Rally dos Sertões: Marc Coma wins again in Bikes and remains the leadership. / Stagewin for Toyota´s Varela in S3 but Spinelli still leader.

A hard and technique special in the third stage of the 22nd edition of the "Rally dos Sertões" was disputed on Tuesday (26th). Starting from Catalão, the stage finished in Paracatu, which receives the Rally for the first time in history. There were 360.45 km in total, with the largest special edition disputed so far in 2014 (209.86 kilometers).

In bikes, the Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM Red Bull Factory Team) won again. The leader of the FIM World Cross Country Rally and the Rally dos Sertões champion in 2010 closed the special with the time of 02:36:10 hours. The Brazilian Jean Azevedo (Honda Mobil de Rally) was the first runner-up, followed by the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves (Team Honda HRC).

Overall, Coma - who also won the 1st stage - leads with 05:18:37, 3:19 minutes lead to Gonçalves and 3:34 mins to Azevedo. Thirty-six motorcycles remain in the dispute. "It was a little bigger stage, a hard day, where I was trying to take as much time to recover. It was a good stage, but always difficult to find an appropriate pace," said Coma.

For the experienced Jean Azevedo, who is disputing his 19th Sertões, it was a day with the characteristics of the event. "It was a longer day, with characteristics similar to those of yesterday, with less bumps, curves and slow sections. It was a typical day of Sertões and fun to ride," Azevedo said.

Fourteen quads completed the 3rd stage on Tuesday. The Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros (Taguatur Racing), who had won the prologue in Goiânia, got the victory in the 3rd stage with the time to 02:46:58 hours. With the result, the rider also took the overall leadership with 1:57 minutes advantage for Robert Nahas (RNN Sports), who finished fourth on Tuesday, and 3:45 mins ahead of Polish Rafal Sonik (Sonik Team), who was third in the day.

Twenty UTVs remain in the fight for the title of the Rally dos Sertões. The victory in the 3rd stage was with André Sawaya and Eduardo Costa (S2 Rally / Bike Box), who recorded the time of 02:51:02 hours. The category is also well balanced and not repeated winners in the first stages.

Denisio Casarini and Eduardo Shiga (Casarini Can-Am) were the first runner-up and are in the overall leadership, but with the duo Rodrigo Varela / John Arena (Divine Stove Rally Team) just 30 seconds behind.

On Tuesday´s 3rd stage of the Brazilian "Rally dos Sertoes", the competitors departed in the morning of Catalão, Goiás State, and finished the stage in Paracatu, town of Minas Gerais State that receives the largest rally in Brazil for the first time. There were 360 km in total and a special test of 209.86 km.

In cars, the duo Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin (Overdrive Toyota Hilux) won the stage with the time of 02:34:29 hours. "Today, the car went well, we finished first and we could reduce the difference for the leaders. Now, we have to be prepared for the marathon stage", said the two time World Cross Country Rally Champion Varela, who is overall 7:28 minutes behind the leaders.

Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti (X-Rally Team / NWM Ford Ranger) finished second, with Guilherme Spinelli and Youssef Haddad (Mitsubishi Petrobras) in the third place. Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea (NWM Ford Ranger) were fourth. Spinelli and Youssef remain in the overall leadership, with the advantage of 2:47 minutes to Baumgart and Andreotti.

In the trucks, six-time Rally dos Sertões champion, Edu Piano and the co-drivers Solon Mendes and Antonio Carlos de Sales (Ford F4000 / Território Motorsport) won the third stage in a row. They are in the overall lead, with 13:14 mins advantage for Kenner Garcia / Rafael Dal Bello / Raphael Bettoni (Ford F4000), fourth on the stage today.

On Wednesday (27th), the competitors depart towards São Francisco (Minas Gerais State) in the dispute of the 4th stage of the Rally dos Sertões 2014. There will be 585.30 km in total on the fourth day (135.24 km of initial liaison, 363.85 km of special and 86.21 km of final liaison).

Between Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, Sertões will go through five more cities. Three will host the rally for the first time: Catalão, Paracatu and São Francisco. Caldas Novas and Diamantina complete the route.
via www.marathonrally.com

Dakar 2015 : les premiers essais du Peugeot 2008 DKR

A 6 mois du départ du Dakar 2015, le 2008 DKR dévoile de nouvelles caractéristiques à l'occasion de ses premiers essais officiels, avec un V6 diesel biturbo chargé d'animer les deux roues motrices.


