Dakar 2011 - Official Event Coverage - THANK YOU all Posters and Lurkers!

GOOD JOB, thanks for the KAWASAKI pics

missing pic
161 DEMELCHORI DIEGO ARGENTINE KAWASAKI RPM KAWASAKI

Official Dakar.com site is now showing rider quotes:

via: http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2011/us/pre-race-2/quotes-all.html

Frans Verhoeven: “Ready to attack!”

“A lot has changed since last year. Today, this team is officially supported by BMW. I’ve developed and tested the bike throughout the year. We have arrived with a superb team and talented riders. We’re ready for the race now, ready to attack. We are going to fight to reach the highest step on the podium and we’ll see how it turns out. During the Rally of Morocco, the bike showed that it was competitive, at least as much as the KTMs of Coma and Despres. As regards the team orders, we’ll see about that depending on our positions. We have three very quick riders: Goncalves, Ze Helio and myself. Pedro Bianchi Prata will be our water carrier. Any team racing orders will depend on how the rally develops”.


Quinn Cody: “I don’t know where I stand”

“I’ve been working on this project for several years. It’s quite amazing just to be here. The atmosphere in town is unreal. You’d never see such enthusiasm in the USA. Wherever you go, the only word on everyone’s lips is the Dakar. I’m feeling totally great – we had a great year with victory in the Baja 1000. It couldn’t have turned out better. I’ve received a lot of support from Americans who’ve taken part in the Dakar in the past. Johnny Campbell (8th in the Dakar in 2001) is here with me and is my team boss in the USA. Chris Blais has also helped me a lot, just like Jimmy Lewis. Now it’s up to me to do my best. I don’t really know where I stand in relation to the competition. I’ve never raced against these guys. I don’t know how I’m going to handle using the Road Book, but in any case, I’m going to give it my all”.


Pal-Anders Ulevalseter: "On the podium again"

“I hope to be on the podium again. I can’t wait to get stuck in. In any event, I’m on top form and I’m going to try and enjoy myself. For the moment, I don’t want to talk about the title. I just want to do my job and concentrate on each bend. Anything can happen on this type of race. The 450cc is fantastic. It’s a much easier bike to ride. You can brake later and accelerate earlier, even if the top speed isn’t the same. For me it’s perfect, since normally during the first winding steps in the mountains, I’m too slow. I hope that the bike is going to help me”.


Christina Meier: “It’s holiday time!”

“It’s a super bike. David (Casteu) showed last year that he could win stages with this machine. As far as I’m concerned” it should help me to simply finish the rally. Before, I raced on a Yamaha 450cc, so it’s the same engine power. This time it’s an ignition model, whereas before it had a carburettor, which should make it simpler for the high altitude stages. What’s more, it’s easier to handle and light thanks to the carbon. I’m delighted to be covering all this distance on the Dakar on this bike. I haven’t had too many opportunities to try out the 450cc model. I went to Southern France to test it once, but since I live in Northern Germany, it’s not simple. That said, I have managed to get some endurance races on a Sherco 300cc under my belt. I’ll just have to get used to the bike during the rally. But after a year of work, on the Dakar it’s holiday time!”

Another interview posted via the Dakar Rally iphone app:

An American star...

While never celebrating a Dakar victory, the United States has often done well in the motorcycle category on the world’s most prestigious rally-raid. There was Danny Laporte who finished runner-up to Stéphane Peterhansel in 1992. Then in 2003 Jimmy Lewis finished 3rd, winning three stages along the way. Other than Jonah Street, the man who could bring success to the stars and stripes is Quinn Cody, a newcomer who comes to the Dakar with some lofty ambitions. “The Dakar has been a goal for the past several years. It is THE ultimate challenge in terms of off-road racing. I‘ve watched the race for a very long time. I’ve been working on this project for the past two years. My goal is a top ten result but it would be fantastic to finish in the top five.” Above and beyond his determination, this California native has made a name for himself in American Baja racing and most notably on the prestigious Baja 1000, which he has won three times (2006, 2009 and 2010). Yet, the Honda rider knows that the Dakar must be taken on with humility and that more than anything else, he will have to demonstrate his capacity to adapt. “I know that I will have to be smart as well as patient during the first week. Back home in the United States, we go flat out from start to finish. I am physically ready and I have just finished a training session with Jimmy Lewis. The biggest difficulty will be navigation. I must be successful in remaining focused while riding. The other problem is that I will only get to learn about my Honda, which was prepared in Europe, when I arrive in Buenos Aires.” Quinn Cody’s Dakar will be full of new discoveries.

