2009 Dakar Coverage From Buenos Aries
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Detroit Bureau
The Auto Channel
Last night I mingled with an estimated 500,000 citizens of Buenos Aires, Argentina, celebrating the first DAKAR Rally in South America. Long a staple in North Africa, the rally once known as The Paris To Dakar Rally, now just Dakar, moved the start of its 31st event to South America after violence and the death of French citizens canceled last year’s event at the day before it was to have begun.
This year the event is sponsored, in part, by the governments of Argentina and Chile, governments who sought their chance to bring the world renowned event to South America in the turmoil following 2008’s canceled event. Today, January 3rd at 0500 217 bikers, 25 quad riders, 177 car crews and 81 others in trucks, 837 men and women took the checkered flag on their way to a journey covering 14 separate special racing stages, and a total distance of 5,700 miles.
I arrived in Buenos Aries on an overnight Delta flight, 10 hours from Atlanta, stepped into a Ford Focus taxi with Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA” playing. Welcome to Buenos Aires, the city of Tango. Tango defines the culture, popular art, and the people, though most I met said “Tango, it is so hard, so, no, I don’t dance Tango.”
After filling out more forms required for journalists and media following the rally and insuring that our Volkswagen Touareg 2 was properly prepared, we, the seven VW-sponsored scribes, wandered about La Rural, a huge multi-building exposition area.
We watched as vehicles underwent scrutineering, technical inspections and had decals for sponsors applied. We joined a throng of thousands in La Rural and looked at displays from sponsors, played the Chilean video games, drank Red Bull, and I wondered how to get into the Tango Palace for a quick lesson.
Afterward many of the VW team not assigned to racing cars (no mechanics o9r drivers,) feasted on Argentinean beef and Malbec wines. After a few hours of sleep we returned to La Real for a briefing on how to conduct ourselves on the event. No speeds over 110 kmh (about 65 mph,) following speed limits on the roads and in particular, in villages, and taking no produce whatsoever across the Chilean boarder. We also learned not to offer Chilean police any money, or in any way disregard their orders, all of which had been standard fare in North Africa.
Following lunch I took a stroll up a street bordering our hotel, Suipacha. It houses many shops devoted to Tango: shoes, skirts, music, and even (for ladies) a brief twirl with a flirtatious salesman. Later that evening I ascended a single flight of stairs above a cafÈ on Suripacha into Confiteria ideal to watch couples Tango. A very perfect ending to my few hours in Buenos Aires.
Today the rally began at 0500 with the first motorcycle leaving Parc Ferme at La Real. Following at 30-second intervals all race vehicles departed for the first day and first special, running 371 km from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa. The special, beginning 196 km from Buenos Aires in San Saladillo was the longest first special (racing) stage. Watching, the road resembled a sandy California or Nebraska farm road, all dry sand, dust, and gently rolling hills. The race cars we watched had “both feet and a brick” on the accelerator, and as top speed is over 200 kmh, they flashed by in seconds on their way to Trenque Lauquen and a speed limited liaison of 166 km to Santa Rosa. Thick clouds of dust trailed behind each car, enveloping our small crowd; we ate dust. It would be the first of many days spent in the turbulent vacuum cleaner bag that is the primal experience of the Dakar Rally.
Now, driving on the same liaison as the racers, we could be in Indiana, Michigan, or Nebraska surrounded by fields of sunflowers and soy beans, wire link fences separating them from this patched two-land asphalt highway. The architecture, buildings, utility poles, sign posts give away the difference.
In the bivouac, massively dusty and crowded, I chatted with American’s Mark Miller from the VW team, Robby Gordon, well known for his NASCAR racing, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz who is expected to be in contention for the overall win, as are Miller and Gordon. Their conversation is about the track, the dust and how quickly the cars overtook motorcycles and quads, even at the 40 km mark. Miller says he came upon three motorcycles at a T-junction at over 120 km, fully engaged in turning. Hummer H3 driver Gordon found quads and cycles alike, as did Sainz. They agreed that it is dangerous as the cars are running at 180 km, motorcycles at 120. They, and others, will ask the organizers to put more time between the last motorcycle and the first, fastest, cars.
But who won? I quote Volkswage Motorsports “Carlos Sainz/Michel PÈrin (E/F) finished second behind Nasser Al-Attiyah/Tina Thˆrner (Q/S) in a BMW. Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) follow in third place in another Volkswagen only 23 seconds behind Sainz. Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) completed Volkswagen’s good team performance with fourth position on the stage from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa in Argentina. Gordon finished first in his class, but 17th overall. “I guess I’m chicken,” he said.
Tomorrow we rejoin the bivouac; tonight is the Hotel Cuprum in Santa Rosa. Tomorrow we will drive 200 km as fast as permitted, 110 kmh to the race finish to see the racers arrive, then drive another 600 km to that night’s bivouac. And repeat…
