It was only one year ago that the Interwetten Racing Team was presented to the public, and after a successful year competing in eight rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) series, driver Franz Wittmann and co-driver Bernhard Ettel showed impressive speed and skill.
This time next month will see the first week of the 32nd edition of the grueling Dakar Rally in full swing. This the second year it will be hosted in South America, the rally action gets underway on 01 January in Buenos Aires.
The Dakar Rally is anything but just a race: with over 500 participants and crews entered, it is regarded as the biggest adventure motorsport offers. It has been said that the Dakar Rally is guided by just two simple principles: the next Dakar is always the toughest; and, expect the unexpected.
With a route stretching from ocean to ocean, reaching across the South American continent, with two crossings of the Andes and stages in the Atacama desert, the millions of spectators who flocked to witness the first event in South America at the beginning of this year can expect tougher stages and longer stages, with more desert and dune riding. Thee is 10 000km of racing lying in wait for competitors…
The 2010 edition of the Dakar Rally sets off from Buenos Aires via Cordoba and La Rioja to Fiambala. The Sierras Pampeanas, through which the first day of the rally is staged, will also mark the first endurance test of the event. The organisers are challenging the competitors from Day One. On the second rally day, in Cordoba, the route will then begin its first crossing of the Andes across the San Francisco pass (with an altitude of 4 726 metres above sea level).
The seven special stages in Chile and the ubiquitous Atacama desert form the Dakar
Rally’s centerpiece. The most arid region of the world, 100 times drier than Death Valley,
will be the venue of as many as four legs. From Copiapo via Antofagasta to Iquique and
back will be the most demanding part of the Dakar.
Antofagasta, the booming and most important port city in the north of Chile, will be host to the rest day on 09 January when no special stage will be held. Along the coast, the Dakar campaigners and crews will work their way forwards to Santiago via the sea resort La Serena.
From Santiago, after eight days in Chile and the second crossing of the Andes, the rally
campaigners will return to Argentina for the final show-down, the “third act” of the “Dakar”.
From San Juan, the rally route leads through fertile regions to San Rafael. The legendary pampas will be the setting for the final two special stages of the Dakar, and the small, pristine and quiet town Santa Rosa the last station before the contenders reach the rally’s finish in Buenos Aires after some quick gravel stretches through the vast lands of the pampas.
The crews to watch in the Vehicles Category are the defending Dakar champions Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (Volkswagen Race Touareg), who will be backed up by four other Volkswagen Race Touaregs of whom all are capable of winning the Dakar too: Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk, Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford, Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz and Mauricio das Neves/Clecio Maestrelli.
Always a threat, and aiming for his first win in the Vehicles Category, are Stephane Peterhansel/J-P Cottret (Team BMW X-Raid), with Nani Roma/Michel Perin and Guerlain Chicherit/Tina Thoerner supporting Peterhansel and also aiming for the overall victory.
Other crews to be on the lookout for will be Jean Azevedo/Youssef Haddad (Petrobras Lubrax Mitsubishi), Robby Gordon/Andy Grider (Hummer), Alfie Cox/Jurgen Schroder (Nissan), Leonid Novitsky/Andreas Schulz (X-Raid BMW) and Orlando Terranova/Pascal Maimon (Mitsubishi).
To read more about the Dakar Rally, don’t miss next week’s issue of HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS!
– Credit: MAP by www.dakar.com; IMAGES by Volkswagen Motorsport.