leg 1 Highlights - 2013 WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo

Although he has no plans to contest the entire WRC in 2013, Sébastien Loeb has clearly lost none of his motivation. The first four stages of the Rallye Monte-Carlo saw the Citroën driver leave his rivals gasping for breath, their ranks led by Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier who trails by 1m20.3s (!) after almost 140km of competitive action. The third man on tonight’s all-Michelin podium is Loeb’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen (+1m46.7s).

The snow that swept over much of France during the early part of the week made way for brighter, drier weather today as the 2013 World Rally Championship got under way with two loops of two stages.

Because of the resulting mixed conditions (clear asphalt, ice and snow), however, especially on the two visits to the awesome ‘Le Burzet’ test (SS2 and SS4), nearly all the front-runners (including Loeb!) were relieved to survive what turned out to be one of the most complex days in recent ‘Monte-Carlo’ history.

“There was less snow on Le Burzet than this morning but there were a number of places where you couldn’t tell whether the road was wet or icy. The damp patches appear to be refreezing but you couldn’t be sure,” reported the Frenchman at the end of SS4. “I lost grip in a few places, so I wasn’t completely confident. It’s good to have reached the finish…”

The veteran’s closest chaser tonight is his ex-Citroën team-mate, Sébastien Ogier, who has given Volkswagen an encouraging start to its first full WRC campaign. The Frenchman even led momentarily after SS1 before being passed by Loeb. VW will be pleased that he had a relatively trouble-free run, but Ogier himself spent much of the day repeating that he was concentrating on his own performance and not taking any notice of Loeb’s times…

Citroën’s new number one driver Mikko Hirvonen is third overall, but he rarely showed any real speed. “I really don’t know why,” he said at the end of the day. “I hate these conditions!”

For his first rally back in Citroën colours, Dani Sordo will be hoping for a strong points finish this week and his careful drive was rewarded by provisional fourth place (+2m01.7s), just behind Hirvonen.

Meanwhile, Jari-Matti Latvala is fifth (+2m32.2s) in the second Volkswagen Polo R and would have been challenging for a footing on the podium had he not taken a 30-second penalty for late arrival at the start of SS2. As a result, he is closely chased by Ford/M-Sport’s best-placed representative, Evgeny Novikov (6^th, +2m50.6s).

Tonight’s top 10 is rounded off by Citroën privateer Bryan Bouffier (7^th) and Ford Fiesta WRC drivers Juho Hanninen (8^th), Monte rookie Mads Ostberg (9^th) and Martin Prokop (10^th).

The day’s chief victim was Ford’s Thierry Neuville who crashed out on SS4, while Michal Kosciuszko’s first day of competition in a WRC car was poorly rewarded when his Mini picked up an engine problem. He is 21^st. For information, the ‘Rally2’ ruling does not apply to the Rallye Monte-Carlo, so a driver who retires cannot re-join the next day.

LOSSA ENGINEERING KAWASAKI Z1000

I don't know what it is about old Kwackers but they just get the blood pumping more than any other of the Big Four manufacturers. Maybe it’s some warped childhood Sesame Street connection; a two-wheeled Kermit The Frog on angry-crack, but whenever I see one, I want one.

It was the same story for Eric Bostrom (pretty sure that’s the AMA rider, brother of Ben Bostrom) who wanted to turn his 2012 model Z1000 into something which looked like the KR750 machine of Gary Nixon. EventuallyLossa Engineering got in on the act with some new bodywork and wheels machined from BILLET which look freaking fantabulous- better than the original Campagnolo style rims.

The new-old bodywork on this new Z1000 has me intrigued. The tricky bit is that the KR750 style reference had a tank which only held fuel. The new Z1000 has a tank which holds fuel, and an airbox. Where did the airbox go? This is where ‘making new bodywork’ becomes much more difficult than glassing up some fibre around a mould.

 Huge tacho...might get Mexican for lunch today I think...

Wheels machined from scratch- mimicking original Campagnolo style items.

 Its an exhaust can bonanza out there!

Kicked up ductail takes us straight back to the '70s.

Legendary Kawasaki tuner Erv Kanemoto with Gary Nixons KR750. He later took Freddie Spencer to his 1985 250/500 double world championships for Honda among other championships. (Thanks to sfree1 for the info!)

Photos: Lossa Engineering

 via wideopenmoto

24 HOURS OF DUBAI: ENDURANCE RACING BLISS

While the rest of the Speedhunters crew freezed their behinds off covering the Tokyo Auto Salon, my face was getting sun-burned and sandblasted as I was covering the Dunlop 24 Hours Of Dubai at the Dubai Autodrome in the United Arab Emirates.

I arrived in Dubai tired as ever after a 15-hour trek from Los Angeles, but I just could not sleep. There is a 12-hour time difference between Dubai and Los Angeles, so I was very jet-lagged.

