Jan 14th, 2014 Dakar Rally Stage 9 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 9 of the 2014 Dakar Rally. After starting 56th, Robby Gordon had a great stage 8 and finished 10th. Gordon is now 24th overall. Robby Gordon will begin stage 9 at TBA

2014 Stage 8 Photos

STAGE 9 TRACKING

STAGE 9: CALAMA > IQUIQUE

Connection 29km | Special Stage 422km | Total 451km

COURSE OVERVIEW

The 2014 Dakar will reach its most northern point in Iquique, where the competitors will see the ocean for the first time this year. Above all, the drivers and teams will discover the Atacama Dunes again after a first part of a special stage which will be rather tedious. Dune specialists will be in command over a distance of almost 150km. Thrills will be guaranteed at the very end of the day, on the last three kilometres of the descent to Iquique: there is more than a 30% difference in height from start to finish and it is almost not recommended to break. The law of gravitation takes on its full meaning: the bivouac is not far away!

The GREEN section of the route is the connection , the RED is the Special Section of the stage.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by pdxracefan on January 14, 2014 at 11:13pm

Ugh.

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Permalink Reply by GLL on January 14, 2014 at 7:59pm

Thanks for the photo Sandi. What I love about Dakar. It takes more than "just a driver". Imagine the typical Na$car driver doing something like this.

I recall hearing that the VW teams of the had a $50 million budget. I would not think the mini effort would be much less. Robby runs on a fraction of that.

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Permalink Reply by speedy7 on January 14, 2014 at 8:27pm

@ SF7, do anybody know yet ??

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Permalink Reply by Speed Freak 7 on January 14, 2014 at 8:46pm

RG made it in under his own power and he sure didn't seem to back off on the downhill, doubt he is going to quit now. Just my speculation!

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Permalink Reply by mj on January 14, 2014 at 8:57pm

Ain't speculating its TRUTH . Robby won't give up even if he has to push the damn truck over the finish . GAS ON ROBBY WERE ALL BEHIND YA !!!!

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Permalink Reply by Sandi Parker on January 14, 2014 at 9:12pm

You're welcome GLL ... here's a better picture of what Robby was working on.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kenyon on January 14, 2014 at 9:17pm

great picture,add it,give credit

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Permalink Reply by Robert Ryan on January 15, 2014 at 3:16am

A lot of the small teams who are ahead of Robby have budgets similar to his. Granted the big budget efforts are going to be at the "cutting edge" but less funded teams are doing well.