DAKAR

By Robb Pritchard #339 Toyota Hi-Lux……. The final note for yesterday’s opening stage was that the real Dakar starts today. 518km over a range of rocky, 2000m high mountains and then back down into the central Argentinean plateau, rocks, dirt, semi-desert and soft sand, the longest stage of the event had it all. In the […]

The longest single stage of Dakar 2015 – 518 km of rocks, sand and dust. That’s what the crews faced on the leg from the riverside town of Villa Carlos Paz to the arid San Juan, near the foothills of the Andes. And for a period shortly after the start of the stage, it was […]

He finished yesterday’s first stage 22 seconds in the lead. Then he was hit with a two minute penalty and dropped to 7th overall. Maybe that is just what Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar in an X-Raid Mini All4 needed to wake him up. He finished the second stage of the South American Dakar, a long […]

A steady fourth place on a quick first stage where there was more to lose than to win, Joan Barreda got the show on the road today during the first major special stage of the Dakar with an imposing victory. Sam Sunderland experienced disillusion by getting lost for a (very) long time 70 km from […]

Yesterday’s winner of the first stage, Great Britain’s Sam Sunderland, has gone missing on the second stage of the 2015 South American Dakar today. Shortly after the start of the stage he seemed to get lost and has not been seen again on the stage since then. The stage was won by Joan Barreda on […]

After 200 kilometres of today’s 518km second stage of the 2015 South American Dakar, Nasser Al-Attiyah in an X-Raid Mini All4, had wiped out his two minute penalty of yesterday and retaken the  lead from Ortlando Terranova, also in an X-Raid Mini. In another interesting development, South African Leeroy Poulter in an Imperial Toyota Hi-Lux, […]

It was an early start for the team, leaving the hotel in Buenos Aires for the 5:15am start at the Tecnopolis which is where the parc ferme was. Riders loaded the first Dakar road books and donned jackets for the first liaison section of 144 Km’s. The 175Km special started at 7:50am and it was […]

As a kid in the 80s I used to love the Group B Peugeot 205 T16s and when they got banned by FIA it was the Duke video of Ari Vatanen crashing on the 1987 Paris-Dakar prologue and the following drive from last to first that I used to watch. That was 28 years ago. […]

The winner of the first stage of the 2015 Dakar yesterday, Nasser Al-Attiyah in an X-Raid Mini, lost his lead later when he was penalised for driving at 68km/h in a 50km/h zone. He was handed a two minute penalty that dropped him down to seventh overall and gave his team mate Orlando Terranova the […]

The Dakar cannot be won in the first stage, but it sure can be lost. A tough lesson for defending champion Nani Roma, who had to stop after tackling a bump a few kilometres into today’s special. The Spaniard stopped for several hours, and it would take a miracle for him to win in Buenos […]

Speedster Sam Sunderland delivered on his promise at the end of an opening special just 175 km long, beating Paulo Gonçalves (Honda) by a slim margin to claim KTM’s first win of the year. Marc Coma and Joan Barreda had an uneventful day on the saddle, biding their time for when the race reaches rougher […]

It was like a repeat of the 2014 South American Dakar. Nasser Al-Attiyah in a X-Raid M put the hammer down on the first stage today and won the stage with a time of 1:12.50. Second, provisionally on the stage was the X-Raid Mini All4 of Orlando Terranova, 22 seconds behind. Robbie Gordon in his […]

Sunderland: “I’m a contender… for the first day!”   “It’s difficult to judge your strategy based on the first day because you still don’t know who’s pulled out all the stops. It’s also important not to go all in, you’ve got to leave something for the other stages… However, I think I had a good […]

 Not content with success in the FIA World Touring Car Championship, Tom Coronel is about to embark on the toughest challenge of them all: the Dakar Rally.The cross-country event, which covers a distance of 9111 kilometres in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, begins on January 4 and Coronel will be very much going it alone. Having […]

(The first article giving background information on the 2015 Argentina Bolivia Bolivia Dakar. The articles will be written exclusively for www.rallystar.net by our correspondent Robb Pritchard who will be following the event on every stage) You always hear how big it is but until you actually see it, the scale of the Dakar is a […]

After going unbeaten on the Dakar for three years, X-Raid’s Michelin-equipped Mini ALL4 Racings face opposition from an armada of Toyota Hiluxes, buggies, a Hummer and the new Peugeots during the 2015 event’s 9,000km loop through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, beginning in Buenos Aires on January 4. Inevitably, the new Peugeots 2008 DKRs will be […]

Every year for the past 35, off-road professionals and enthusiasts have gathered to take part in the Dakar Rally. Considered by many to be the most challenging of its kind — and certainly one of the most venerable — the race kicks off this year on January 4. Among the hundreds of competitors, only one […]

With a sequence of three consecutive successes and a Mini that boasts proven reliability and performance, the X-Raid team can claim to be the favourite for the 2015 edition, with title holder Nani Roma and Nasser Al Attiyah. However, the arrival of a majestic trio behind the wheels of the brand new Peugeots could disrupt […]

The Dakar Rally, universally recognized as the toughest offroad event on the annual motorsports calendar has been safe in the hands of KTM For thirteen editions. It all began in 2001 when Italian Fabrizio Meoni rode a KTM LC4 660R to victory. On January 4, 2015, KTM goes for a potential fourteenth title with a […]

