What an ugly turn of events...Nissan had lost one of its best hopes for a solid finish in Alfie Cox earlie on in the Dakar but was feeling confident given Krysztof Holowczyc's 5th place position and Christian Lavielle's top ten spot. Additionally there was Alexander Mironenko's top 25 position. They should have been able to help one another out and get some names up on the final leaderboard...
Not to be. In the span of 48 hours, Lavielle was forced to retire due to a leaking fuel cell (having burned his Nissan to the ground in the '09 Dakar he was taking no chances) and Holowczyc suffered a broken rear axle on his Navara today (first broken Patrol rear end I have heard of from these racing Nissans) which might have been repairable IF his support vehicle had not passed him on the course without noticing his position...Both Lavielle and Holowczyc are both shown as having withdrawn from the race...as has Mironenko, though for unknown reasons. This leaves the top running Nissan in the Dakar now in 33rd place some 26 hours down!! After such a great run in '09 this is truly disheartening. It may be a LOOOONG time before we ever see Nissans running in the top ten in the Dakar again given Nissan South Africa's withdrawal from motorsports and the seeming lack of interest on behalf of Nissan corporate anywhere in any kind of off-road motorsports.......
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