Dakar

[Kiwi Phil]

Who is watching it?
I saw a 60 min pre-lim the other night about the planning, people, vehicles, roads, places etc. Amazing race.

I thought they said the trucks have only twice had a winning truck that was built outside Eastern Europe, and tonight, watching those trucks sliding in the greasy surfaces.....was sure a few were going to flip, but none did.

Try to follow it most years, and feel last years thru Argentina and Chile far better than the Sahara. Personally I hope it won't move back to Africa.
I see they even have sports trucks there.....sure I saw a Nissan Nivara and a Mitzi triton....hoping to see a Ford Ranger but no luck.

Cheers
Phillip

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: Dakar

Haven't noticed any networks broadcasting it here. I would think SPEED would cover it. Probably show it after it's all said and done with...

 

[rbh]

Re: Dakar

Those races are great, my neighbour was pulling wrenches for one of the bike team at the baja 1000, pretty cool.

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: Dakar

What a brilliant rally.
If the golden fairy said I could be anything I wanted for a week, I would have to opt to be a Russian Driver in a Kamaz Truck on the Dakar......... over broads, booze, space ships, very fast planes (Triton?? memory right??), everything, and a nice hot shower, shave, and a cold beer at the end would be heaven.
Those Russian truck-things just blitzed the field!!
The Tatra, MAN, Mercedes followed.
I saw one with the CAT emblem on the front but could never make out its build.

I see an American Robby Gordon in an H3 Hummer came 8th in the cars....he is good.
He is great to listen being interviewed (probably as he speaks english, and not thru an interpreter!!)
If he had driven a VW or BMW he would have won.

As for the bikes...I reckon you would be safer in a saddle on the Shuttle, with a peg on your nose, than on one of those things. They have down-powers the KTM's to 450cc ( I think) and it really evened up the field.

Maybe 10yrs back they did something similar to the trucks...I recall an interviewer of a biker.. his greatest fear was doing over 100mph across the desert, and hearing the roar of a truck coming up behind him.


Cheers
Phillip

 

[roscoe]

Re: Dakar

We used to get 90 minutes of coverage a day, then a weekly recap on the weekend.

But the last couple years, very poor coverage, all edited for world distribution, little if any coverage of the American drivers. Most of the coverage seemed to promote the race, rather than show footage of the race. I think this was a major factor in losing the American audience.
Online coverage is poor also.

Haven't seen any coverage this year.
Nascar.com did have a link to a blog, that briefly covered the daily highlights.

I remember when the race started, seems the rule book has grown to the size of a set of encyclopedias now.

The bikers are by far the most intense to watch for me. Have seen several killed over the years. One small rock or rut can kill you.
Still remember when 5 bikers got lost in a dust storm a few years ago. Took one of them 3 days to get back to his team.

Really have a difficult time finding World Rally Cup coverage also, limited coverage on HDTheater satellite channel.

 

[JB]

Re: Dakar

Since Comcast pulled the Versus channel off of DTV I get a lot less coverage of non-NASCAR motorsport.

I have seen zero coverage of the DAKAR.