Dakar 2006 - Stage 9

[klaus]

stage 9 - Monday 9 January 2006 | Nouakchott > Kiffa (http://www.dakar.com/2006/DAK/LIVE/us/900/parcours.html)
Connection 30 km
Special 599 km
Connection 245 km
Total 874 km
The well track

For the rally’s longest special, stretches of dense dunes over twenty kilometres in length follow on from each other at the beginning and the end of the route. Between the two sandy stretches, driving will be over a fast, rocky track. At places, the track crosses large dunes which will have to be got round to stay on large, black-soil plateaux.



http://www.dakar.com/PHOTOS/DAK/2006/900/PARCOURS.gif

http://www.dakar.com/PHOTOS/DAK/2006/900/FRANCE_ETAPE.jpg

[klaus]

First Bike off the special stage at 7:30 GMT > 11:30PM PST Sunday

First Car off the special stage at 9:21 GMT > 1:21AM PST Monday

[dustyhusky]

...and its again a reverse start.
With Chris only a few minutes behind Esteve, Cyril and Coma--and with the track burned in...and with lots of high speed stuff over a very long distance...this would be a stage he might even win. If he just joins that group of 4 and follows them in....it could be really good. But of course its a 600km stage and anything is possible. Just thinking out loud....

[plantman]

Schless and Bailey.tracking seems to stoped at 101KM

[KeithTurk]

Everyone else have Miller back a bit?

[subrunner]

My IR Track shows that Robby started the stage this morn.. Maybe he's not out.

[plantman]

Miller 186KM
KLeinschmidt 210KM
Magnaldi 247KM
all still moving
R GORDON at KM128 ????????

[Bohr7]

It's been stated that Robby is still going to continue on to Dakar, regardless of DQ'ing, the tracking is more than likely due to being required to follow the official route maybe? He is however, Officially out of the race.

[plantman]

Miller CP2 #8

[KeithTurk]

has everyone found the face to face portions? it's just a bit of information on the folks who aren't at the top... a daily diet of 2 competitors and a bit of information on them.... each stage has two... so you can go back and read the earlier posts...

http://www.dakar.com/2006/DAK/LIVE/us/900/rencontres.html

[KeithTurk]

This from Eurosport.... wow...

13:47 NEWS FLASH: Terrible news has just reached us as Australian Andy Caldecott has been killed. He fell at the 250km point of today's stage.

[bufeo]

God, that's bad news. Man, I have a real pit in my stomach.

[curtnrod19]

thats a terrible thing to hear.. thoughts and prayers go out to his freinds and family.

and to Chris, haul some *** and lets get a first in a stage now!!

[NIKAL]

From Robby's web site:


GORDON HUMMER EFFORT FADES IN NORTH AFRICAN DESERT

American racer Robby Gordon’s attempt to win the famed Dakar Rally in his first try as a team owner/driver came within half an hour of becoming a reality before a large clump of camel grass hidden behind a huge sand dune ended his chances. Gordon was making the treacherous Special Stage run over open desert, in fading light, between Zouerat and Atar, Mauritania when he came over a dune and found the sandy crest breaking away under him. Instead of landing in soft sand on the other side the Hummer impacted a large patch of native grass filled with hard sand known as “camel grass.” The otherwise minor impact pushed the front bumper bar through the grill of the Hummer which punctured the radiator.
Given that these set-backs are not uncommon in the Dakar, and even expected, Gordon his navigator Darren Skilton were not deterred and immediately began repairing the H3. All the water had drained from the system, so Gordon used on-board tools to saw the six-square-inch damaged section out of the radiator. He then pinched off the torn coolant tubes and sealed off the remaining damage with epoxy. Amazingly, the system held water so the only remaining problem was extricating the Hummer from the deep bowl of sand. The heat generated fro the effort blew the epoxy sealant from the radiator, again stopping the H3. In the meantime, Skilton had contacted the chase team via radio and gave them their GPS coordinates, but it was now dark and the car was so far off any known road there was no way to easily reach them. As fate would have it, the team’s T4 race truck, a race entry with spare parts for the Hummer, was stuck in the sand as well, thus it could not reach Gordon and Skilton. At this point Gordon radioed his main support crew for assistance. This assistance would automatically eliminate the team’s time from the race, but it was the only alternative if the crew was to start the next day.