Un buggy V6 diesel 4x2
En action en photo et vidéo, le 2008 DKR a effectué ses premiers roulages le 27 juin du côté de Freneuse, dans les Yvelines, sur un terrain boueux mais offrant des tests de franchissement et de motricité. Justement, Peugeot réaffirme avec conviction son choix d'opter pour une transmission à deux roues motrices contre les traditionnelles 4x4.


Selon le constructeur français, ce choix radical permettrait d'alléger considérablement le bolide - "le poids est l'ennemi de la performance" rappelle le responsable projet Jean-Christophe Pallier - d'augmenter la taille des roues à 37 pouces, ainsi que celles des suspensions passant de 250 à 480 mm de débattement.

Peugeot précise que le choix du 4x2 offre un autre avantage, celui de choisir la pression des pneus via un "télé-gonflage" dans l'habitacle afin de gérer rapidement les différents obstacles et surfaces.

Autre confirmation de l'équipe, celle du moteur, qui sera un diesel V6 biturbo, de cylindrée et de puissance inconnues. Ainsi, le but de Peugeot Sport est de faire du 2008 DKR "la première deux roues motrices à motorisation diesel à gagner le Dakar."


Pour rappel, le Peugeot 2008 DKR sera pilotée par l'Espagnol Carlos Sainz - auteur des essais ici en images - ainsi que par les Français Stéphane Peterhansel et Cyril Despres, dans l'édition 2015 du Dakar se disputant du 4 au 17 janvier.

Source sur MYTF1 : Dakar 2015 : les premiers essais du Peugeot 2008 DKR en photos et vidéo

 

 

Baja Poland: Overdrive Racing with five Toyota Hilux and Nasser Al Attiyah.

The Belgian Overdrive Racing Team continues its hectic August by entering five Toyota Hilux in this weekend’s "Baja Poland", round eight of the 2014 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. The three-day Polish event is an important one for the Overdrive Team for three different reasons and takes place on August 29-31.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel are chasing outright honours in this year’s FIA World Cup, the Polish Team Orlen quartet of Marek Dabrowski/Jacek Czachor and Adam Malysz/Rafal Marton will be hoping to reach the podium on their home round of the championship and the talented Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke joins the team for the first time with Belgian co-driver Tom Colsoul to begin their preparations for the 2015 Dakar Rally.

Polish driver Tadeusz ‘Taddy’ Blazusiak drives the third Team Orlen car under the Overdrive Racing banner and is partnered by the Frenchman Edouard Boulanger. The 31-year-old Pole is an esteemed motorcycle rider in trials, enduro and endurocross and is a five-time winner of the Erzberg Rodeo, a four-time champion in the FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup and a winner of the AMA EnduroCross title on five occasions. He has also won four Moto X Enduro gold medals and a bronze at the X Games.

The Overdrive Racing team is also taking part in this week’s 22nd "Rally dos Sertões" in Brazil with the local duo of Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin. The pair won the Prologue and the first of the selective sections on Sunday. This event reaches its conclusion on Saturday, August 30th.

The team also plans to enter one Toyota Hilux in the exciting "Great China Rally", which takes place at the start of September and has been organised by the Chinese in collaboration with former Dakar Rally chief organiser and consultant Hubert Auriol. The experienced Zhou Yong will drive the car. He has already taken part in several Dakar rallies.

Al-Attiyah and Baumel sealed a dramatic last stage win in the "Hungarian Baja" two weeks ago and know that a second successive outright victory would give them a superb chance of overhauling Vladimir Vasilyev at the top of the FIA World Cup standings with two more rallies to follow in Morocco and Portugal.

Dabrowski finished eighth two weeks ago after earlier delays and Malysz will be hoping to bounce back from a disappointing outing in Hungary. Overdrive Racing’s team director Jean-Marc Fortin announced Ten Brinke was joining the team last month and the Dutchman is relishing his opportunity to work with the Belgian team in Poland.

"This is an important rally for everyone connected with our team," said Jean-Marc Fortin. "Nasser needs to keep the momentum going if he is to win the FIA World Cup for the second time and both Marek and Adam will want to perform well in front of their home supporters and hopefully, challenge for the podium. It is great to have Bernhard and Tom in the team and we wish them well and are confident that they will be competitive from the start. We also give a warm welcome to Taddy and Edouard and look forward to working with them this weekend."

In addition to FIA World Cup leader Vasilyev, the Overdrive Racing quartet face a fierce challenge from the likes of Czech driver Miroslav Zapletal and strong Polish rivals, Martin Kaczmarski and Krzysztof Holowczyc.

