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Orpi Maroc 2006 Special-Newssection
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This is the single-news section of the
marathonrally.com rally-live special of the Orpi Maroc rally 2006.
To see all news please use the link under the article or navigate
with the left main-navigation.
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Orpi Maroc: Nissan pulls out a good lead in the T2 category
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Like yesterday, due to the recent bad weather, the route of the Orpi Morocco Rally has been altered. Two special stages were scheduled for today, between Erfoud and Ain Beni Mathar in the northeast of the country. The second stage, 230 km long, saw a collective "gardening" session in the final part of the stage. For Team Nissan Aventure, who were among those caught out, the day finished well in both their category and in the overall classification. Christian Lavieille and Arnaud Debron are currently lying in 15th position, and are still in the lead of the T2 category, with a lead of 15 minutes.
After a 177-km liaison section, the remaining competitors in this 7th edition of the Orpi Maroc set off for the day?s first stage, which was 72 km long. After this warm-up, the second timed stage (230km) was to prove to be rather more redoubtable, especially in terms of navigation - including in the front of the rally, where Stéphane Peterhansel put in the best operation of the day.
It was therefore a long day´s work for Christian Lavieille and Arnaud Debron, with their Nissan Pathfinder. For the driver, the day was quite nice, completing two thirds of the stage at a good pace.
"This morning, we started out quite cautiously, as the day before, during the briefing, Cyril Neveu was quite pessimistic about the state of the route. As a number of storms had hit the region again, we could have faced some nasty surprises. However, the road-book proved to be quite precise, so we could follow the notes. We were on the right pace, but without pushing too hard. The second part was mainly made up of fast sections. Flat out all the time. Unfortunately, between CP2 and CP3, things got a bit more complicated. Arriving at a fork in the road, I turned right while Arnaud was telling me to go straight on. As all the tracks were going to the right, I thought I´d made the right decision. We were going towards a plateau, but when we got to the end, we understood that we´d made a mistake. It was difficult to correct the mistake afterwards, as although some indications from the road-book matched, it is impossible to backtrack with total confidence. You always wonder, and until the GPS lights up to show the checkpoint, you keep on worrying. Arnaud kept on talking about a pink house which should have been a marker. I must admit I gave a sigh of relief when we found it. A few kilometres from the finish line, we stopped to help Pedro Grancha, who was bogged. After a few attempts, we had to give up. In all, with getting lost and stopping to help Grancha, we muist have lost about 15 minutes. Despite everything, we have done quite well, pulling out the gap over our main rival, Maze Sencier."
Arnaud Debron was fuming at the finish point: "I am furious, because the notes concerning this fork were correct, and I am cross with myself for not insisting that Christian should have gone straight on. All those tracks perturbed our judgement. A number of times, we got back on the right heading, but we were still wondering. It was such a relief when the GPS came on and we could stop worrying. The car was perfect. We just changed the aerodynamics of the exhaust slightly, going down a step. Nothing too serious."
2006/06/01 I 23:04 CET I Editor: marathonrally.com/Dessoude
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