Using special information from the race organizers the team’s main chase crew in a Hummer H1 carefully made its way to the last Check Point on the stage where they met up with a helpful Mauritanian military patrol which offered assistance in locating the race car. Even knowing the GPS coordinates nothing could be done until dawn, as the dunes are so difficult to navigate in the dark that the team would have risked stranding its only hope for extraction. By this time, of course, the Hummer’s official race time had expired so the only hope was to take the maximum time loss for the Special Stage and restart the race the next day in Atar. At dawn the crew finally located the H3 team and replaced the radiator but it was now another race against time to make it to Atar to restart the next stage between Atar and Nouakchot, some 170 kilometers away.

The official closing time for the restart was 1 p.m., but officials graciously allowed the H3 team a half-hour grace period to make the start. It wasn’t enough. The Hummer arrived one hour beyond the official allotted time and the Hummer was disqualified.


Gordon’s team still didn’t give up. After a few hours of sleep, Gordon and Skilton, driving the still damaged car with support trucks in tow, took off for Nouakchot hoping to convince race officials they would be willing to accept full-time penalties if they could reenter the race in Nouakchot. Gordon was not only trying to give his sponsors Hummer, Jim Beam and Toyo Tires as much exposure as possible but also to give his team more open desert racing experience with an eye toward next year’s event. The decision of the race officials, after much careful consideration, was still negative but they did grant the team the right to run the next day’s Nouakchot-Kiffa stage for experience. Since Nouakchot is a day’s layover for rest and repairs the Hummer crew is again working round the clock to ready the car for its final appearance in North Africa. After completing the 9th Stage the Hummer will drive directly to Dakar for shipment home. Once back at the team’s headquarters in Anaheim, Calif., Gordon’s off-road crew will completely disassemble the H3 and begin preparations for the Baja 500 in June.

[Sideways]

RG just through CP 1 on his Practice run of Stage 9


The decision of the race officials, after much careful consideration, was still negative but they did grant the team the right to run the next day’s Nouakchot-Kiffa stage for experience. Since Nouakchot is a day’s layover for rest and repairs the Hummer crew is again working round the clock to ready the car for its final appearance in North Africa. After completing the 9th Stage the Hummer will drive directly to Dakar for shipment home. Once back at the team’s headquarters in Anaheim, Calif., Gordon’s off-road crew will completely disassemble the H3 and begin preparations for the Baja 500 in June.

[RRose]

After completing the 9th Stage the Hummer will drive directly to Dakar for shipment home. Once back at the team’s headquarters in Anaheim, Calif., Gordon’s off-road crew will completely disassemble the H3 and begin preparations for the Baja 500 in June.

Robby is going to race the H3 in the 500? It would have to run trophy class, right?

[PBR]

Godspeed andy...

last year it was meoni(sp?), that is 2 huge names in the sport in 2 years... what a tragedy!!!

[CharlieIII]

and they said Caldecott's off was close to the same point as Meoni's last year. Kind of creepy...

[chino]

Godspeed andy...

last year it was meoni(sp?), that is 2 huge names in the sport in 2 years... what a tragedy!!!

And also Richard Sainct in the 2004 Tunisia Rally of the same team as Meoni and Despress.

[RacrDude]

Miller 7th today, up to 7th OA!!

Blais 9th today, up to 6th OA!!

Good Job Guys!!!

[curtnrod19]

and they said Caldecott's off was close to the same point as Meoni's last year. Kind of creepy...

i think Meoni's crash last year happend in stage 7 or 8 i beleive.. correct me if im wrong.. check out the list of withdrawls for the bikes and cars.. there sure is alot of them out of the race..

[RacrDude]

i think Meoni's crash last year happend in stage 7 or 8 i beleive.. correct me if im wrong.. check out the list of withdrawls for the bikes and cars.. there sure is alot of them out of the race..

The stage number might be different, but it was was reported to have happened on the same road, very close to the same place. Some are wondering if the riders are "relaxing" a little after getting out of the dunes and on to the fast road...either way...it sucks!!

[curtnrod19]

yeah ur right after reading some other forums that is the word. it does suck to lose another one of the worlds well known riders. lets just hope Chris finishes the race with no injuries and brings USA home a top ten...

[Stephen]

At least he was racing. Still a heartbreaker.

Mark Miller sounded a little disappointed in the team rules in the audio update. It also sounds like he could have made up some time if they'd let him run, it seemed like they really held back.