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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: Stage 1 Summary: The Volkswagens Blast Off.
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Giniel de Villiers and Carlos Sainz's Volkswagens dominated the double loop out around Erfoud for this first stage of the Rally Orpi Maroc. Clearly greatly at ease for this start on high speed pistes, the official Race Touareg IIs are ahead of Schlesser's Ford Buggy and the Mitsubishi Pajero trio led by Japan's Masuoka. For the motorcycles Marc Coma (KTM Repsol) is in front of Casteu and Despres (KTM Gauloises), the latter conceding already 8 minutes to the leader.
Seasoned rally racer Carlos Sainz's smile at the end of his second 137km loop says it all - his average speed was an awesome 123 km/h! Undisturbed by his team mate Giniel de Villiers, who went faster on the first loop, ending up ahead of him for this first stage, the "Matador" enjoys his position 32 seconds behind the South-African as he knows who will be 'clearing' for him tomorrow the road to Aïn Benimathar. On these two very fast-paced first loops the VW Race Touareg IIs showed a noticeable superiority over their main rivals, the official Mitsubishi Pajeros. And even Jean-Louis Schlesser with his powerful Ford Buggy only succeeded in grabbing the third place (less than 2 minutes behind de Villiers).
Leaving in the early morning with a full tank and a resulting 80-kilos worth of extra weight, the Mitsubishi drivers had trouble keeping pace. Having opened the first special and lost over 3 minutes in it Peterhansel & Cottret could only resort to damage limitation in their second run of the loop. So it was Hiroshi Masuoka who led ahead of Peterhansel and Roma the trio of red-diamonded cars, earning the 4th place of the stage. For his first miles at wheel of a semi-official Race Touareg Portgual's Sousa got a logical 7th place just ahead of Philippe Gache's buggy SMG.
In the T2 production class the advantage went to the Team Dessoude's Nissan Pathfinders. Fallen victim to a puncture in the first special Christian Lavieille had more luck in the second run of the loop. In the meantime his rival Pascal Thomasse (Mercedes ML) wasted precious minutes waiting for the all-women Corentine Quiniou/Virginie Soulaire team (Toyota Landcruiser) to deliver him a spare battery and alternator. The 'girls' went ill-rewarded for their kindness: 10km on they went for a roll that brought and end to their Moroccan adventure. Another woman, Portuguese Madalena Antas, also had to retire from the race after the motor of her Nissan Pickup broke down.
Lots of excitement also for the two wheels in the Rally Orpi Maroc today. Four months after the race in Tunisia, Marc Coma (KTM Repsol) still finds the same pleasure in African rallying and grabbed the overall lead. Lucky yesterday evening with the drawing of lots for the starting order, the Catalan was already a comfortable 3 minutes ahead of Casteu (KTM Gauloises) and more than six ahead of Despres (KTM Gauloises) on the first loop. As for Isidre Esteve his chances of victory evaporated at km 55 when the shock absorber of his new KTM broke apart and the winner of the last Rally Optic 2000 Tunisie ended up around 42 minutes behind.
In the second round Coma confirmed his form, moving Casteu to 4 minutes behind and Despres to almost 8 minutes! Leaving towards the end of the pack this morning, Chile's Francisco Lopez (Honda 450) race was up to expectations: the South American is in the slipstream of the best 660s and in the 8th place overall - only a few seconds away from Michel Gau (KTM Gauloises), Cyril Despres' water carrier. In the 450s Lopez outsmarts Portugal's Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha) by 8 minutes and is more than a quarter of an hour ahead of Polli and Charliat and Lazard's KTMs. Meanwhile Polish Czachor (KTM) had to put an end to his race because of a broken motor.
In the quads category there is an ongoing duel between Declerck (Yamaha) and Deltrieu (Polaris). Today Declerck lost against Deltrieu, having unsuitable fuel and the anti-puncture liquid unbalancing his quad over 100km/h - for a total loss of slightly less than 3 minutes.
2006/05/31 I 23:55 CET I Editor: marathonrally.com/NPO
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