Dakar Rally
I watched a “marathon” session of the Dakar Rally yesterday afternoon. It really screwed up all my plans, but was great. They had about 6 or 7 one hour segments back-to-back that covered the whole 9039 km rally through Africa. The people that race in this thing are truly racing warriors. Anyone that even finishes it should be proud of themselves. The good thing about this years rally for me as an American was that the race had an American presence this year.
Roby Gordon was in the car class and won two stages. He was a threat to win more stages as well, but he had a nasty flip early on that kept him out of the run for the overall title. He said he’ll be back and I would expect him to be a threat to win when he does come back now that he has a year of experience under his belt. There were also a Red Bull backed American motorcycle team riding KTMs. All three members of the team finished in the top 25, with Kellon Walch winning the last stage, and Chris Blais finishing 8′th after being in the top 3 with only a few stages left. Watch out for the Americans next year!
If you never watched a show covering parts of the Dakar, do yourself a favor and check it out. NASCAR drivers will complaining about any little thing on the track, these guys and gals have to deal with sand dunes, animals, river crossings, armed bandits, sand storms, and even land mines!