Saturday, January 8, 2011

Dakar: Rest Day...


The "rest" day marks the unofficial half way point of the Dakar and the last two days have been epically tough.  As it stands right now there are only 71 "cars" left in the event out of the original 140 that started.  At nearly a 50% attrition ratio the number of DNFs will continue and likely leave somewhere around only 1/4 to 1/3 of the competitors standing by the end.  Unfortunately a number of the lesser Nissan efforts are either officially out, or soon to be officially out as a day after the last stage finished a number of Nissan teams are still not scored.

That being said, the top five ranked Nissan efforts are all still running, though some, like Alfie Cox, have had major troubles (in his case a broken rear differential after hitting a rock).  Still, repairs have been made and the top teams are soldiering on.  As long as they keep running, regardless of their troubles, notable finishes await.  Hopefully the rest day will give the mechanics to give the vehicles a needed "freshening" and allow them to finish strong as the last few stages return to the "easier" (in terms of vehicle stress) WRC style tracks.

#306  Nani Roma, Gilles Picard, Nissan Overdrive--19th, 8:55
#312  Christian Lavielle, Jean Michel Polato, Team Dessoude--10th, 3:07
#317  Andrew "Alfie" Cox, Jurgen Schroder, Nissan Overdrive--24th, 11:46
#324  Alexander Mironenko, Sergey Lebedev, Nissan Overdrive--39th, 14:47
#330  Boris Garafulic, Nissan Overdrive--15th, 6:07
#331  Francisco Luis E Silvia Inocencio, Nissan Overdrive--DNF Stage 5
#334  David Deslandes, Team Dessoude--59th, 1:10:12
#339  Frederic Chavigny, Team Dessoude--46th, 18:17, 
#358  Ningjin Lu, Rely Double Star Tire Team--Never made the start
#372  Yong Zhou, Team Great Wall--UNK
#381  Carlos Machado de Oliveira, Team Dessoude--UNK
#384  Phillipe Porcheron, Team MMO--46th, 15:47
#394  Jose Manuel Salinero, Guardia Civil Rally Raid--UNK
#402  Herve Toscano, Biscauto Team--48th, 19:20
#409  Dominique Laure, Biscauto Team--UNK
#426  Kun Liu, Colcar Racing Team--UNK
#434  Hongzhi Guo, Team Dessoude--DNF Stage 3
#435  Juan Carlos Caceres Simons, Peru Rally Raid Motorsports--UNK
#443  Roberti Hernan Javier, Raid 4x4 TV Team--UNK
#451 Adriano Vagnini, Raid 4x4 TV Team--UNK







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