Juan José Ghiglione nos envió este video que recibió directamente desde Volkswagen Alemania. El equipo alemán está listo para a la próxima edición del raid más duro del mundo. En el Dakar 2010, Volkswagen estará representada por Giniel de Villiers, Carlos Sainz, Mark Miller, Nasser Al Attiyah y Mauricio Neves. Además, el nuevo Amarok será el vehículo oficial de asistencia.
A dos semanas que arranque la edición 2010 del Rally Dakar, Volkswagen transportó rumbo a Sudamérica las poderosas Race Touareg de 300 Hp en avión para tenerlas listas en el punto de partida junto con sus equipos integrados por: Giniel de Villiers / Dirk von Zitzewitz; Carlos Sainz / Lucas Cruz; Mark Miller / Ralph Pitchford; Nasser Al-Attiyah / Timo Gottschalk y Mauricio Neves / Clécio Maestrelli.
Por segunda ocasión el Rally Dakar tendrá su sede en Sudamérica y recorrerá los caminos de los Andes a través de la Pampa y por el desierto de Atacama. La armadora de automóviles de Wolfsburg enfrentará del 2 al 16 de enero una de las pruebas más difíciles que ofrece el automovilismo deportivo.
“Al día de hoy podemos decir que estamos listos para el ‘Dakar’. Después de haber enviado a todo el equipo de servicio y el material en el buque, la carga más importante, con cinco Race Touareg se envió hoy a Sudamérica en avión”, comentó el director de Volkswagen Motorsports, Kris Nissen. “Todos nosotros estamos esperando impacientes a que llegue enero para que finalmente hagamos frente a nuestro gran objetivo, defender el título de campeones”.
El trabajo preliminar se llevó a cabo en Hannover el 11 de diciembre al ensamblar los vehículos en paletas especiales para ser trasladados en camión con dirección a Ámsterdam.
“Llevar a las cinco Race Touareg por aire tiene muchas ventajas”, dijo Lutz Meyer, responsable de la logística para el “Dakar” de Volkswagen Motorsports”. “Se ahorra mucho tiempo. Si bien, el material y el personal de servicio ya está en altamar con destino a Buenos Aires desde principios de diciembre, en dos semanas más se completarán los Race Touaregs con un equipo muy preparado para cuidar hasta el más mínimo detalle”.
Fuente: http://www.periodicodigital.com.mx/
For the second consecutive year, the Dakar is welcomed in South America for a challenge of 9000 kilometres leading the riders and crews on the roads, the tracks, the mountains and the deserts of Argentina and Chile. From the 1st to the 17th of January, the competitors will fight it out on 14 stages: the loop to cover, anti-clockwise, will include a thorough visit of the Atacama Desert and its gigantic dunes. The white sand close to Fiambala or the grey one in the area of Nihuil will complete the spread of colours and the variety of difficulties all along the event.
At the end of the registration period, just a few days before the vehicles are welcomed to start the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a boat leaving Le Havre, the list of competitors confirms the status of the Dakar: with 184 bikes and quads, 138 cars and 50 trucks, the race remains the most attractive in the world. The expected media coverage, with footage broadcasted in 189 countries provides an outstanding relay for the constructors, the partners and the countries involved. At the moment of launching the celebrations of the bicentenary of its two nations, Argentina and Chile will actually be represented three times more than last year with competitors able to create a surprise.
It’s probably in the bike class, where the field has already been transformed by the new regulation adopted, that a “native” rider could triumph. The Aprilia factory believes just as much in the future of the 450cc bikes than in the chances of Chilean Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez. Concerning the French, David Frétigné, 3rd last year on a 450cc Yamaha, or David Casteu who will launch the Sherco brand in the 450cc adventure, intend on being rivals for the winners of the last four editions, Marc Coma and Cyril Despres who will be riding with a bridle limiting the performances of their big cylinder KTMs. The 450cc machines developed by Honda and BMW will also be candidates for a place in the Top 10.
In the car class, the new situation should provide an intense confrontation. With more and more performing vehicles and two top quality recruits, Stéphane Peterhansel and Nani Roma, the BMW X-Raid team will show up with fine arguments against the title holders. The Volkswagen armada including the likes of Giniel De Villiers, Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al Attiyah, are forced to excellence. In the truck race, the Kamaz of Kabirov and Chagin will also have to keep a close eye on ambitious Ales Loprais, in his Czech Tatra truck.
More information can be found on the Dakar Rally website at: www.dakar.com
Fuente: http://utvweekly.com/
Stronger than ever, the Volkswagen team will this year show up with even more title contenders. There’s Carlos Sainz whose ultimate quest is to win the Dakar, close to twenty years after claiming the WRC title, there’s hungry newcomer in the squad, Nasser Al Attiyah and there’s of course the title holder Giniel De Villiers. Certainly the quietest of the three he isn’t however the slowest and his experience allowed him to triumph at last in 2009 and give VW a long awaited success. For this 32nd edition, according to the South African, there won’t be a protected crew, like in the previous years: “Until now, there is no number 1. Carlos Sainz wants the race as badly as us and so does Nasser (Al Attiyah). But the truth is that there is less pressure on us and more on them. It’s nice to start as the defending champion but the hunger is the same. The difference is that I’m maybe more relaxed”. And a lot fitter. Despite the glory, De Villiers indeed suffered a real physical nightmare during his 2009 Dakar, having to deal with a slipped disc. “I went through surgery in April and I’m now fully recovered. Ready to keep my number one position!”
