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| Dakar sand specialist Lucio Alvarez and (back) co-driver Ronnie Graue |
Three race crews with links to South Africa started the second-last stage of the two-week Dakar rally in the elite top ten. They are the teams of Toyota, Ford and privateer Brett Cummins. The rally ends tomorrow (SUNDAY) night (SA time).
Only 49 of the 152 cars that had entered the rally are still racing yesterday after Thursday's first set of virgin dunes and the front racers are now neck in neck. With the collective race time of the last 5,000km determining the winners in the various classes, racers are now watching the seconds instead of the hours and their team managers worry about the famous red-mist setting in. Several leaders had crashed out in previous editions when they tried to go too fast just to set a good time.
This is when a cool-headed co-driver has to calm things in the cabin. Unlike other famous rallies, like the Baja 1000, racers in the Dakar do not know the day's routes. The means co-driver's ability to read a map are as important to win a Dakar as is the driver's ability to read the route surface.
Yesterday's (FRIDAY) 700-km stage 12 was split almost equally between dune racing and connection routes, most of which was public roads on which the racers just had to maintain position.
South Africa's normally aspirated petrol Hilux, driven by Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewits, raced third overall, amid a brace of turbo-charged Red Bull Minis.
In their KZN-built Ford Ranger, sand specialist Lucio Alvarez and co-driver Ronnie Graue started in 8th position, moving up a notch after Thursday's marathon, six-hour special stage 11. (Compare this to World Rally Racing, where a special stage is at most 40 minutes long.)
SA pro-biker Riaan van Niekerk (Broadlink KTM) is expected to make a move from his lucky 13th position. He is only seven minutes behind front runner Dakar champion Marc Coma. SA's privateer rider Brett Cummins is in 6th place in the sub-450cc class on his KTM and may also aim for a top 5 spot. Of the 196 riders that entered, only 71 are still racing.
Of the three South Africans that entered in the trucks, only co-driver Albert Johannes Geel started yesterday, but his French crew Arnaud Missagia and Pierre Hurtault seem happy just to finish in 37th in their Merc. Of the 75 trucks that entered, 32 have bit the Dakar's dust.
The survivors of last night's Dakar penultimate stage 11 were not yet available at the time of going to print.