In 2012, Overdrive Racing only fielded two cars in Poland for Szymon Ruta and the Hungarian Erik Korda, but the team enjoyed a superb result last year, with Russian Aleksandr Zheludov claiming the outright win from Dabrowski. Malysz finished fourth and a time penalty cost Nunzio Coffaro a potential second place and he reached the finish in fifth to give Overdrive Racing four cars in the top five.

The competition gets underway on Friday evening with the start ceremony at the Sports and Entertainment Arena in Szczecin Bezrzecze at 17.30hrs (CET) and this will be followed by an 8.00km Prologue stage, starting at 18.00hrs.

The first of the longer selective sections (Drawsko Pomorskie 192 km) gets underway at 08:00 hrs on Saturday morning and this will be repeated from 14:00 in the afternoon. A shorter 65 km selective section (Dobra) is run on two occasions on Sunday morning (09:15) and early afternoon (13:15) and the podium finish is planned for 15:30. In a total route of 795.50 km, there will be 522 km of competition. 

TOSSING DIRT: THE TORC OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP

About two hours north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, past idyllic countrysides, dairy farms and wide-open roads sits the small town of Crandon, where the peaceful silence of nature is replaced by the roar of 900 horsepower engines competing in the Off-Road Racing Championship (TORC), battling for victory as they jump, drift and wreck at the world-famous Big House.

One of the most exciting pairs in the league is the Husqvarna team, made up of brothers Jaritand Jessie Johnson. Their extensive motor sports experience and familial DNA (their other brother is Jimmie Johnson) helped them to win Rookie of the Year last year and makes them a major contenders for 2014. From pits to paddock we were granted an all-access pass to watch team Husqvarna do what they do best: race. We left with a little more respect for the sport and a lot more respect for drivers who risk their lives for what they love.

‘75 Moto Guzzi 850T – Olympia Motorcycles

Written by Martin Hodgson.

Building a custom motorcycle that does one thing well is an achievement in of itself, building a custom motorcycle that is capable of being three different bikes is exceptional, from a first time builder it is a Herculean effort. This Guzzi is an automotive piece of sculpture, built for breaking records on the salt flats and registered for the road, it’s three bikes in one and it completes each task with flawless perfection.

The bike is the creation of Los Angeles artist David Miezal who took his inspiration from German speed merchant  Ernst Jakob Henne and the speed trial bikes from days of old. Simple, defined and  minimalistic with the purpose of going absolutely flat out across the salt. David started with a 1975 Moto Guzzi 850T, the Italian sports tourer that was arguably the makes best bike of the 70’s. With a strong motor and drivetrain the decision was made to simply give it a freshen up, new seals and gaskets and a carby clean means the bike will run all day long. While modern wiring, new Dyna coils and an updated regulator make the electrics just as reliable.

As an artist with a certain vision in mind David stripped the bike bare revealing a blank canvas with which to work. The frame and forks were all de-tabbed, all the unrequired cosmetic clutter was disposed of and anything that doesn’t serve an essential purpose destined for the scrap bin. Both the handlebars and the exhaust were meticulously handcrafted from stainless steel, while the custom under seat electrics box is finished with welds that match the original beads laid down in the factory. Wanting to maintain a certain patina the engine, transmission casing and wheels were all carefully cleaned by hand with David not wanting to remove any of the staining.

Increasing the visual impact of the bike is the distressed leather used to cover the custom created seat, tank and fender pads. The scars matching well with the hand sculpted and lightly stained body reminding all that this bike really lives. The switch blocks, lights and indicators are long gone, with just GT grips to hang onto, custom rearsets and polished levers to keep control and a single tacho being all that David requires.

With ambitions of top speed salt flat passes and the ability to ride on the street the suspension and tyres of 40 years ago were never going to do the job. The smoothed out front forks now sport Wirth progressive springs and FAC dampers while the rear is controlled by vintage Bitubo shocks. All of which keeps the new Avon racing rubber firmly pressed into the chosen surface of the day.

Nicknamed Heracles, both the Italian custom creation and the Greek God exhibit a defined masculinity, strength, courage and ingenuity that will maintain their legend status forever more. And when it’s not doing the ton on the salt or cruising the streets, just like its name sake , this Guzzi would be equally at home in a museum, where even static it can be admired.

via PIPEBURN

illustrations by Gannet

via http://gannetdesign.com/

clim !

Rally dos Sertões: Gonçalves wins SS2 in Bikes but Coma still overall leader./Mitsubishi´s Spinelli / Haddad the new leader in the cars.

