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Welcome to the Dakar Rally 2012 special newssection. To read an article just click on the specific headline below. All articles are visible for several years and under special subdomain [ COPY & CLICK HERE ] or use the SEARCH. |
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 | SA-Dakar Rally: First stagewin for Loprais Tatra, De Rooy stays in the lead.
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First stagewin for the Czech Tatra crew of Ales Loprais - and now the Czechs are "back in the fight" of the overall-win of the Southamerica Dakar Rally 2012. But, the Dutch Iveco of the Team De Rooy / Petronas are still leading - and dominating. In 2012 it also looks like, the "winning series" of the Russian Kamaz found definetely an end...
"According the organisation it would be a simple stage but that was rude awakening" reported Gerard de Rooy after the day. "Not our type of stage, more Kamaz-like and Tatra, so it was important to restrict the losses. At the end we are not unsatisfied with the result and also our team members Miki Bisaion and Hans Stacey arrived in time."
Hans Stacey said: "Again a few technical problems that restrained us from pushing the gas pedal. After 50 kilometres we had a breakdown of the tyre-deflation-system as a result of which our rear tyre lost pressure. We had to slow down in order to keep it safe. About 70 kilometres before the finish line, something went wrong with the front tyre and we even had to stop to change it to be on the safe side."
Team de Rooy continued where they stopped before the rest day in Copiapó. Gerard de Rooy is on the lead after 65 kilometres at WP1 and is 2:10 minutes ahead of Loprais, 3 seconds later followed by Ardavichus. Hans passes 4th at 3:11 minutes and Miki is also back again and takes the 6th place. After WP1 De Rooy fell back a bit and passed 4th. Hans Stacey was doing good and knew to keep up with Ardavichus who took the lead.
From that moment onwards the competition stays almost the same and WP3, 4 and 5 show an almost equal picture. Ardavichus still leads at WP5 and the rest of the field is quite near.
WP06 takes its toll and there are serious gaps in the field. Ardavichus loses his leading position and is 10:06 minutes behind Loprais. The Iveco camp is very close to Loprais and Gerard de Rooy, Hans Stacey and Miki Biasion passed within 10 minutes from the new leader. Also Jo Adua and Pep Vila did a good job and passed 8th and 9th.
In WP7 Loprais was still on the lead, directly followed by Gerard who´s only 2.06 minutes behind. The unlucky Italian Miki Biasion bounced back perfectly and is 3rd at 9:20 minutes.
Hans Stacey loses ground and is 6th at 16:47 minutes behind his direct concurrent Loprais. He also had some bad luck; his front tyre seems to give up and is changed preventative. It takes precious minutes. From that moment onwards we lose Jo Adua, we will hear later on what kind of problems he had, he finished more than an hour behind the leader of the rankings.
At the finish line the difference between stage winner Loprais and Gerard de Rooy has been reduced to 1.31 minute. Gerard stays the leader in the general rankings but does increase the tension. His team mates Miki and Hans maintained their position in the top-5: Miki finished 3rd at 12.20 minutes and hans 5th at 16.23 minutes. Also our fast Spanish service, Pep Vila, is amazing; today he is 7th and finished 24.20 minutes behind today´s winner!
As well Loprais as Gerard rained blows upon the followers of both leaders. Gerard lost 1:31 minute to Loprais and is now 15:39 minutes ahead of him. Contrary to that, the gap between Hans "Racey" Stacey and Loprais increased to 48:06 minutes.
2012/01/10 | 16:21 CET | ARTICLE: MR/SY/DEROOY/WEYENS
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