http://coberturadakar.blogspot.com/

http://www.mxzone.com.ar/site/index.php?page=blog&id=2841&title=SANCHEZ-ULTIMA-DETALLES

It's a good thing work is slow and I don't sleep! Keep it coming.

Google Dakar 2011 Big Map


The Route of 2011 Rally Dakar It give you a idea of distances and times. This map is for internet use only!! Do not use to navigate the Rally Raid course</PRE>Google-map-mapa-del-rally-dakar

Wow! Dakar Babes!

Not sure if this was covered as I didn't read all 8 pages, but another American is in the race. Also they are fielding a second bike (KTM 150 2 stroke) to become the only small displacement bike to finish the race. Let's root Mike on to the finish.

http://kc2dakar.tumblr.com/archive

Check out the blog!

Dominic

Odd they don't mention Chris Blais' podium in 2007.

I will be there tomorrow!Weather is perfect for clear shots!
Will update then.Any requests??????
Karl

Everything. You asked. And thanks.

Hey Neil!

Just to let you all know, Albert has chanced to number 96, to improve his start position (due to his experience)... he is being looked after by Desert Rose Racing too, and knows how to buy a mean pizza in the middle of 4 hour scrtineering today - top fella!

More info tomorrow (and on my Dakar Dazed thread too of course), but for now I need to finally get some sleep, and digest the hugest sweetest steak dinner I've had in a long time!

Toot toot for now!

Jenny x

ps. bike sailed though scrutineering and is tucked up in Parc Ferme now... more info 'from the inside' soon... x

Jonah Street #7 --- Quinn Cody #15 U.S.A.

Ze Helio #12 Brazil

Annie Seel #56 Sweden

Jenny Morgan #173 UK

Jonah and Niles in Scrutineering via: http://blog.cycleworld.com/?p=2375




Scrutineering: Standing in line and doing what you&#8217;re told. Here, master mechanic Niles Follin waits to get his papers checked.

Day Two of Jonah Street&#8217;s Dakar Rally adventure is in the books, so he called with an update and then e-mailed a few photos to us. This was a pretty hectic day for the Yamaha rider as he spent most of it chasing his tire supply. Meanwhile, master mechanic Niles Follin has been putting the finishing touches on Street&#8217;s JVO Racing-equipped WR450F.


Here&#8217;s what Street had to say today:

Well, it&#8217;s Day Two in Buenos Aires, and while it could have been a relaxing day by the pool after clearing scrutineering and technical inspection, I instead spent the day chasing tires. Originally, the bike was scheduled for a 10 a.m. tech inspection, but delays in the registration/scrutineering process have pushed that back to this evening. This gave my mechanic, Niles Follin, plenty of time to make sure that the bike is perfect while I went to break my tires out of Customs.

I&#8217;m happy to say that, as of right now, we finally have confirmation that we&#8217;ll get the tires tomorrow&#8212;for only $2200 in Customs fees. This is good because the race starts the next day!

Even though this is a big expense, it&#8217;s also a huge relief. Here&#8217;s why: Until 2 p.m. today, Customs officials were telling me that the tires would, in no way, be released until Monday due to the New Year&#8217;s holiday. Customs is actually closed right now for the weekend. If the officials released the tires on Monday, they would have to truck them across Argentina to catch up with the rally. That wouldn&#8217;t happen until Day Four of the race and would cost me $3500. So, I&#8217;d be stuck riding on one set of tires for four days or paying extra to buy tires on the fly&#8212;not good. And even though it will be $2200 out-of-pocket, it&#8217;s still the best (and only) option.

