2011 Dakar Rally – Battle of the Energy Drinks

Road & Track
December 30, 2010 by John Rettie

On New Year’s Day the first motorsport event of the year, and some would say the biggest, baddest one for the whole year, gets under way in Buenos Aires. It’s the 33rd Dakar Rally and the third time its taken place in South America after being chased out of Africa by terrorist threats.

The 16-day event will take some 430 competitors on or in 183 motorcycles, 33 quads, 146 cars and 68 trucks (real big trucks, not pickup trucks) across 6,000 miles of varied terrain in Argentina and Chile. The toughest part of the event will be the six days spent in the Atacama Desert after crossing the Andes at 16,000 ft on the way into Chile.

Volkswagen, which has won the event the past two years, returns with four Race Touaregs sponsored by Red Bull. Mark Miller, from Arizona, is gunning for his first overall win. He came really close in 2009 when he finished second.

The X-raid team, with six BMW X3s and one Mini, is the biggest threat for Volkswagen. The team is sponsored by Monster Energy.

Robby Gordon also returns for his sixth attempt at winning the challenging event in his Hummer sponsored by Speed Energy. He finished third in the 2009 event and was on the podium alongside Mark Miller. A second Hummer is being driven by Eliseo Salazar, the Chilean who raced with Gordon on the same team in the Indy 500 race back in 2001.

All the pre-race testing has been down. The navigators, who are as crucial to a win as the drivers, are just beginning to get limited information about where the route will take them.

The Versus Channel will be showing a 30-minute recap up of each day’s stage. If you can’t wait for the TV show you can follow the event, pretty much in real time, on www.dakar.com, www.volkswagen-motorsport.com, www.x-raid.de and www.planetrobby.com.

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Permalink Reply by will on December 30, 2010 at 7:25pm
The VW's on rollback tow trucks are an interesting image for this article. I had to hit the link to make sure this wasn't a WJM joke!
Permalink Reply by Greg Jones on December 30, 2010 at 9:52pm

Tough times, I guess.  A barn for a garage and roll backs for transporters!

 

 

Permalink Reply by jack on December 30, 2010 at 10:32pm
rollbacks and a barn?  not really that supprising. 
Permalink Reply by J.R. Sands on December 30, 2010 at 7:49pm
Thanks WJM, looking forward to this race!!!!
Permalink Reply by Chupakabras on December 30, 2010 at 8:44pm
i was watching FOX SPORTS a few minutes ago and they announced that tomorrow ROBBY GORDON will be on the show, cool. will try to record it,. ha,.
Permalink Reply by Michael Martinez on January 1, 2011 at 4:08am
On "The show"    what show?
Permalink Reply by andy pompura on January 1, 2011 at 11:50am
GO ROBBY
Permalink Reply by J.R. Sands on January 1, 2011 at 11:37pm

Alright time to start this crazy race. 8.5 hours T minus, this is going to be good. This will be the Energy Drink Dakar....

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