Maybe it was the locals doing burnouts outside my window, or maybe it was just because I was super excited for the biggest endurance race in the Middle East.

I’ve wanted to come to this race for years, but something always came up. I finally got to see what all the fuss was about: this really was the ultimate test for the limits of man and the machines they have built.

All the teams were out for Thursday practice and qualifying. Team Abu Dhabi By Black Falcon had a bit of misfortune with one of their Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 cars during Wednesday practice, and the car was damaged beyond repair.

Luckily the the British Preci-Spark team had brought out a spare car that they were testing. Team Abu Dhabi purchased the spare car, and the mechanics worked all night to get the car outfitted for endurance racing – the chassis was the very first Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 ever made.

The WRT Audi team couldn’t make the race because their driver squad wasn’t complete, so they pulled out at the last minute. The engineers from WRT instead helped out the DragonSpeed team, as it was their first ever 24-hour race in Dubai.

There was this thick haze in the air due to high winds. Sand was constantly just floating around in the air, making it very hard to be outside. I found myself taking shelter inside the pits when I needed to change lenses.

There was a break around lunchtime which gave the teams an opportunity to practice their driver changes and pit stops.

I know this is insignificant to many teams, but I really appreciated that this team aligned the headlights on their cars. It makes for much better photographs as the cars don’t look like they are cockeyed. Not to mention there is less of a chance to blind the other drivers.

My two favorite cars on grid were the BMW Z4 GT3 twins run by Saudi Falcons Team Schubert.

The cars were sporting a brand new livery designed by one of my friends, Andy Blackmore. The attention to detail was amazing. Just check out that dry carbon pin striping.

The cars were twins, but they each had a nickname: The Hulk and Shrek. How cute.

I have actually followed Team Schubert before, at the 24 hours of Spa back in 2011 when they were running the Team Need For Speed livery.

The team had a total of 10 drivers, which consisted of five Germans, four Saudi Arabians and one Austrian driver.

Team Schubert took the overall win back in 2011, so they were determined to get on the podium once again.

One of the more unique entries was this VDS GT 001-R, run by Belgian team VDS Racing Adventures. Only 22 street car versions of this car exist. The chassis was based off of a Gillet Vertigo Spirit, with a 4.2-liter Maserati V8 putting out about 480 horsepower.

There were 81 entries for this race, so pit-lane was very packed. There were constantly huge traffic jams. Each pit box housed three teams, so you can imagine how crammed it got when it was time to head out.

All of the teams went for maximum attack. The starting position is usually much less important during a 24-hour race, as there is just so much that can happen, but being near the front means there is less of a chance to get caught up in an incident early on in the race.

Some of the drivers pushed a little too hard but still got away relatively unscathed…

…but some drivers would damage their cars beyond repair.

There were five Ferraris in total and I was lucky to catch these three 458 Italia GT3 cars in formation during qualifying. The symphony of engine sounds these three made as they passed by me was something I will never forget.

My second favorite car was this Aston Martin Vantage GT3 campaigned by the Hong Kong-based Craft Racing AMR. It had a very aggressive stance that yelled ‘get out of my way’.

The most unique thing about the 24 Hours Of Dubai was how the cars were refueled. I have never seen anything like it.

They actually pull up to a petrol station located at the end of pit lane and each team has someone on standby ready to pump fuel.

All the cars were running 98-octane pump fuel. I can imagine that helped out the many privateer teams that were competing. It sure beats the price of race fuel.

Night practice was winding down and it was time for me to get some rest, as I had a very long two days ahead of me.

The clouds came in and everyone was worried it was going to start raining.

This track was never meant to be driven in the wet as there is no drainage system. It rarely ever rains in Dubai, but when it does it pours.

The mood was very festive, but it was short lived as the race start was just around the corner.

I got into my GT-86 and headed to Turn One for the start of the race.

Under the grandstands was a huge parking structure that has yet to be completed.

This place was seriously an urban explorer’s wet dream. It seemed that construction had stopped a long time ago, as everything was covered in a very thick layer of dust.

This track was actually built before Yas Marina circut in Abu Dhabi but was never fully completed.

Behind the stands is a huge empty building that will eventually become a shopping mall.

I was wondering where all the spectators were, as the 24 Hours Of Dubai was actually free to the public. I realized that the fans preferred to line the perimeter of the track, which is about as close to the action as you could get without being on the track itself.

It was so calm, but then suddenly there was the sound of 81 engines roaring to life. The pace car was off and the race had begun.

It was amazing how much sand and dust was picked up off the start. There were so many cars that by the time the last car took the green flag, the lead cars were nearly finished with their first lap.

Stay tuned for more coverage from the 24 Hours Of Dubai. For now make sure you download the desktops below.

Larry

larry@speedhunters.com