Jan 9th, 2015 Dakar Rally Stage 6 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 6 of the 2015 Dakar Rally. Robby Gordon had an excellent 3rd place finish in stage 5. The special section of Stage 6 is 255km long. Robby Gordon start time: 9:57am/et, and he will be the 3rd car off the line. Gordon sits 32nd in the overall standings, 5h45m behind. Raceday chat will be available throughout the entire 2015 Dakar Rally.

2015 Stage 5 Photos

STAGE 6 TRACKING

STAGE 6: ANTOFAGASTA > IQUIQUE

Connection 392km | Special Stage 255km | Total 657km

COURSE OVERVIEW

The route will then climb up the Pacific coast towards Iquique. The motorcycles and quad bikes will cover a few extra kilometres as part of the special stage: a detour will take them into endurance-type terrain and onto mountain ridges with views over the sea. All the competitors will then explore the dunes which run alongside and dominate the coastline. But they won’t arrive at the bivouac via the famous descent. For the first time, the half-way point in the race will be marked on a podium in the centre of Iquique. The encounter between drivers and their fans will be emotional, following the earthquake which affected the region at the start of the year.

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 Don Brown on January 9, 2015 at 8:40pm

THX Mark.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Reeves on January 9, 2015 at 6:05pm

One more.

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image.jpg, 38 KB

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Permalink Reply by yano on January 9, 2015 at 6:31pm

THX i gave up trying to post pix ..... i have 2 left hands !

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kenyon on January 9, 2015 at 7:01pm

Being left handed,what are you say'n? ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Clance' McClannahan on January 9, 2015 at 9:46pm

Um...I'm left handed. That means I can do anything Mike.

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Permalink Reply by Rob on January 9, 2015 at 9:18pm

Herbie!!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Urie on January 9, 2015 at 10:36pm

From RDC. Anytime know if this is true?
"No "official" stage reports but here's what I've gotten over the past 2 days.

Navigation may have been super tricky and contributed to not winning on stage 5 where they finished only 1:49 out of first.

Today, stage 6 they lost time before the finish because they needed to stop and check the tires. They had a good reason to do so and it was apparently not a failure of the tire inflation system

This is from JC:
The first special today was ridiculously dangerous
100mph into triple dangers.

That's from a guy that raced Baja his whole life and has been robbed at gun point, alone and in the pine tree section while prerunning. I'm guessing it would have made me cry like a baby and beg to be let out of the car.

They start in a great position tomorrow and I'm pulling hard for a WIN! Ya Baby!"

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Permalink Reply by Bricoop on January 9, 2015 at 11:29pm

From Johnny:

From JC:

Hola all you barrel of monkeys!!
I wanted to update you on the last two Dakar stages for the #308 Speed Energy Team.
We final hurdled our early stage issues and had two very good days.
Yesterday, Copiapo to Antofagasto stage was really solid for us nailing down a solid third only 1:25 back from the Russian fast guy, and seconds behind Yazeed the speedster from the Mid-East.
The stage had lots of "off-piste" that was really good for the Gordini. Passed Carlos Sainz and Terranova in this rough gnarly section, btw all speeds over 80-90mph! Yikes!
Important job for the Navi boy as dangers come up very quick as we crossed many death ditches!
Shortly after we made that move I beefed the Nav and let Carlos back by. We chased him for miles and finally caught him again for good...too bad for him and his super Navi guy
Lucas Cruz they bit the big one chasing us down.
Glad they are ok.
RG was on point of course, and sent it across the line third OA for the trip to Antofagasto.

Stage 7: Antofagasto to Iquique. 300k plus liaison and a 277k special.
It was a split special 69k and 12 mile neutral zone and 168k final section.
The first 69k was way way fast with "danger 3" ditches crossing the route. Silt, bad g outs and gotcha's.
We nailed it pretty good but Nasser killed everyone. The second section we took off on a hard pack road twisty and up and down. Then a bit of off piste, across a "solar" lava rock dry lake! And finished up with some blinding flat light dunes.
We pretty much had the stage dialed and were looking good, took over the physical lead when Yazeed stuck it at the top of a razorback. We ran solid with Navi thru the dunes til it looked like we had a couple of flats in the rear and when we aired down they wouldn't come back. We stopped and were ready to change when RG solidified the tires were coming back up. Back in and lead to the finish in a super fun tight twisty canyon with high banked walls. Amazing.
Physical first,
1:45 back of stage winner Nasser.
Put us in 4th for the day.
Top four spread for 277k 1:45!
Crazy.
These guys haul the turkeys.
Off to bed, marathon stage to Bolivia tomorrow at a remote bivouac. No assistance.
4:15am wake up...ugh!
Later lovely peeps!
11-Time