Jan 14th, 2014 Dakar Rally Stage 9 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 9 of the 2014 Dakar Rally. After starting 56th, Robby Gordon had a great stage 8 and finished 10th. Gordon is now 24th overall. Robby Gordon will begin stage 9 at TBA

2014 Stage 8 Photos

STAGE 9 TRACKING

STAGE 9: CALAMA > IQUIQUE

Connection 29km | Special Stage 422km | Total 451km

COURSE OVERVIEW

The 2014 Dakar will reach its most northern point in Iquique, where the competitors will see the ocean for the first time this year. Above all, the drivers and teams will discover the Atacama Dunes again after a first part of a special stage which will be rather tedious. Dune specialists will be in command over a distance of almost 150km. Thrills will be guaranteed at the very end of the day, on the last three kilometres of the descent to Iquique: there is more than a 30% difference in height from start to finish and it is almost not recommended to break. The law of gravitation takes on its full meaning: the bivouac is not far away!

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 pdxracefan on January 15, 2014 at 12:40am

I would vote for the rear radiators for the added weight at the rear, with double-back fans. This is what we do in the process control industry where redundancy is required. You put two fans back-to-back. If one fan fails, (through proofing controls on the fan status of the primary fan), or if the PLC gets an alarm that the lead fan failed, or the fluid temp rises above a high-temp alarm level, then the backup fan starts and runs to maintain the coolant temp level. We do that in the process control field where it is critical to maintain the PLC temperature inside the control panel. It's basic to critical process control, which I think this qualifies for. I would go with an industrial Siemens PLC in this case.

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Permalink Reply by blake keithley on January 15, 2014 at 12:42am

Well, what are you going to do? The Gordini is the new vehicle and this is a shakedown event for next year. This is the greatest race on the world and Robby is our greatest hope of ever winning this thing. Which may or may not happen but is there a greater challenge in racing? Ever?

What amazes me after catching up on all the user supplied cell phone video is just how many indigenous people in the middle of nowhere have camera phones but more importantly just how many of the people in South America are Robby Gordon fans. The lad may have more fans south of the equator than north.

As long as we can return to race another day its a good thing.

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Permalink Reply by TOG on January 15, 2014 at 12:42am

Stage 9 team recap video is up. Per usual, Robby & Kellon give excellent insight on the stage.

http://www.planetrobby.com/video/2014-dakar-rally-team-speed-stage-...

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Urie on January 15, 2014 at 11:29am

It seems to take two Dakars to work the kinks out of the new cars. Look at the other manufacturers track record. Other than mini as they built on BMWs experience. Unless Robby does some crazy testing down in South America next year will be better but not perfect. Since he is solo it might take longer. Look how long it took the H3.

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Permalink Reply by Ruben on January 15, 2014 at 4:22pm

Here in the US we tend to think that is we are not # 1 we are losing big time. even though # 1 is always the winner. Robby has done an amazing job with the resource he has( in comparison with other official teams, he has is a very limited team) give Robby all the resource as Peterhansel and things would be way different. that is in itself a victory and a winner. Gas On Robby!