Jan 6th, 2014 Dakar Rally Stage 2 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 2 of the 2014 Dakar Rally. Robby Gordon had vapor lock issues during stage 1, and finds himself over 2 hours behind. The cars are scheduled to begin the 433km special section at 8:55am/et, Robby Gordon will probably begin the stage at 9:36am/et (Subject to change) Raceday chat will be available throughout the entire 2014 Dakar Rally. Raceday chat now works on the Ipad & Iphone.

2014 Stage 1 Photos

STAGE 2 TRACKING

STAGE 2: SAN LUIS > SAN RAFAEL

Connection 365km | Special Stage 433km | Total 798km

COURSE OVERVIEW

The fastest special stage of the rally, at least for its first part, will also be the one where drivers will have to face the first dunes. And it won’t just be a brief encounter with sand: in the last 100 kilometres, the exploration of the grey dunes of Nihuil will be even more intensive than during previous visits. The sand is more firm there, but the experience will provide a great deal of insight about each of the competitors’ technical skills. In short it will be a veritable test.

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

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Permalink Reply by RGordonNo#1 on January 6, 2014 at 3:36pm

Robby currently 33rd Overall at 10:00:28 (but this will go down as more cars finish the stage)

1st (300) Peterhansel Mini 6:17:02
2nd (303) Sainz SMG 6:17:30 - 00:00:28
3rd (301) Nassar Mini 6:21:12 - 00:04:10
4th (304) Roma Mini 6:21:21 - 00:04:19
5th (307) Terranova Mini 6:25:33 - 00:08:31

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Permalink Reply by Emmanuel MORLANE on January 6, 2014 at 3:36pm

Brad is right, this year will be learning year. Unless (and even if) you can modelized a lot of things as aerodynamic behaviour for performance, handling quality and cooling system, it is obvious to accumulate miles in order to fix a lot of little issues which cannot be detected by running around the shop as it is shown in the prerace videos. I hope they will find a solution to fix it in order to validate the concept. To be honnest the package forward engine + solide rear axle is so far from my french culture (buggy with irs and rear engine or 4WD car) that I have some difficulties to understand how this can work : certainly not the best solution in deep sand due to lack of rear weight and lack of performance vs 4WD cars for WRC stages.
Anyway, I hope Sainz will put some doubts in Sven seak brain up to the end.