You might find this hard to believe, but I&#8217;m actually under budget for last-minute fees and expenses. If I can stop the bleeding with the tires, I should be good to go.

Moments ago, I learned that our tech inspection got pushed back to tomorrow at noon, so we have even more time to ready the bike. The JVO Racing-prepped WR450 is really nice. We added our personal stuff and still plan to change a few more things, but the kit is so solid that we really didn&#8217;t have to do much to it once we removed it from the crate.



The game of hurry-up-and-wait can take its toll. With 9500 kilometers of racing ahead, a nap doesn&#8217;t sound too bad!

I had a couple questions about my support crew that I think I can answer quickly. As part of its program, JVO Racing supplies a support truck and three mechanics for it 8-9 Yamaha/JVO-pilots. Niles is my personal mechanic and works only on my bike, which is nice. Thanks to my partnership with Yamaha, all of the parts that we use from the JVO truck will be replaced by Yamaha USA. This is very efficient and reduces the redundancy of parts and expense of shipping or worrying about them.

That&#8217;s all for now. I&#8217;m ready to get the tire problem solved (did I mention that the same crate also contains my KLIM Adventure Rally riding gear?!) and get the bike inspected and put away. Then, it&#8217;s race time.

Thanks for the Jonah update Brimstone.

From the Dakar Facebook page - here

From the GHR blog:

http://ghrhonda.dirtbike.com.au/2010/12/scrutineering-cleared/

In Glenn's words today "it was a long, long, long haul to get through scrutineering".

He called in at 1.00am his time on what is the morning of 31 December.

The bikes, the truck and the campers have all passed inspection now.

Brief outline of the last 24 hours:

2.00 am - Mechanics finish work and go to bed
5.30 am - Everyone up and on the move again
8.00 am - Arrive at scrutineering and queue up
9.00 am - Scrutineering starts
10.00 pm - Scrutineering ends
11.00 pm - Dinner then drive back to base
1.00 am - Everyone to bed, then Glenn makes his calls

One of the problems getting through today was the unfamiliarity with all the special navigation and safety equipment that must be fitted to the bikes. All of the new parts that GHR had engineered to suit worked well in the end, but the crew had anticipated some snags when fitting it all together. The issue today was the loss of so much time due to the strike and industrial action at the docks earlier in the week. What should have been going on then had to be done in the last day or so and the rest of the schedule leading up to today was turned upside down. Resolution of many of the problems fitting the required electronics took place in the queues for the inspection sessions today. Numerous one-off hitches emerged such as where to locate the beacons and flares securely on the machine. Each bike took about 3 hours to set up fully, but future events will only take half the time. 2012 will be a case of dropping the GPS and sentinel equipment in position and just plugging them in. The riders were understandably preoccupied with attending to their own bikes, but all team members and vehicles needed to be registered.

Tomorrow will be spent finishing off some of the remaining issues with the truck, completing the packing. Although the air-conditioning was supposedly working when the truck was bought, it no longer is. There may or may not be time to work that out. Some additional spares and wheels have to be dropped off with the event organisers' freight service for carriage part way through the event. This service was pre-booked as a precaution before the truck had been purchased and the team knew exactly what they could carry with them.

The crew have already found that fuel supply is very patchy, and not all service stations can sell as much fuel as they want when they want it. Glenn will have to do the rounds of any service stations he can find to ensure that the truck has sufficient diesel on board. Local currency conversions are also difficult and credit cards are not always accepted. The ATM machines have a daily limit so the team will have to hunt continue to down a healthy supply of cash money. He's also going to investigate roaming services for his Telstra SIM because the locally supplied Personal services are proving very unreliable.

He finished by saying they're trying not to do the maths on their sleep quota at the moment.

Us dutchies are getting ready as well :)



from www.rallymaniacsimages.com