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Post by afx on Dec 17, 2019 8:07:42 GMT -8
This amazing event is right around the corner: begins January 5th. The race is being held in Saudi Arabia for the first time.
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Post by afx on Dec 17, 2019 8:20:12 GMT -8
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Post by afx on Dec 19, 2019 10:42:57 GMT -8
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Post by afx on Dec 23, 2019 8:50:58 GMT -8
Carlos Sainz Sr is confident the X-raid Mini squad can take the fight to Toyota in its third Dakar outing with its two-wheel drive John Cooper Works Buggy.
Two-time Dakar winner Sainz is gunning for a third triumph in the legendary rally-raid, which he will tackle for a second time with X-raid following his four-year stint at Peugeot. His victory hopes went up in smoke as early as the third stage in this year's edition, as he broke his Mini's front-left suspension after hitting a ditch and lost over three hours. He finally ended the event 13th, while Nasser Al-Attiyah secured a first Dakar win for Toyota. In January, Sainz and teammate Stephane Peterhansel will be hoping to wrest honours back from Toyota and deliver X-raid a first triumph in the event since 2015. Runner-up finishes in the Morocco Rally and the Saudi Arabia-based Sharqiyah Baja have given the Spanish veteran confidence of a strong showing in January. "Last year a very important step was taken with us, even though it showed that it was a very new car," said Sainz. "It was reasonably fast, but we had some problems as absurd as the adjustment of tyre pressures which held us back. "This gave us many headaches, but this is solved and I think this is the year to capitalise on last year's work and being able to face a Dakar with more guarantees. "We are very excited that we will be able to present battle to Toyota, who are the favourites. We have worked on the weight of the car, some vital kilos have been saved. "One of the other advantages we have over the 4x4s is that the minimum weight is lower. This year we will be much closer to the minimum weight, which last year did not happen. That makes us think that we can battle." Sainz admitted however the balance of power between the two-wheel drive Mini and the four-wheel drive Toyota could be dictated by the type of terrain that features in the Dakar's first visit to the Middle East after a decade in South America. "The great doubt that we all have is what we are going to find, unlike in past years, when we knew a little a bit about what we would find," said the 57-year-old. "Apparently, the first week has more gravel roads with stones, similar to Morocco and the second week, it seems that it will be lots of sand, dunes, desert. "Maybe it goes in favour of the 4x4s or in favour of the two-wheel drive cars. What has surprised us most in recent months since last Dakar, even having less suspension travel than us, the pace they have on the rough terrain surprised us. "It depends on whether it has a lot of stones or not. Our tyres are less likely to get punctured, so if it is rough and with a lot of stones, it's better for us."
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Post by afx on Dec 24, 2019 7:37:48 GMT -8
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Post by afx on Dec 31, 2019 7:36:31 GMT -8
Five-time Dakar Rally winner Cyril Despres will enter the 2020 edition of the marathon as part of the Red Bull Off-Road outfit.
Red Bull announced a cross-country junior programme, analogous to its successful Junior Team scheme in Formula 1, in cooperation with Overdrive earlier this month. Young American racers Blade Hildebrand, Mitch Guthrie Jr and Seth Quintero were announced as the initial intake, with all three lined up to contest the 2020 Dakar in the UTV (side-by-side) class in Overdrive's newly-built OT3 challengers. Despres had carried out testing with the OT3 and was brought on board as a coach for the programme, but will now step in to replace Quintero for the first Saudi Arabia-based edition of the Dakar. "The OT3 really surprised me: first of all the stability of the vehicle, as the engineers played with the regulations to have a 2.08-metre wide vehicle, which gives a lot of stability," Despres said earlier of the OT3. "And they also used their knowledge to make a really strong and rigid chassis, something which is normally missing from side-by-side buggies. It also gives you precision when driving on technical sections, which is exactly what you need. "The engine is powerful and the visibility from the cockpit is fantastic." Despres won the marathon in the Bikes category with KTM five times between 2005 and 2013, establishing a famous rivalry with fellow five-time winner Marc Coma. The 45-year-old Frenchman then switched to cars as part of Peugeot's factory Dakar assault, and finished third in 2017, before the French manufacturer concluded its cross-country programme the following year. He finished fifth in 2019 in X-raid's new Mini JCW Buggy, but was left out of the German outfit's slimmed-down roster for the upcoming edition. The identity of Despres' co-driver is yet to be confirmed. Of his teammates, Hildebrand will be partnered by Francois Cazalet, while Guthrie will team up with Ola Floene, the former co-driver of WRC rally winner Andreas Mikkelsen.
