Jan 10th, 2013 Dakar Rally Stage 6 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 6 of the 2013 Dakar Rally. Robby Gordon rebounded in stage 5 with a very nice 3rd place finish. Gordon is still down over 5 hours in the overall and will try to win as many of the remaining stages as he can. The rally now makes its first start in Chile. The cars are slated to begin the special section of stage 6 at 8:33am/et and Robby Gordon will begin his special section around 8:39am/et. Raceday chat will be available throughout the entire 2013 Dakar Rally. Raceday chat now works on the Ipad & Iphone.

2013 Photos

STAGE 6 TRACKING

STAGE 6: ARICA > CALAMA

Connection 331km | Special Stage 454km | Total 785km

COURSE OVERVIEW

The first special stage held in Chile will take competitors back to the Atacama Desert: they will be faced with sand and dunes for two thirds of the distance. But two specific sections of the stage will be timed: the latter will allow them to rediscover fesh fesh, which is unlikely to enthuse them. Overall, the day will be very long, at a stage where the competitors’ bodies will start to suffer from the lack of sleep, particularly for those who have experienced some incidents. At the head of the race, a ranking which is already probable is taking shape: the real candidates for the Top 10 are apparent.

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Permalink Reply by David Z on January 10, 2013 at 8:44pm

You can’t stretch out like that on a Mini.
Just hope they don’t attack Robby for putting his Co-Dog on the roof like they did Romney.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Meyer on January 10, 2013 at 5:05pm

Quote from Robby after 6th stage:

"It was okay. We stayed on the road early and a bunch of guys cut – which is okay, you can do that. We lost about five minutes on the first section because we stayed up on the road and I could see down the valley where a few motorcycles had gone. I'm pretty confident that's where Nasser went. When you have cars to follow you can see the dust trail in front of you and go to the dust trail and that's a big advantage. We were late on our transfer special by about three minutes as well."

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Permalink Reply by GLL on January 10, 2013 at 9:33pm

Good to see RG & Team doing better. Lot's of tough stages left. Me still thinks the mini's are the ones to beat - the #1` Buggly won't make it till the end - like #2 Buggly. But those puppies more pretty fast. If they can be made durable enough - might be the machines to beat for this race down the road. Will be nice to see Robby win a stage.

Slight digression - the Buggly's are not "that ugly". OK - flame away.

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Permalink Reply by TOG on January 10, 2013 at 9:35pm

they are fast, no question. Can Nasser make his last?

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Permalink Reply by GTX - HEMI on January 11, 2013 at 9:12am

Sure the buggy's are fast..........their made in America.......a spinoff of RG's car.

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Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 10, 2013 at 9:56pm

I changed my opinion of the RPM Truggy too, after finding out how fast it is. But for this Dakar anyway the Buggly name is here to stay.

Also, the pill-bug shape of the buggly might be easier to roll back over, if it were to ever turtle as Robby did.

Then there are those high speed rolls where you want the car to STOP rolling. On this day I would opt for the square Hummer.

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Permalink Reply by J.R. Sands on January 10, 2013 at 9:41pm

IMO it is interesting that Carlos had electrical problems and now the motor. Nasser seems to have been, for the most part trouble free.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Fisher on January 10, 2013 at 10:08pm

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that was a bit suspicious.

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Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 10, 2013 at 10:27pm

What are you suspicious of? I'm not understanding your comment.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Horwath on January 10, 2013 at 9:54pm

IMO, everyone will have issues. Peter hasn't....YET, Alibaba (I love that), will have his in due time and RG will be in the hunt. Remember, you read it here fist!!It's all in the odds...no way for a machine to be this abused and not break, it's just a matter of when!

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Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 10, 2013 at 10:23pm

It seems to me that at inception, the Dakar was a grueling endurance race, testing man and machine. Today it is competed for at much higher speeds. Truly much more of an off-road RACE today, as opposed to an adventure/endurance tour, as I think it was in the early years. In today's Dakar the drivers are running 14 consecutive Baja 500 type, high speed off-road races - not quite the speeds, but the level of concentration required is just the same. Truly amazing. To maintain cat-like racer reflexes this long is amazing. As a spectator your begin to think, "I think these guys might be crazy," then you see something from the day and it's confirmed. Yep! They ARE crazy!

Gas On Robby! Great finish today!