 For all those who love rally raids, the end of the year is synonymous with the start of the most legendary of races, the Dakar. For Team Dessoude, who will be entering three cars, this new adventure started with a great surprise, the sort of surprise that cannot be anticipated and which does a lot […]

Attempts to finish the Dakar in a Beetle date back to the 1980s but have never been successful. Stéphane Henrard is back at the Dakar after a hiatus spent developing a Beetle capable of handling the dunes: the DunBee. Everyone in Mexico has heard of the Beetle’s exploits. However, Stéphane Henrard has spent several years […]

All the lights are green for Marc Coma, the favourite to achieve his fifth win in the Dakar, which would also be the 14th consecutive title for KTM, although the competition, with Barreda and Gonçalves for Honda, Pain for Yamaha, etc. will fight it out without any complexes… Everything comes to an end, but it […]

 The two Renault Duster vehicles that will compete in the 2015 Dakar Rally were built in South Africa, says the French automaker. The space-frames for the Dusters were co-designed, developed and built in South Africa, and its new 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine — which makes around 250kW and 500Nm — was also developed locally. The […]

 The Red Bull backed Peugeot team is attempting to win the Dakar Rally next month, but there are only two small drawbacks: firstly, they haven’t done it for 25 years. Secondly, they have only a two-wheel drive car – and the last time a two-wheel drive car won the epic event was back in 2000. […]

12/10/14 For the first time in history, the Dakar will feature a marathon stage for the truck category with a stop at a dedicated bivouac near Iquique. This important element will be among the difficulties Andrey Karginov and the Kamaz team will have to manage, which has many advantages to continue its domination on the […]

• Second Dakar Rally appearance for former Argentinean WRC star • Villagra to team up with co-driver Andrés Memi in South African-built Ford • South Racing and Neil Woolridge Motorsport continue partnership • Argentine energy company YPF supports Dakar Ford Ranger project • Villagra attracts personal support from Ford Argentina for gruelling rally South Racing […]

PEUGEOT is competing in the 2015 Dakar Rally hoping to write a new chapter in a remarkable history at the event. When it entered in 1987, PEUGEOT became the first car manufacturer to take on the unique challenge posed by this gruelling endurance race. It then sealed its place in the record books by winning […]

The team at Toyota Motorsport sighed a massive sigh of relief on Friday 12th December 2014, when the two locally developed and built Imperial Toyota Hilux race vehicles left the workshop in Barbeque Downs – next stop Buenos Aires. The two newly completed race vehicles (piloted by Giniel de Villiers and Leeroy Poulter, with Dirk […]

With just less than a month to go before the start of the 2015 Dakar Rally, MINI declared that they have extended the commitment in the world’s most gruelling rally up till 2017. Meanwhile in 2015 Dakar Rally that will be held in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, Mini will attempt to continue its winning streak that […]

The Hino Team Sugawara is determined to achieve success in the form of a sixth successive class win (engines under 10 litres capacity) and a high overall placing in the 2015 Dakar Rally in South America. The reason is that next year’s event will mark the 25th anniversary of Hino’s first appearance in the Dakar […]

TVS Racing, the racing division of TVS Motor Company, will become the first Indian automotive brand to participate in the legendary Dakar Rally, after an association with French motorcycle manufacturer Sherco for the event. Under the banner of Sherco TVS Rally Factory team, French riders Alain Dulcos and Fabien Planet will ride the two machines […]

Toyota South Africa says it has made some important changes to its racing Hilux ahead of the 2015 Dakar Rally that starts in January.”We are very pleased with the latest evolution of our proven Toyota Hilux Dakar bakkie,” said Team Principal Glyn Hall. “This is the third generation of the vehicle which came third in […]

For motorsport enthusiasts the month of January is synonymous with only one thing: The Dakar Rally. The 2015 race promises to live up to the legend created by the 35 previous editions of what has become one of our planet’s most iconic motorsport events. As in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Imperial Toyota South Africa […]

The BAMP project, headed by Dos Santos the Portuguese pilot, partners up with the South African manufacturer of the Nissan V8 cross country rally car, Red-Lined Motorsport, to develop a top competition race car for the Dakar Rally The new Nissan returns to off road competition in the Dakar Rally with the new V8 Navara […]

Albert Bosch is all set to tackle his ninth Dakar as the first driver ever to go 100% electric. A challenge worthy of this adventurer extraordinaire.He just cannot say “no” to a challenge. Albert Bosch, a Dakar regular, has completed the rally on a motorcycle (51st in 1999) and in a car (29th in 2001). […]

2011 Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (QT) will start the 2015 Dakar Rally (3-17 January) in a MINI ALL4 Racing, built  by the German-based X-raid GmbH. It will be the eleventh Dakar start for the 43-year-old Olympic bronze medallist in skeet shooting.   The addition of Al-Attiyah makes it a total of nine MINI ALL4 […]

 The 2015 Dakar Rally starts in Buenos Aires on January 7, the gruelling three-week test of man and machine taking in Chile’s Atacama desert and Bolivia’s salt flats before a finish back in the Argentine capital.The seventh edition to be held in South America and unveiled in Paris on Wednesday, marks the return of Peugeot, […]