Dakar 2013 - Official Event Coverage - thank you ALL TeamF5, lurkers and posters!

These KTM engines when rebuilding them I know it would be nice to re-bearing the bottom end but is that really necessary?
The top end if free no penalty as long as you don't split the cases, so maybe if he did switch, refresh top end on off day see if it's strong enough then think about new engine if not up to song...my thinking anyway

"not been able to ride like we know he can"?

wonder why? but that would mean his engine probably has some life left in it

Agree!

There's been talk about Dabrowski having problems with one of his shoulders.

He's carrying a shoulder injury I think.

EDIT: Yes, confirmed here: http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/fr/pilote/047.html

+2

That's reasonable, an extra 45' would be too much.

But the weak link seems to be the gearbox. That's what framed Coma last year and is framing the Boss this one.

Gearbox is the only thing i can guess they want to inspect and make sure its not going to fail. the failure of a piston is not an option as i think they were doing it most of the race anyhow on the factory teams.

Any weather update as of this morning?

No inside news surfacing so far. The summary is:

-We know Despres and Dobrowski at least started swapping engines.
-Some suspect this decision was reversed when SS8 was shortened.
-We don't know if Dowbrowski's engine was already changed (some, I among them, are sure that we saw penalties on Dobrowski's time yesterday which are gone today).

Thanks for the replies and good to hear things are running fine. I'm away for an hour, so don't hurt the server to much

Good summary!

Morning Flatbillers, just up after a nightshift. Seems like I missed this years CDP scandal/crisis.

I'm sick of trannygate....how much longer until we get more racing

I'll re-post my question in case it was overrun. =)

Any one have any opinions regarding whether one should stick with France 4 tonight and skip ES 2 (interviews) since they overlap a bit? And no, I don't understand french... =)

this is what I remember catching and it got me thinking. Good summary. I have a feeling both official team announcements were made before the decision was made public to shorten the stage.

20 minutes to the start

youtre just in time for the denoument