January is always my busiest month, with some sort of motorsport gig for me to attend and report on each and every weekend.
Coming on top of a similarly intensive and demanding time for the ‘day-job’ – not to mention the high summer humidity Auckland is infamous for – and come Anniversary Weekend (Jan 26 & 27 this year) I’m definitely starting to wilt.
Funny then, that for the past 10-15 years, I’ve spent most evenings through the middle of the month watching motorsport – in this case coverage of the annual Dakar Rally on Sky.
Like most established ‘media’ organisations Sky is struggling to stay relevant in a world of Smart Phones and Free Apps. Sometimes, though, it’s nice to know that at – say – 7.30pm each evening you can blob out in front of the box and watch a commercial half-hour wrap of the previous day’s action on ‘The Dakar. Which is why I won’t be relinquishing my sub anytime soon.
What’s so special about ‘The Dakar, particularly for someone like me – who you’d think would be looking for some respite from racing by the second or third weekend of the month – I hear some of you ask?
For me it is a combination of things, though the key one is the classic ‘man (and machine) vs a rough, tough off-road route often little more than GPS way-points (rather than a formed road or even track).
Sure recces are done and the course is checked (by helicopter) each morning before the first ‘car,’ motorcycle, quad, UTV and/or truck is flagged away. But more often than not the idea of a road, track or even way forward is a loose one.
Which, of course, is part of the event’s enduring appeal.
It’s such a multi-faceted event too, being one of the few (actually probably the only one now that I think about it) that brings together all the many and varied strands of my own broad-based interests, from dirt bikes to quads, rally cars to UTVs, and 2WD vs 4WD, with only the outrageous race trucks outside my area of direct experience.
These days of course ‘The Dakar is very much a time-based, special stage event held in South America each January with victory in each category going to the rider or crew who cover the 5000 or so kms in the quickest possible time.
In theory that has always been the case, too. In practice, however, the original Paris-to-Dakar event put together by French off-road rally maverick Thierry Sabine in 1977 was more a 10,000km marathon adventure for privateers like himself, than WRC-style option for manufacturers like Peugeot, Citroen, Toyota and Yamaha to demonstrate how tough they could build their cars, bikes, 4×4 station wagons and now SUVs.
It’s fair to say that the French are good at this style of romantic, larger-than-life event. So it should come as no surprise that after Sabine’s death in a helicopter crash in the desert during the 1986 event then several years being run by his father Gilbert, ‘The Dakar’ is now owned and run by the Paris-based company which also owns and organises the annual Tour de France cycle race, Paris Marathon and French Golf Open, the Amaury Sport Organisation, or ASO.
After threats by terrorists caused ASO to cancel the 2008 event from Lisbon to Dakar, it was revived in South America in 2009 and if anything is now more popular than ever.
This year, for instance it has attracted 334 entries across the various two and four wheel classes, including those of the calibre of nine-time WRC champ Sebastien Loeb, 2018 event winner Carlos Sainz, and the man they call ‘Mr Dakar,’ 13-time overall winner, motorcycle-turned-car ace Stephane Peterhansel.
Manufacturers come and go, as – interestingly enough – do theories on the need or otherwise for 4WD.
When I last looked (on Monday Jan 14) this year’s event was being led by former winner Nassar Al-Attiyah and co-driver Matthieu Baumel in one of the Toyota Gazoo South Africa team’s stunning V8 petrol-engined Hilux 4WDs. Second, however, was one of the ex-works twin-turbo V6-diesel 2WD Peugeot 3008 ‘Buggies’ of Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elana, third, another 2WD ‘Buggy,’ this time one of the new MINI JCW 2WDs of Stephane Peterhansel and David Castera third.
BMW MINI is hedging its bets this year by running a three-buggy team of 2WDs for their ‘star’ drivers plus five of the high-riding 4WD ‘rally’ models for a team led by Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and co-driver Alex Haro.
Even watching the event on TV you can see how tough and uncompromising the terrain is, making you wonder why anyone would bother with 2WD.
However, given the fact that the so-called Buggies can run with bigger wheels and tyres and have considerably more suspension travel than a similar 4WD vehicle, means that unless the conditions go really pear-shaped, power, momentum and less weight and complexity gives them an advantage over the heavier, more complex 4WDs.
That has been the case for the past three years, anyway, with Stephane Peterhansel using a works Peugeot 3008 DKR 2WD ‘Buggy’ to claim the overall win in 2016 and again in 2017 then Carlos Sainz taking over for victory last year.
Certainly Toyota Gazoo Racing has been torn between staying loyal to its production-based 4×4 Hilux utes and building a 2WD Buggy. However, by recruiting former event winner (2011 in a MINI 4×4) Nasser Al-Attiyah the company just might be able to turn the tide back towards production-based 4WDs, particularly now that Peugeot closed its works team last year and sold its 3008 2WDs to a privateer squad to run this year.
With motorcycles now limited to 450cc (single or twin) 4-stroke engines the two wheel category – sadly – only holds a passing interest to me these days. Likewise the Quad one, though having tested top NZ off-roader Ben Thomason’s Polaris UTV for a story in NZ4WD four years ago now, I can certainly see the appeal of running in the Side-by-Side class.
If you want to really blow your mind, however, it’s the trucks which get my vote. For no better reason than why they are in the event in the first place. Not to mention the way they buck, bounce and generally defy the laws of physics, gravity and the road as they follow the same tracks as the bikes, cars and quads at speeds of up to 160km/h.
Way back when, you see, when the event was in its infancy, trucks tagged along – as they might do with a circus – carrying the 1001 things a mobile event might need – from tents and mobile kitchens to comms equipment and medical supplies.
Some of the competitive spirit from the bike riders and car drivers and co-drivers obviously rubbed off on the truckies and crew members and pretty soon one truck started racing another to get to the next checkpoint or overnight stop first.
Of course there were accidents and near misses to the point where in 1980 a separate category was created with two classes for competition-only machines and a third for those which still play a role as support vehicles!
Our own generally mud-based off-road racing scenes (on both two and four wheels) could hardly be further from those regarded as training grounds for a sand, rock and fesh fesh (fine dusty sand) based event such as the Dakar. Australia gets a look-in, however, thanks to the likes of works KTM rider and former bike category winner Toby Price (and this year) a bloke with a decent sort of Kiwi connection, Stephen Riley – and co-driver Trevor Hanks – in a much modified, high-riding (try 6 litre V8 & 6-speed Hollinger sequential gearbox driving all four wheels through a tricked out transfer case) VE Holden Commodore ute.
Riley is a dairy farmer from country Victoria who parlayed a decent sort of enduro career on two wheels to an even better one on four, contesting the Australian Safari 12 time and winning it outright three.
He first came to notice here when he brought over a Suzuki Hayabusa-powered ‘Buggy’ to compete in one of Grant Aitken’s first Silverstone Race to the Sky events in the Cardrona Valley then returned in 2015 for the one-off Repco-backed repeat with the VE Commodore he shipped to Peru for this year’s Dakar.
For the past six years Auckland-based adventure tour-guide extraordinaire Greg Paul has also incorporated guided tours of ‘The Dakar event as part of an annual guided trip package through South America.
Like a lot of people, I guess, I sometimes find my mind wandering, thinking what I would do ‘if I won Lotto?’ A definite would be to tag along on one of Greg’s tours to see what it is like, first hand.
Until then, I’m actually quite happy with a little escapism via Sky’s highlights packages each night.
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