Fuente: Dakar.com
Los mejores pilotos de raids de la actualidad (entre quienes están los españoles Marc Coma, Nani Roma y Carlos Sainz) competirán en el Dakar 2010, cuyo recorrido por Argentina y Chile para las 185 motos y ‘quads’ participantes será de 8.937 kilómetros; y para los 138 coches, de 9.030 kilómetros.
Para las motos, habrá 4.717 km cronometrados; para los coches, 4.810 km. A continuación, algunos de los principales pilotos y todas las etapas de la prueba:
ETAPAS
1 de enero: Buenos Aires – Colón (317 km)
2 de enero: Colón – Córdoba (652 km, de ellos 219 cronometrados para las motos, 684 km, de ellos 251 cronometrados para los autos)
3 de enero: Córdoba – La Rioja (626 km, de ellos 294 cronometrados para las motos, 687 km, de ellos 355 cronometrados para los autos)
4 de enero: La Rioja – Fiambala (441 km, de ellos 182 de tramos cronometrados)
5 de enero: Fiambala – Copiapo (629 km, de ellos 203 de tramos cronometrados)
6 de enero: Copiapo – Antofagasta (670 km, de ellos 483 de tramos cronometrados)
7 de enero: Antofagasta – Iquique (598 km, de ellos 418 de tramos cronometrados)
8 de enero: Iquique – Antofagasta (641 km, de ellos 600 de tramos cronometrados)
9 de enero: Descanso
10 de enero: Antofagasta – Copiapo (568 km, de ellos 472 de tramos cronometrados)
11 de enero: Copiapo – La Serena (547 km, de ellos 338 de tramos cronometrados)
12 de enero: La Serena – Santiago (586 km, de ellos 238 de tramos cronometrados)
13 de enero: Santiago – San Juan (434 km, de ellos 220 de tramos cronometrados)
14 de enero: San Juan – San Rafael (796 km, de ellos 476 de tramos cronometrados)
15 de enero: San Rafael – Santa Rosa (725 km, de ellos 368 de tramos cronometrados)
16 de enero: Santa Rosa – Buenos Aires (707 km, de ellos 206 de tramos cronometrados)
PILOTOS DE MOTOS
Marc Coma (ESP/KTM)
Cyril Despres (FRA/KTM)
David Casteu (FRA/Sherco)
Pal Ullevalseter (NOR/KTM)
Helder Rodrigues (POR/Yamaha)
Jordi Viladoms (ESP/KTM)
Henk Knuiman (NED/KTM)
Frans Verhoeven (NED/BMW)
Francisco López (CHI/Aprilia)
Paulo Goncalves (POR/BMW)
Jakub Przygonski (POL/KTM)
David Frétigné (FRA/Yamaha)
PILOTOS DE COCHES
Giniel De Villiers – Dirk von Zitzewitz (RSA-GER/Volkswagen)
Stéphane Peterhansel – Jean-Paul Cottret (FRA/BMW)
Robby Gordon – Andy Grider (USA/Hummer)
Carlos Sainz – Lucas Cruz (ESP/Volkswagen)
Nani Roma – Michel Périn (ESP-FRA/BMW)
Mark Miller – Ralph Pitchford (USA-RSA/Volkswagen)
Nasser Al-Attiyah – Timo Gottschalk (QAT-GER/Volkswagen)
Guerlain Chicherit – Tina Thoerner (FRA-SWE/BMW)
Krzysztof Holowczyk – Jean-Marc Fortin (POL-BEL/Nissan)
Fuente: Google News – AFP
WHO WILL CHALLENGE RACE TOUAREGS?
The 31st Dakar rally (it would have been 32 had 2008 not been cancelled) will start on New Year’s Day 2010, from Buenos Aires in Argentina, the second running of “the world’s toughest motor race” in South America.
More than 500 motorcycles, quads, cars and trucks will tackle a 9000km route through Argentina and Chile, over the Andes mountains and back again, with organisers promising everything from desert dunes to tropical mud and alpine snow.
South Africa’s own Giniel de Villiers won the 2009 rally – also in South America – for VW at the wheel of a Race Touareg. The team has already entitled its 2010 effort Project Title Defence and entered five of the diesel-powered Blue Meanies.
The big question, however, is the source of their main challenge. Long-dominant Mitsubishi announced its withdrawal from cross-country rallying earlier in 2009, citing the world economic downturn, after 26 Dakar entries and 12 wins, seven of them in a row.
Perhaps VW’s biggest threat, if not from the gruelling conditions, could come from American Robbie Gordon – third overall in 2008 – who will again enter his monstrous V8 Hummer, this time with an all-carbon fibre body.
There will also be the usual selection of very fast Schlesser buggies and the X-Raid team of BMW X3′s, one of them in the hands of ex-Mitsubishi driver Stephane Peterhansel who has won the Dakar six times on a motorcycle and four times in a car.
South Africa will again be well represented, not only by De Villiers but also by three SA-built Nissan Navara bakkies similar to those that finished fourth and fifth in 2009.
Off-road legend Alfie Cox will drive one in this his 10th Dakar outing (seven on motorcycles), another will be in the hands of Polish National champion Krzysztof Holowczyc (fifth in the same bakkie in 2009) and a third will have a Russian driver who is yet to be named.
Fuente: Motoring.co.za
