NISMO Stuff: 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