Stage One Race Analysis

January 6, 2007

By Ryan Arciero

Hello and Happy 2007 to everyone.

The 2007 edition of the Dakar is underway and although I am going through some withdrawals not being there competing, I am excited for Mark and for the Volkswagen effort for this years race. I believe this year is the best chance for a VW to win its first Dakar and to be the first to do it in a diesel power plant which would be awesome. What better way to kick off 2007 than to follow the longest and toughest off-road race in the world the Dakar!

Once again we will follow Mark’s journey from Portugal to Dakar as he tries to become the first American to win this incredible race. As all of you know from Marks first two audio updates he left for Portugal the day after Christmas with his wife Danielle to get some much deserved rest and R&R before the big start. It is important that he gets over there early because you do have to get acclimated to the time difference and get settled in being away from home and all of your comforts that you are used to.

Today was Stage 1 from Lisboa to Portimao which was a 115km liaison followed by a 117km Special and then another 232km liaison to Portimao. An unusually long special to start off the Dakar but nonetheless a stage you have to be on your toes for. On Stage 1 you have nothing to gain and everything to loose, so trying to go out and win this stage is not in the best interest of the big picture and that is to win the Dakar. Having Sousa win today’s stage is in the best interest of the race because he is there local boy, so I would have to believe he knew the stage and the area very well, and I am sure he ran a pretty fast pace to try and win in front of his hometown fans.

After talking to Mark this morning he was telling me how soft and sandy it was for most the entire stage. He also told me that it was a pretty rough stage, which would have been very suited for Robby if he hadn’t run into a couple of issues. Mark did a great job at staying in contact and not making any mistakes today, because like I said there is absolutely nothing to gain on these stages early on but everything to loose.

These next couple of stages to me is somewhat of a game. It is kind of a watch and see what everyone else is doing strategy. You need to stay in contact with the leader so don’t get me wrong there is no relaxing on these stages leading into Morocco. After talking with Mark and looking a little at what is ahead I think it might be a wise strategy not to be the first off heading into Morocco. Once you hit the Morocco deserts navigation starts to play a very important roll and the margin for errors needs to be very slim. The positive part is that going into Stages 3 and 4 Mark will be getting into somewhat familiar territory. These are the areas that VW as well as most of the other teams do their testing

Tomorrow is Stage 2 and I think what you are going to expect is a stage that is very suited to the WRC or rally guys. They will see hard packed twisty mountain roads, very technical so a stiffer shock setup is probably the right call for tomorrow. My prediction for tomorrow is for guys like Carlos Sainz or Ari Vatanen to excel and to move to the front. These types of stages really suit their driving style and it is where they have the most expertise. Mark is in a great position to play the game at this point. Stay in contact, drive with his head and get the Touareg into Africa where his desert skills will start to take over.

Talk to you all tomorrow. Thanks for checking in for the 2007 Dakar.

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