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Post by afx on Dec 31, 2019 7:46:31 GMT -8
Husqvarna FR 450 Rally of Andrew Short - Team Husqvarna
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Post by afx on Dec 31, 2019 7:49:04 GMT -8
Checkout how the brake disc is saw-toothed on the edge. Pablo Quintanilla Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing
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Post by afx on Jan 1, 2020 8:19:32 GMT -8
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Post by afx on Jan 1, 2020 8:28:40 GMT -8
YAMAHA RALLY TEAM - MONSTER ENERGY
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Post by afx on Jan 1, 2020 8:37:24 GMT -8
Red Bull Team KTM
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Post by afx on Jan 2, 2020 7:55:37 GMT -8
Dakar coverage in the USA is on NBCSN. Go to the website and click the "Official Broadcasters" tab at the top to find coverage for other parts of the world: www.dakar.com/en
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Post by afx on Jan 9, 2020 4:15:40 GMT -8
GasGas RC 450F
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Post by afx on Jan 9, 2020 4:46:35 GMT -8
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Post by afx on Jan 13, 2020 8:41:08 GMT -8
Veteran Dakar Rally rider Paulo Goncalves has passed away following a crash on Sunday's seventh stage of the 2020 event in Saudi Arabia.
Goncalves, 40, was contesting his 13th Dakar for Indian manufacturer Hero, and was lying 46th overall as the rally resumed following Saturday's rest day. During Sunday's 546km Riyadh-Wadi Al Dawasir test, the Portuguese rider suffered a crash at the 276km mark at 10.16am local time. A medical helicopter was dispatched, and Goncalves was found unconscious having gone into cardiac arrest. He was airlifted to Layla Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He is the first competitor to have died contesting the Dakar since Michal Hernik in 2015. Paulo Goncalves, 1979-2020
Goncalves won numerous motocross and enduro titles in his native Portugal either side of the turn of the century, and made his Dakar debut in 2006, finishing 25th on his first attempt. Cross-country competition soon became his primary focus, and he broke into the Dakar top 10 by 2009, in the first South America-based edition of the marathon. Two years later, having swapped a Honda for a BMW, he ended a decade-long stage win drought for the Bavarian marque, but ended up dropping out of the marathon through injury. In 2012, he was now riding under the banner of the then-BMW owned Husqvarna, but his hopes a career-best Dakar finish were dashed by a six-hour penalty for receiving outside assistance, something the team ardently denied. The year after, he repeated his best finish of 10th in the Dakar, but also clinched the FIM Cross-Country world championship for Speedbrain – the German organisation that had operated Husqvarna’s programme before the brand’s acquisition by KTM. Ahead of the 2014 Dakar, Goncalves and his long-time teammate Joan Barreda followed Speedbrain into the fold of Japanese manufacturer Honda. But the Portuguese rider’s first rodeo with Honda ended in disappointment, his bike burning up on the fifth stage. But the rest of the year brought a good season in the Cross-Country world championship, with an Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge win proving the highlight, before Goncalves mounted his first proper challenge for Dakar victory in 2015. Goncalves headed Honda’s efforts, finishing as runner-up to Dakar legend Marc Coma and staking a claim to one of the main threats to Austrian manufacturer KTM’s unbeaten streak in the legendary marathon. He looked on the cusp of doing so in 2016, leading the event into the rest day, only for a combination of a crash, a mechanical issue and a hefty penalty to put paid to his aspirations. He only finished sixth the year after, and skipped the 2018 Dakar entirely after an ill-timed training accident left him with a shoulder injury. Late in 2018, Goncalves crashed in national competition and suffered a fractured spleen that required surgery, but he recovered sufficiently in time for the 2019 Dakar. Yet his time with Honda in the legendary race would come to a low-key end as he crashed out just five days into the event. By then Speedbrain was working with Indian manufacturer Hero, and for 2020 it pulled off a coup by reuniting with Goncalves, who joined the developing project to spearhead its roster alongside his brother-in-law Joaquim Rodriguez. Admitting he sought “extra motivation” from the switch, Goncalves was encouraged by outings in Morocco and the Silk Way Rally, and finished in the top 10 for three successive days prior to the mid-rally rest day, before tragically losing his life after the competition resumed. Motorsport.com would like to extend its condolences to Goncalves' friends and family, the Hero team and the entire Dakar fraternity at this difficult time.
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