Leicester's randumb Dakar update

"leicester" (leicester) 01/07/2014 at 16:10 • Filed to: Daily Dakar

1

3

I won't talk about the stage/overall standings - Dusty will post that up, I assume, or you can just look at the Dakar site yerself. So here's some random folks who Leicester likes to follow:

Bikes:

Perennial privateer Pal Anders Ullevalseter withdrew after stage 2 due to a blown engine. A great disappointment for a consistent racer and repeat top-10 finisher.

Tough cutie Laia Sanz sits at the 20th position after 3 stages. Looks like she's the only woman on a bike this year?

Cars:

Hollee buckets - just noted that Guerlain Chicerit's Jeffries buggy is driven by a Corvette LS7. He's making up time after a devastating 1st stage, but out of the overall running - hopefully the driver and buggy continue to make a good showing regardless and puts Damen Jeffries on the international rally spotlight.

Crazy Dutchman Tim Colonel is in 53rd position for the day and 47th overall in his solo buggy. Colonel has made it a Dakar quest to run solo in a buggy for the fun(?) and challenge - he tends to finish in the middle of the pack, but he does finish... There is another solo driver (Eric Bernard) in 30th position.

Isabelle Patissier is in 49th position for the day and 43rd overall in a buggy. I first followed her as a competitive climber during the neon lycra-clad late 80s/early 90s, after which she retired and switched to competitive rally.

(Not a current photo)

Quads - dunno - they are little buzzy things that people race, although favorite Marcos Patronelli withdrew today.

Trucks - dunno - they are big rumbly things that people race, typically northern Europeans and Rooskies.

General observations - jeezuz these first few stages have been brutal - the heat and elevation changes have been rough on both vehicles and drivers/riders. There have been a number of medical withdrawals due to exhaustion and dehydration. And many folks have been hamstrung by multiple punctures during the stages (6 today for Peterhansel) - they are apparently routing the stages through Argentinian caltrop fields.

mrazekan > leicester 01/07/2014 at 23:48

1

Thanks for taking the time to write something up. Without cable, and time to watch, reading these distilled posts ties me into the race.

Hard to believe how little traffic the Dakar posts are getting. Maybe you should say something like this:
That F40 LM build from a few months back taught me one thing; as cool as it is, it is just a car. Seeing the internals to that degree was like watching Batman bleed.

leicester > mrazekan 01/08/2014 at 00:56

1

Thanks, I started following the Dakar several years ago thru the blogs of a few privateers, so those are the stories that tend to attract me. Hence I comment on the also-rans and interesting characters. I think that Dusty's been busy so late on his posts and commentary. I was waiting for him to post and finally just did my own goofy writeup.

mrazekan > leicester 01/08/2014 at 02:18

0

Busy is the new norm :0( I have not had time to even find the race feeds online.

I have always enjoyed watching. But like many other sports I really did not follow the races. Two things changed, I started chasing and pitting for a Baja 1000 team and I was living in the Washinton state when Johnah Street entered the Dakar.

I was really looking forward to Caselli racing this year. Such a bummer.