Dakar Archive

  • VW

    VW updates ageing Dakar challenger

    After five years of faithful service, Volkswagen is finally putting the Race Touareg 2 to rest, and releasing a new 3rd generation model to compete in next year's Dakar Rally.

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  • 2010 Dakar Rally Recap: Not Just The Winners

    2010 Dakar Rally Recap: Not Just The Winners

    Two weeks. 9,000 kilometres. Nearly 400 started. Less than 200 finished two weeks later. Sometimes numbers are really all you need to sum up an event. For the second year running the Dakar Rally, rather confusingly, found itself racing across South America. From the Argentinean...

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  • 2010 Dakar Rally Stage Ten: Sainz Takes First Stage Win

    2010 Dakar Rally Stage Ten: Sainz Takes First Stage Win

    Carlos Sainz won his first stage of this year’s Dakar Rally to extend his overall lead in the car category over VW teammates Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mark Miller. So far this year, the double World Rally champion has simply been consistent, having never finished outside...

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  • Dakar Rally Stage Nine: Al-Attiyah Reels in Sainz in VW Fight

    Dakar Rally Stage Nine: Al-Attiyah Reels in Sainz in VW Fight

    Fog was the first problem that the 211 remaining entrants in the Dakar Rally had to face on the ninth stage. However, luckily (or unfortunately depending on your appetite for chaos) the organisers stepped in shortening the stage to only 170km from its original 338....

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  • 2010 Dakar Rally Stage Eight: Penalties And Record Chasing

    2010 Dakar Rally Stage Eight: Penalties And Record Chasing

    After a rest day on Chile’s Pacific Coast the 2010 Dakar reconvened for the eighth stage, a 472 km run south back for Antofagasta to Copiapo including a 90km stretch through sand dunes to close out the day. But just because Saturday was a rest...

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  • 2010 Dakar Rally Stage Seven: The Longest Day, But Also The Quietest?

    2010 Dakar Rally Stage Seven: The Longest Day, But Also The Quietest?

    The final stage before the halfway rest day on the Dakar Rally saw the longest single stage of the rally, at 600km, as competitors took on sand dunes, salt flats, and a 100km stretch of normal, boring highway as racing was neutralised to go round...

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  • 2010 Dakar Rally Stage Six: Two Comeback Wins, One Rider in Hospital

    2010 Dakar Rally Stage Six: Two Comeback Wins, One Rider in Hospital

    Another day in South America on the Dakar Rally saw another long stage, this time 418km heading north in the Atacama Desert, passing though rocky trails, across the driest place on earth and ending with a trip down a wall of sand before arriving at...

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  • 2010 Dakar Rally Stage Five: Despres and Miller Win, Rivals Suffer

    2010 Dakar Rally Stage Five: Despres and Miller Win, Rivals Suffer

    Today the Dakar Rally went from one extreme to another, following yesterday’s short stage with a 483km long epic, skirting Chile’s Atacama Desert between Copiapo and Antofagasta. The result was one was of those days the Dakar Rally is famous for, with stage leads shifting...

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  • Dakar Rally Stage Four: Robby Gordon Takes Stealth Win

    Dakar Rally Stage Four: Robby Gordon Takes Stealth Win

    The fourth day of racing on the Dakar Rally had a distinct “the morning after the night before feel,” with many competitors, especially the privateer riders and drivers, still recovering from the torturous stage three that saw heat and sand dunes combine, slowing many to...

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  • Dakar Rally Stage Three Report: Wins for Despres and Peterhansel

    Dakar Rally Stage Three Report: Wins for Despres and Peterhansel

    Today the real 2010 Dakar started, with the rally leaving the WRC-esque gravel tracks of the first two days behind and striking out into the desert with a 182 km stage, the shortest scheduled for the two week event. The first visitations of sand also...

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  • Dakar Rally Day Two Report: A Familiar Cloud But The Race Goes On

    Dakar Rally Day Two Report: A Familiar Cloud But The Race Goes On

    The second day of the Dakar Rally got underway in sombre mood today after the confirmation that a spectator hit by one of the cars had died in hospital. Reports say that Sonia Natalia Gallardo was one of a group of spectators standing outside of...

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  • Dakar 2010 Day One: Reigning Champions Off The Pace

    Dakar 2010 Day One: Reigning Champions Off The Pace

    The 2010 Dakar Rally is underway, and already the strain is showing on the men and machines taking on the 4,000km of racing ahead of them. The first casualty didn’t even get to make it the ceremonial start ramp and tour of the city streets...

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