Flying Finns

Aha, “Betcha” thought this catchy title referred to another story about the “Ronster’s” (Ron Dennis) penchant for hiring Finnish drivers, “Ya, Sure, Yuh Betcha!” Which used to be part of Redhook Ales Ballard Bitter’s slogan, but I digress…

While most of us are either busy watchin’ all of the new paint dry in Day-toner testin’ or the upcoming Rolex 24 marathon. The BP Ford WRC Rally team has previously announced its new for 2008 driver line-up, with ex-WRC champion Marcus Gronholm having retired at the end of 2007.

The BP Ford team began its all Finnish driver line-up in 2006 with the addition of Mikko Hirvonen as Gronholm’s teammate. Now Hirvonen will be joined by another aspiring Finnish flyer, Jari-Matti Latvala.

Ford hopes that Hirvonen, who had a rough beginning in the World Rally Championship (2003) has matured into a challenger to defeat four time reigning WRC champion Sebastian Loeb. Hirvonen, won three WRC events enroute to finishing third overall in the 2007 challenge, helping Ford secure the Manufacturer’s crown.

And although you’ll be unlikely to see any of these amazing race cars on the “Tellie,” nevertheless the 2008 World Rally Championship season begins with the Monte Carlo Rally on January 25-27…

For a pre-season preview, see; 2008 WRC Preview

2008 Dakar CANCELLED!

It was with astonishment that the very first story I encountered this afternoon upon deciding to check “Ze Welt von Motorsports” and see if anything was occurring, that the headlines read; This year’s Dakar Rally has been cancelled.
(But I’m NOT surprised that I lost the whole FRILLIN’ story I just finished writing upon making fun of le internets. Thanks micro-SOFT!)

The event’s very first ever cancellation is due to the recent Terrorist attack upon five French tourists on December 24th. While visiting Mauritania four were killed and the fifth seriously injured while picnicking along the main road near the Senegal border.

The Amaury Sports Organisation, (ASO) promoters of the Dakar Rally said that they’d received direct threats from Terrorist organizations towards this year’s event and the rally was cancelled to ensure the safety of all competitors, support personnel, journalists and civilians along the event’s route.

Although stages of the event have been cancelled previously due to perceived threats, this is the first ever cancellation of the event which has run consecutively since 1979. The ASO assures us that the Dakar Rally will indeed resume in 2009, yet most likely the unsafe regions of Mauritania will be dropped from the new route…

2008 Dakar

Once again the engines are about to roar to life, albeit Far, Far, Far Away in a distant galaxy, known as Africa. As it’s time once again for the most grueling race in the World, the Dakar Rally. This year’s Rally begins on January 5th in Lisbon, Portugal and finishes on January 20th in Dakar, Senegal. The 15 stage race has been extended a further 1,000+ kilometers (621 miles) this year to add further torment to the competitors, with an overall distanced of 9,273 km. (5,762 miles).

Once again, Robby “Dirt Mann Gordoun” will spearhead Team Dakar USA’s challenge with his “Monster” Hummer H3, his third consecutive effort to tame the sands of Mauritania. This year Ron Bailey has joined forces with Gordon to form a two vehicle Monster Hummer effort.

Yet Gordon, Bailey and Team Dakar USA will face an uphill battle to become America’s first ever winner’s of Dakar, racing against mostly European based teams.

These “Across the Pond” contender’s will have the luxury of extra time to prepare, while Gordon’s entourage needed to depart a month prior to the start. Team Dakar USA left Gordon’s shops in California to transport the support vehicles, loaded with all the spare parts and equipment, as the massive amount of “Heavy Metal” was trucked across the country to Savannah, GA where it met an awaiting freighter, which then departed for Lisbon.


As usual, it appears that the top two contenders for overall honours will be the Factory backed squads from Mitsubishi and Volkswagen., Defending Dakar winner “Mister-Bitchy” returns with four Pajero Montero Evolution MPR13s, while VW will have a quartet of Touareg 2 TDI’s attempting to win the event overall.

Mitsubishi will have defending winner Stephane Peterhansel as their lead driver, as France’s Peterhansel is always a threat for the overall victory. He first won the event in 1991 on a Yamaha motorcycle, eventually claiming six overall victories in the two wheel category. Peterhansel has since then won a further three Dakar’s aboard Mitsubishi Pajero’s (2004-05, 07) for a total of nine Dakar titles.

Volkswagen will see ex-WRC Champion Carlos Sainz leading their charge, with Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford (USA/South Africa) as part of the VW line-up.

There will be 31 “Roses of the Sands” contesting this year’s event, thus seeing the Dakar’s largest number ever of Female contestants in the rally’s 30 year history. Even more impressive will be the four competing in the two wheel category.

And what do retired Formula 1 driver’s do for fun? Well, just ask Jordan Grand Prix refugee Tiago Monteiro, who’ll be making his Dakar Rally debut this year, in a single seater buggy-no less!

Tiago Monteiro:
"It's an ultra marathon. It's Yvan Muller's fault, he never stopped talking to me about it the whole year, and he convinced me to take part."

Of course you’ll be unable to see any “Live” television coverage of this event, or even worse, any TV coverage at all! As SPEED is still busy blastin’ us with hours of USELESS Programming. Can you say PINKS??? Of course, if we’re lucky and Nicole Manske isn’t busy changing hair colours, perhaps she’ll give us a two minute recap on The Speed Report. Otherwise, you’ll have to scour the internets for any worthwhile information of daily race progress.

