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Dakar Rally 2011 Feed

16 Jan 2012

Giniel de Villiers’s Blog: Dakar Rally | Planted on the podium 16 Jan 2012

by Giniel de Villiers

2009 Dakar champion Giniel de Villiers steered his Toyota Hilux to a third-place finish on the car’s Dakar debut. The South African tells us how it was done…

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16 Jan 2012

Giniel de Villiers Blog: Dakar Rally | Leading the pack 16 Jan 2012

by Giniel de Villiers

Giniel de Villiers once again proved that when the going gets tough the South African driver gets tougher…

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13 Jan 2012

Giniel de Villiers's Blog: Dakar Rally | The more difficult the stage the better 13 Jan 2012

by Giniel de Villiers

Giniel de Villiers looks set for a podium finish following the disqualification of Robby Gordon and his Hummer. The South African prefers to focus on his own efforts on stage 10 of the 2012 Dakar...

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12 Jan 2012

Giniel de Villiers Blog: Dakar Rally | Landing on the dunes 12 Jan 2012

by Giniel de Villiers

Giniel talks about changing tactics as he keeps a steady pace through the fesh-fesh of the Atacama Desert…

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Event Details

Location

Argentina, Chile (Map this address )

Start

01 JAN 2011 at 12:00 AM

End

16 JAN 2011 at 11:59 PM

About

A full four months ahead of the start of the rally raid, and still two and a half months before the closing of registrations and the 2011 edition of the Dakar already has a full house in the bike and quad categories. The registration period for next year's event which will take place in Argentina and Chile, between the dates of January the 1st and January the 16th is nearing its end. Due to the overwhelming number of applicants, a waiting list has been drawn up by the organisers to allow for some of those that missed out to make a late registration if someone already registered pulls out. For the 2011 Dakar, motorbike manufacturers are following the lead of last year’s precursors and moving towards 450cc bikes or less. Following in the footsteps of Aprilia, who which managed to put Francisco Lopez on the podium in his very first outing in the raid, BMW have now registered and are sporting big ambitions with the creation of the Speedbrain BMW Rally Team. All riders in the elite category have to register with a 450cc, and the new outsiders will race on equal terms with the usual duel contenders of Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, who both won the last five editions of the raid they participated in on KTM bikes.

With regards to the cars, In 2010, A.S.O. decided to increase the air intake on petrol engines in order to strike the best balance possible between the two types of engine, petrol or diesel, which are currently used in all-terrain rallying. For the Dakar 2011, all the drivers from all teams whether professional or amateur, will be able to take advantage of this measure. Furthermore, teams running petrol-powered vehicles will be able to fit 6-speed gearboxes, in contrast to professional teams running diesel-powered vehicles, who will still have to use 5-speed gearboxes. The one to watch in this classification is Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who recently managed to bag his second consecutive title on the Silk Way Rally.