Stage Seven Recap Analysis
January 12, 2007
by Ryan Arciero
The bad luck bug has caught up with Mark once again during Stage 7 of the Dakar. Like we talked about yesterday we knew this stage was going to be a tough one without the difficulties of the sand storm that came in. As you all know through the audio updates Mark ended up having a failure with one of the fuel rails that caused a fuel leak that took him about 30 to 40 minutes to fix. Lucky for Mark him and his navigator caught the problem before it escalated any further and could of caused a fire. Ari, Mark’s teammate may have had the same issue, but Ari didn’t end up as lucky and the #308 VW Touareg caught fire and burned.
Like we were saying the stage before the rest day is never an easy one, and today sure wasn’t any exception. They started the stage with some nasty sand storms, which I can tell you first hand are absolutely miserable. When I did the rally in 2005 we were faced with some major sand storms for most of the stages through Morocco and Mauritania. It is absolutely no fun at all. Try to navigate through the dunes with a road book, no vision because you can barely see the front of the vehicle and no other tracks in front of you because they have already been blown over by the wind and do it through one of the most wicked deserts in the world, the Sahara. This is what everyone was faced with today. Very poor visibility made navigation extremely difficult through the dunes thus leading a lot of the competitors to get stuck. Case in point, Carlos Sousa who was third overall in this rally leading into Stage 7 and ended up getting stuck in the dunes. He and his navigator were able to get the vehicle unstuck after some time but as Carlos headed for high ground to keep from getting stuck again, he lost contact with his navigator and they couldn’t find each other for almost an hour. This might sound stupid but believe me when that wind starts to blow over there you cannot see anything and you have a hard time knowing which way is up.
Although Mark finished 11th on today’s stage he lost even more time on the overall and is now almost two hours out of the overall lead. At this point the overall win for the Dakar is pretty much out of reach for Mark. With Ginel and Carlos only 1:39 minutes off each other’s time and Ari now pretty much out of the rally, I think Mark is going to get the call to help support them two. Team orders will now be in effect come Stage 8. I am not 100% on that yet but in my opinion it is probably the right call even though I would love more than anything for Mark to be able to still head out for Stage wins and to try to get back up in the overall standings. A possible shot at the top five overall is still by no means out of the question. This in my opinion is very achievable, but Mark’s luck needs to start to take a turn for the better. I talked with him today and although he is feeling good his spirits are a little down, which would be expected as he sees his chances at winning this rally fading. The better of the team is probably what is going to come next and it if does it will be Mark’s job to make sure Ginel and Carlos have every opportunity to keep the lead in the overall and for VW to bring home a win in the Dakar.
Tomorrow is going to be a much needed rest day for everyone, and although the drivers will get some rest tomorrow they will still keep somewhat of a busy schedule. They will meet with the press and also special VIP guest that are flown in for the rest day. The mechanics will have no breaks as they work through the night and through the day tomorrow to completely rebuild the Touareg’s for the second half of this rally.
Until Sunday – thanks to all of you who have been reading these race reports. I hope they are helpful in trying to understand what is going on in the rally and what is to come as the stages progress to Dakar.
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