Isn’t it funny how the “CAR” class is mostly contested by SUV’s and Pick-em Up truchs!

2008 Dakar Entry List

“IRV” gets to Swerve

Eddie Irvine, better known as “IRV the SWERVE, will get another opportunity to aptly demonstrate his sideways slewing skills that earned him the nickname “IRV the SWERVE.”

Irvine will take to the wheel of a Deeter Majestic (Red Bull) VW Touareg in his native country, as part of the prelude to Rally Ireland. As this top cross country rallying team will perform in the Super Special stage kicking off the WRC event in Stormont, Belfast.

The crowds will be cheering for IRV as the Super Special stage signifies the inaugural round of the World Rally Championship to compete in Ireland. This stage will see the top rally drivers compete head to head around Parliament Buildings' grounds and a flying finish over the specially designed Creagh Bridge.

The Red Bull VW Touareg, normally piloted by ex- WRC Superstar Carlos Sainz, whom recently won the World driver's title will instead feature Irvine, most notably known as Michael Schumacher’s wingman at Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, in hopes to elicit spectators for the event.

Sainz, one of the World Rally Championship’s most successful drivers, claiming two WRC Drivers titles in 1990 and 1992 in a Toyota Celica, has just captured the title in this year’s FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup. As Sainz, now a VW Factory driver won the UAE Desert Challenge. The victory marked the Touareg’s twentieth win as Volkswagen now sets its sights on the 2008 Dakar Rally…

Bah-Jah

In case you were wondering how the “Dirt Mann” (Robby Gordon) did in his Team Hummer USA during this year’s Paris Dakar rally… Gordon finished 8th Overall, which is very impressive for a non “Works” (Factory-Backed) team.

Meanwhile while I was writing about Rich Conklin’s commentary on Mario Andretti, I came across another of his stories about the one hour documentary I’d recently watched on the Speed channel: Two Roads to Glory. This was a special about two different team’s paths towards competing in the grueling Baja 1000 in street legal Toyota FJ Cruisers… Whatever those are?

Humming thru Africa

After a slow start the Team Dakar USA entry has begun picking up its pace. As the announcer on The Speed Report retorted “C’mon, how can that Hummer get Stuck in the Mud?”

In case you were unaware, for the second year in a row (3rd Overall) Robby Gordon is contesting the Paris-Dakar rally in a Hummer.

This year Gordon’s black Hummer H3 got off to a rocky start when he got stuck in some mud on Stage 1 while avoiding some of the massive throngs of spectators in Portugal…

After falling down the order to a 71st starting position for Stage 5, Gordon mashed the “GO-Pedal,” humming his way into a 15th place finish while raising the ire and praise of fellow competitors…

Gordon was reprimanded for pushing opposing racer’s out of the way while utilizing his typical “RASSCAR” driving style… (“Rubbin is Racin”) Apparently with the Hummer painted black, Gordon must have felt a bit like ‘ol “Iron-Head…” (Dale Earnhart Sr.)

Gordon noted that in the Baja that’s how you get it done... (Passing slower vehicles) Yet The Dakar is a bit more civilized, even going so far as utilizing in-car warning devices…

On Stage 6, the constantly changing landscape saw the day’s route take the competitors onto the vast sand dunes. And Gordon’s black bandit hammered across the dunes in record time as Gordon claimed the Stage win…

Today Gordon made certain to give everybody wide berths while overtaking slower vehicles “legally.” Gordon commented that he’d even backed off towards the end as he became concerned over his dwindling petrol supply in the Hummer’s fast emptying tanks…

The stage victory was the very first for Hummer and Gordon’s third overall. Gordon claimed his first two stage victories when competing for Volkswagen in 2005… (Gordon’s Paris-Dakar debut)

Starting first on Stage 7 the inclement weather played major havoc with all competitors as the organizers shortened the route due to swirling wind conditions causing severe sand storms…

Gordon got lost temporarily before encountering soft sand. Gordon then reduced the Hummer’s tire pressures down to 10lbs as the black monster H3 continued bogging down in 2nd gear…

Gordon finished the stage in 13th place nearly 6 minutes off the winner’s pace and has slowly crept his way towards the top 10, now residing in 16th place overall after several days of fuel issues. After the team tore the complete system apart they discovered it was simply a case of bad fuel…

Paris-Dakar Rally

Although you would be hard pressed to even know that this truly remarkable event is about to take place, the Paris-Dakar Rally is set to begin the 29th running of the epic event tomorrow…

Unfortunately all the Speed Channel can dribble on about is “RASSCAR,” the Barrett-Jackson auction, “Pinks,” Unique Whips and other non-worthy television programming…

Truly exemplifying the meaning of Extreme sports, The Dakar makes the X-Games look like child’s play…

To me the Paris-Dakar Rally is the Ironman of all motorsports... The challenging marathon tests the limits of fellow competitor’s driving skills, navigational abilities and mechanical reliability over a 15 day span…

Not only do the competitor’s encounter the physical demands of competing and just trying to survive the event, they’re subjected to a vast range of brutal terrain, constantly changing climate conditions as well as possible brushes with gun toting bandito’s…

The United States most noticeable competitor will be “RASSCAR’s” Robby Gordon, once again competing in a Hummer. Gordon previously became the first American to win multiple rally stages of The Dakar behind the wheel of a VW. Gordon enters this year’s event fresh off his win in the Baja 1000...

It will also be interesting to see how Dakar Rally debutants Peterson/White Lightning do…