TAKE 2.
BIKES
American Ricky Brabec won a second title following his triumph in 2020, by resisting Ross Branch on his Hero, the first Indian bike to grace the Dakar podium, onto which Adrien Van Beveren climbed for the first time in his career, with third place, also riding a Honda. Ross Branch pushed him all the way. He was a candidate for overall victory right up to the finish, even though he had been deprived of his team-mates. Branch led during the first week before being overtaken by Brabec who was coming into top form.
Nevertheless, the native of Botswana has offered the African continent a podium finish for the first time since Alfie Cox took third place in 2005.
The Benavides brothers, Toby Price and Daniel Sanders were never able to contest the domination exerted by the Honda riders. So a disappointing Dakar for KTM and
it is the first time since 1993 that no European constructors are on the final podium.
CHALLENGER
The disqualification of Eryk Goczał and his uncle Michał, as well as the withdrawal of his father Marek, completely changed the fight for the title in the Challenger class. On the evening of the rest day, Mitch Guthrie found himself in the lead in the general rankings, twenty minutes ahead of Cristina Gutiérrez, his nearest pursuer. With a win on stage 7 and a podium finish the following day,
Guthrie was managing to maintain a sufficient gap to control the race up to the end of the eventyand the victory which seemed within his grasp. . However, its never over until tits over and the finish line has been crossed.....it proved to be true once again. Guthrie only had 174 kilometres left to cover, but sadly for him he had a mechanical problem just seven kilometres into the special. Helped by his co-pilot Kellon Walch, he managed to resume, but his lead soon dropped to a little more than 1’30’’. It was to get worse on a special that soon turned in Gutiérrez’s favour. Guthrie was on track looking good but the transmission of his Taurus decided otherwise. He eventually reached the finish more than half an hour after Gutiérrez,and thus had to make do with the second place on the final podium, with Rokas Baciuška third. Rokas, just one year ago, lost the Dakar in similar circumstances in the SSV category.
Gutiérrez has become the second woman to win a title on the Dakar following Jutta Kleinschmidt, who was the quickest of the elite cars in 2001.
SSV
The SSV's finish was also down to the wire.... Xavier De Soultrait and his co-pilot Martin Bonnet scraped home and now can stop holding their breath. Nonetheless, it was a close thing After respectively winning stages 10 and 11, Sara Price and Jérôme de Sadeleer were both among the contenders.
Following a penalty on stage 10, ‘XDS’ only had a lead of a little more than ten minutes over Price, who put herself out of the race for the title the following day by losing more than one hour due to a navigation mistake. As for de Sadeleer, he almost succeededby coming to within three minutes of the leader with 174 kilometres left before the finish. However, de Soultrait used all his experience and held on. He did not let Sadeleer out of his sight and in the end only lost around twenty seconds overall. As a result, he has won his first tile on the Dakar. It was a good Dakar for Polaris, when Florent Vayssade, de Soultrait's team-mate, won the final special stage. It brought an end to an almost unchallenged reign by Can-Am.
TRUCKS
Magic Macík! The Czech flag fluttering in the breeze is a classic image from the 1990s, an era synonymous with the Tatra driven by Karel Loprais, who picked up his last triumph in 2001. It was Martin Macík who put his country back at the top of the truck category,
At first nobody had seemed able to beat Janus van Kasteren in the fight, not even Aleš Loprais, his main rival last year before a premature exit. Loprais tried valiantly at the beginning of the race, but van Kasteren was always a step ahead. As for Macík, he took time to get going. He was three quarters of an hour off the pace by the end of stage 4, . During the marathon stage 6 Macík seemed to be the toughest out of all the trucks, Loprais lost more than 1 hour in the dunes .. It was almost three times as bad for van Kasteren, crushing the Dutchman’s hopes of defending his title. This vaulted the patient Macík to the top of the general rankings in his Iveco (nicknamed ‘Cenda’),
Macík featured in the top three for each of the stages after day five . Ending with four stage wins this year he finished with a lead of almost 2 hours,
Some stats re finishers:In total,
239 vehicles (versus 340 that took starter’s orders) reached Yanbu, including 96 bikes (vs 132), 7 quads (vs 10), 55 Ultimate class cars (vs 70), 3 Stock class cars (vs 3), 29 Challenger class cars (vs 42), 28 SSVs (vs 36) and 21 trucks (vs 47).
Among them, the riders, drivers and crews of 182 vehicles were able to climb onto the final podium to receive a finisher’s medal, with the remainder not having completed the entirety of the route.
Oh and nearly forgot.
DAKAR CLASSIC
The 4th running of the Dakar Classic was won by aother Spaniard by the name of Carlos. Not Sainz, but Carlos Santaolalla Milla, one who has been chasing victory for the three Classics . Following 6th in 2022 and 2nd last year, this year, with his Toyota HDJ 80, Carlos dominated what that will go down as one of the most hotly contested Classics ever.
Challenged by Ondřej Klymčiw in the first week, itwas then Lorenzo Traglio who threatened..... within a point of Carlos with two days to go. Both the Czech's Škoda and the Italian's Nissan Pathfinder suffered minor mechanical problems. . Carlos Santaolalla Milla and Jan Rosa I Vinas therefore won in Yanbu.
I cant get results up for the CLASSIC Division
Thats Dakar done and dusted for another year.. In other motorsport coming up in the not too distant future we have the Rolex 24hr and the Bathurt 12hr, both Sports car events, Daytona of course with the big Hypercar thingies.
Not sure how competitive Toyota will be next year. and following AL Attiyah's departure from them last year they have had no star name this year .... a tie up with Toyota would give Sainz the opportunity of a 5th win with different manufacturers.
The Historic section is brilliant though. 237 entries in the Historic / Classic Monte Carlo rally. 
