Rain and snow led Dakar Rally officials to cancel the event’s 400-plus-mile sixth stage, scheduled originally to run on Friday, Jan. 6.

The weather affected the course between Fiambala and Copiapo. The cancelation comes on the heels of bad weather on Wednesday that forced officials to shorten stage five.

“Due to the bad weather continuing over the Andes Cordillera, the Chilean authorities were forced to close, for the night, the border at Paso de San Francisco, situated at 4,700 meters,” officials said.

“Because of the unfavorable conditions, added to the fact that the course has been hit by rain and snow, the organizers have decided to guarantee the security of the competitors and those following the rally.”

http://motorbloeckchen.com/?p=6553

Though the Ultimate Race is the Dakar, this year’s Africa Eco Race again saw an old fathfull Tatra competitor: Tomas Tomecek. Overall he is 2nd in the combined truck/car category, where he is the best truck. :

http://www.africarace-live.com/en.html

http://www.africarace-live.com/index.php/en/cla-etp9

A race without windscreen

The struggle between the trucks is tight.  The 4th stage brought a lot of passages in canyons, racers climbimg into the mountains to a height of 3500 meters as well as , lots of dried river beds.
 
It was not the most technical stage of this year, Gerard de Rooy winning with an average of less than 75 km / h. From the first checkpoint, it was clear that Gerard de Rooy and his bonneted atypical Iveco would dominate.  Until the mid-stage he kept Miki Biasion at intervals of 15 seconds, closely followed by Van Vliet and Stacey. The situation in the top ten, however stayed balanced with riding a balanced ride continuously between 5th  and 10th a place in the stage. It was only a question of who will be in the better shape at the moment. That ultimately proved just Alex, he passed the finish on the 6th place with only minimal distances.
Alex’s ride, though devoid of large fluctuations in time intervals, however, was marked by several circumstances: “The Introduction stage was dusty, fast and hard. Then we got to Karginova Kamaz, relatively long-terrain did not allow overtaking, with the addition of dust. I let a Kamaz pass to be able to put pressure on him, but more fundamental was the fact that in a canyon due to vibrations spontaneously the windshield cracked. We had to kick out and just go on with glasses. This restricted us while driving, while commuting cars we had to cover our faces fromstones from other competitord. But the finish and we got lost too. We will fight on!, he added.
The current course race virtually confirms massive attack Petronas Team de Rooy Iveco, whose riders occupy the first three places in the overall classification. In the stage Kazakhs Ardavičus with his private Kamaz, the former leading rider, dropped four places, just 6 seconds behind Ales Loprais. ten for the first time, this time it was Peter Versluis and Pep Vila.
The overall ranking shows close sequence separation, but they have progressively increasing. The fifth stage, which will include a short 177 km long special, but the legendary white sand will demand the utmost. Competitors will await a very technical stage in the soft and treacherous sand dunes.

http://www.tatratrucks.com/about-the-company/press-and-media/news/tatra-trucks-in-the-dakar-rally/

TATRA-DAF testdrive Echt-Susteren – YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nEMkUZF_e0

The third stage was a technical oneabout ten trucks fighting it out for top positions.  The winner was a surprise one.  Loprais managed well and climbed to 5 th overall.

In San Rafael the heat was unbearable, the temperature in the bivouac  exceeded up to 45 degrees Celsius.  Under these conditions many engines suffered from overheating.  The stage was slower than the previous one – Alex’s average speed reached  70 km / h.   

Ales took off the stage as fifth, and held this position despite dropping back to 8th at CP1. maintained.  The whole stage he professionally watched the opposition and finished fifth. His aim is to race steadily, to avoid mistakes and risks and to stay in close contact with the forerunners.

Gerard de Rooy, who was in the lead of most of the stage, lost some time in the end, his teammate Miki Biasion, twice rally world champion taking the laurels.  Nikolaev, Ajrat Mardějev and Van Vliet all got lost, the honor of Kamaz rescued by Andrei Karginov and the non-works Astana Kamaz, driven by Arthur Ardavičusem.  He is also the most striking new leader.  For the last two, the third stage was a breaakthrough, but competition stays close. The first ten saw two new faces peeked into her Joseph Adua with another company, Iveco, in sixth place and Martin Kolomý with Tatra to eighth place. Regrettably, Andre de Azevedo (Tatra) went slowly, after some technical problems, and hopes dashed GINAF’s Wuf van Ginkel also.

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