Jan 17th, 2013 Dakar Rally Stage 12 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 12 of the 2013 Dakar Rally. Robby Gordon recorded his first win in Stage 11 , but remains 19th overall. Gordon will get the holeshot for stage 12 in an attempt to win his second stage of the rally. The cars are slated to begin the special section of stage 12 at 10:08am/et and Robby Gordon will begin his special section at 10:08am/et. Raceday chat will be available throughout the entire 2013 Dakar Rally.

2013 Photos

STAGE 12 TRACKING

STAGE 12: FIAMBALA > COPIAPO

Connection 396km | Special Stage 319km | Total 715km

COURSE OVERVIEW

This time the competitors will cross the Andes Cordillera from east to west, by the Paso San Francisco, and return to the Atacama Desert to experience every kind of difficulty that exists in a long-distance rally. The major sections of dunes are situated right in the centre of the special stage: the participants will have to climb the “cathedral” dunes and avoid entering the basins which are just as big. It won’t be any easier on the tracks, where rocks and stones, despite being scattered around, can immediately bring the fastest of them to a halt. Those who reach Copiapó with a perfect performance will score points for the overall standings.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Engrav on January 17, 2013 at 3:43pm

Finished 2nd on the stage, 4:18 back of Roma. Starting 2nd tomorrow, so another change to make up time.

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Permalink Reply by bighead on January 17, 2013 at 4:40pm

Tomorrow RG will grow wings....He will have a dust cloud to run down..

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Meyer on January 17, 2013 at 4:13pm

Looks like Robby will move up to 16th in the overall standings, only 11MIN 40SEC behind 15th and an hour and a half or so behind 10th. Another long stage tomorrow with about 40 miles of sand to hopefully bog down the leaders (other than RG).

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Meyer on January 17, 2013 at 4:33pm

Quote from Robby after the stage:

It was good. Unfortunately we spent too much stuck at a check point. There was a check point on a hill. As soon as we stopped, and it took us a while to stamp it, and we were stuck. Nobody's got here yet, but I think we started nine minutes in front of Stéphane, so it will be interesting to see. I'm pretty sure he's going to get us because we spent about ten minutes stopped. I don't know if I should be confident, we'll see. If it's not today, it will be tomorrow. There are only a couple more specials but I want to win all of them now. Kellon did an awesome job today. Unfortunately there was one check point on a hill and we spent about ten minutes stuck at it. The two-wheel drive is fine in the sand as long as we can maintain a bit of momentum, but as soon as you stop you're finished. I think the longer the specials are… it's unfortunate they cancelled those two specials because we should be inside the top ten with the way the rules are supposed to work, but they changed them and it is what it is.

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Permalink Reply by Team Maranello on January 17, 2013 at 4:52pm

I am confused by this one. Did they have a hard time finding the CP or the CP was sandy and by the time control stamped his card, the hummer got stuck?

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Permalink Reply by bighead on January 17, 2013 at 5:00pm

yup, exactly

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Permalink Reply by Kirk G on January 17, 2013 at 5:23pm

SP would get his time back!!

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Engrav on January 17, 2013 at 5:23pm

De Villiers today:

"We just wanted to have a clean stage, but for sure, today's stage was a lot tougher than I expected it to be. With a long liaison this morning at high altitude, that makes you really tired as well and then you have to do a tough stage like today. It needed a lot of concentration. There were quite long dune crossings and really tricky places in the dunes. Then, on the tracks there were lots of rocks, so you really had to be very precise so as not to hit any rocks. It was not an easy day, but we're happy to be here. We lost about thirty seconds at one of the way points in the dunes. We couldn't make it up to that one, so we had to turn around and sort of go round, because at that point I was quite close to Lucio and I saw he put a gap between us again. Obviously I knew we had lost some time, but it's the only mistake we really made today, but anyway, that's how it is. I think tomorrow's going to be tough as well. I think tomorrow will be more tough than today. I think it will still be difficult tomorrow. But hey, we're trying, yeah? We're trying, and it's not over yet."

So it looks like De Villiers had the same issue RG did, only De Villiers managed to not get stuck at that point.

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Permalink Reply by Kirk G on January 17, 2013 at 5:26pm

WP and CP are different. CP's you have to stop and get a paper stamped. WP's you just have to get close.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Romo on January 17, 2013 at 7:35pm

De Villiers is a 4wd that why it was 30 second delay.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Ryan on January 17, 2013 at 11:03pm

DeVilliers thought he good have done a lot better on that flood shortened stage as well. Anyway tomorrow will give an indication of who finds it "easier"