Written by James Broomhead – <ABBR class=published title=2011-12-30T19:21:13+00:00>December 30, 2011 2012 Dakar Rally Preview - Dakar - The Checkered Flag</ABBR>
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<ABBR class=published title=2011-12-30T19:21:13+00:00>The Dakar Rally is among the least predictable motorsport events of the year – more than 4,000km of competitive timed stages, across deserts, through valleys and over the Andes.The 2012 edition of the famous event is set to the most wide open event since the Dakar moved to South America in 2009.
The route for 2012 marks the first major revision since the event emigrated to from its traditional home. In every previous year in South America the event has started and ended in Buenos Aires with competitors racing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific with a succession of stages in the Chilean desert.
2012 will push the Dakar’s boundaries out of Argentina and Chile and into Peru. Where in 2011 Arica marked the northernmost point of the route at Chile’s tip in 2012 the race pushes on into Peru, through Nazca – world famous for the mysterious Nazca Lines – and onto the finish in the capital city of Lima.
The Peruvian kilometres add more treacherous dunes to the route further complicating a route and an event where a mistake costs minutes, even hours, rather than seconds and a seemingly assured victory can disappear in an instant. Just think of Carlos Sainz, who rolled out 30 minute lead just four stages away from victory in 2009, handing victory to Giniel de Villiers.
Not only is the route an unknown, but the field of drivers and riders lining up in Mar Del Plata for the start also features some important revisions.
Almost certainly the most important of these is the withdrawal of the works VW squad – the manufacturer concentrating on their impending entry into the WRC. Even more importantly is that the all-conquering Race Touareg that have swept the Car Class wins since the shift to South America have not passed into the hands of privateers – in contrast to the Mitsubishi equipment left surplus after they pulled their Dakar factory team.
Subsequently Mark Miller and Carlos Sainz do not appear on the entry list, while their teammates in 2011 race for two different teams in 2012.
Giniel de Villiers enters with a brand new Toyota Hilux Pickup he describes as being near the level of the Volkswagen. The South African has the enviable distinction of not retiring from any of his previous seven entries in the Car Class, and only missing the top ten on a single occasion, a record he is expecting to protect in aiming for a top five overall result.
Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah, however, swaps the Touareg for the two-wheel drive Hummer H3 of Robby Gordon Motorsports.
Gordon’s Hummers – and the American himself – have become a popular staple of the Dakar and 2012 could be the best chance yet for the team – Gordon drives the second vehicle – to clinch overall honours.
The Hummer’s weak spot in past years has been its two-wheel drive. While the regulations allow some advantages over the four wheel-drive cars – an automated tyre inflation system for example – and the Hummer has always been strong in the dunes the more WRC-esque tracks that have typified the Argentine stages of recent years have allowed the VWs and BMWs to build-up a lead early on.
Could the change in route play further in the hands of the Hummer pilots?
In order to win they will still have to beat the assembled X-Raid team – all running the MINI debuted by Guerlain Chicherit last year. The Frenchman does not return for another Dakar, but a five car team led by multiple champion Stephane Peterhansel will still take the start on New Year’s Day.
Alongside Peterhansel Nani Roma, Krzysztof Holowczyc, Leonid Novitsky and Ricardo Leal dos Santos all remain with the team into 2012. Peterhansel’s 2011 tilt was blunted primarily by recurring punctures that dropped him behind the VWs, Roma retiring on stage nine.
Peterhansel and Roma will likely lead the team in the General Classification again, but Holowczyc could be the dark horse of the team, after winning the Silk Way Rally Dakar Series event for the team in 2011.
The 2012 Dakar Rally begins for the 450-odd crews comprising 742 individuals on New Year’s Day with the ceremonial start in Mar Del Plata before a fortnight on one of the hardest races in the world.
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