The second day of the 22nd edition of the "Rally dos Sertões" in Brazil, between Caldas Novas and Catalão, began with changes in the special test course. For security reasons, the special had to be reduced and had only 78 km, against 202.23 kilometers planned. Even so, there were many emotions and an exciting dispute.

In bikes, the current world champion and current winner of the Rally do Sertões, the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves (Honda HRC Team) was the best in the stage and closed the special with the time of 00:45:37 minutes, little more than a minute faster than the Brazilian Jean Azevedo (Honda Mobil de Rally), who was the first runner-up.

The Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM Red Bull Factory Team) finished third, but he is the overall leader, with the time of 02:42:27 hours, with 39 seconds of advantage to Gonçalves. Thirty-six of the 37 bikes disputed the second stage Today.

"Today the special test was very short. I started in the third position and I would like that it was a longer special to try to recover. I think I managed to recover more or less 1:40 minutes the difference for Marc Coma. Now we have five days ahead to try to get a good final position," said Paulo Gonçalves after the stage.

In the quads, thirteen competitors completed the second stage. The current champion, the Brazilian Robert Nahas (RNN Sports), was the winner with a time of 00:51:33 minutes. Tom Rosa (ATV Yamaha) was the first runner-up and Gabriel Varela (Divino Fogão Rally Team) finished third.

The Polish Rafal Sonik (Sonik Team), winner of the first stage, and Marcelo Medeiros (Taguatur Racing), who won the prologue, missed the route and lost time. Medeiros was the fifth in the day and Sonik the seventh. Nahas also took the lead in the overall (03:04:45 hours), with more than five minutes ahead to Medeiros and Sonik.

In the UTV/SSV, the duo Jose Helio Rodrigues and Edmilson de Camargo (Polaris Racing) got the victory in the second stage in UTVs with the time of 00:53:26 mins. Denisio Casarini and Eduardo Shiga (Casarini Can-Am) were second on the day and are leading overall with 03:14:25 hours, just 10 seconds ahead for the duo Rodrigo Varela and John Arena (Divino Fogão Rally Team). 

With the special test reduced for safety reasons, competitors of the "Rally dos Sertões" in Brazil forced the pace in the race of the 2nd stage on Monday (25th), between the cities of Caldas Novas and Catalão. The special had the dispute of 78 km, against 202.23 kilometers planned. 43 of 45 cars disputed the second stage.

In category T1 FIA (cars), the four-time champion Guilherme Spinelli and the co-driver Youssef Haddad accelerated their Mitsubishi ASX Racing and got the victory with a time of 00:48:30 minutes. Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti (NWM Ford Ranger) were first runners up, just ahead of teammates Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea (Ford Ranger).

Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin (Overdrive Toyota Hilux), who were leading, got a penalty (they over speeded in a radar zone), and dropped to fourth place overall.

Spinelli and Haddad took the overall lead from Varela, with the time of 02:40:45 hours, followed by Marcos Baumgart and Cincea. "It was a more enjoyable special test than yesterday, although three quarters of it have been canceled, which is a shame, but it was fast, with nice mounds. Anyway, we forced the pace a little more," said Spinelli.

In T1 Prototypes, the duo João Franciosi / Rafael Capoani (Mitsubishi Petrobras) won and got the overall lead (02:56:50). In Pro Brasil, Mauro Guedes and Neurivan Calado (MS Rally) also won and remained in the overall lead (02:54:44).

In Super Production, Glauber Fontoura and Minae Miyauti (Mitsubishi Ralliart Brazil) still unbeatable after winning the prologue and the first two stages. In Production T2, Vilson Thomas / William Thomas is another duo that won the day's special and is on overall leadership with 03:15:57 hours.

In the trucks, six-time champion of the Rally dos Sertões, Edu Piano and co-drivers Solon Mendes and Antonio Carlos de Sales (Ford F4000) won also the second stage and they are in the trucks leadership, with 00:02:52 minutes of advantage for the trio Kenner Garcia / Rafael dal Bello / Raphael Bettoni (Ford F4000), who was the first runner up Today.

On Tuesday the competitors depart towards Paracatu (Minas Gerais State) in the dispute of the 3rd stage of the Rally dos Sertões 2014. There will be 360.45 km in total on the third day (22.20 km of initial liaison, 209.86 km of special and 128.39 km of final liaison).

Between Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, Sertões will go through five more cities. Three will host the rally for the first time: Catalão, Paracatu and São Francisco. Caldas Novas and Diamantina complete the route.