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El Martillo racing will be campaigning the same Jimco Dodge Durango with some upgrades.
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David Bensadoun will be at the wheel of a top spec Toyota Tacoma.
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The Dakar will travel 9000 km through some of the most inhospitable terrain.
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Aldo Racing shaking down the Toyota at the Mexico 1000.
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Story by Budd Stanley, photos courtesy of Aldo Racing, El Martillo Racing and the ASO
The Canadians’ Road to the Most Grueling Motorsports Event
It may only be November, however the race to Dakar is already weeks old. Yes, this, the most grueling of motorsports events, starts challenging its competitors well before the starting flag ever falls. Sponsorships must be procured, vehicles must be built and tested, and then everything each team will need for this epic two-week long event will have to be shipped first to Europe, then on to Buenos Aires, Argentina, the traditional start to the new generation Dakar Rally.
THE RACE
The 2015 route has already been pre-run, inspected, and dissected by the ASO (Amaury Sport Organization), the sanctioning body behind the Dakar Rally. A route of 9,000 km spread between Argentina, Chile and Bolivia has been separated into 13 legs. Each days leg will include liaison stages, (competitors driving on open roads to and from the competitive stages), a Special Stage (competition point to point stages closed to public) or possibly a Marathon Stage (a competitive stage that lasts two or more consecutive days).
The return of Marathon Stages require that mechanical repairs must be made by only the driver and co-driver, mechanics are banned from touching the vehicles. Though familiar to the two-wheeled challengers, 4WD and 2WD competitors haven't had to deal with this in the Dakar since 2005.
Unlike the Baja 1000 or other desert racing events, the Dakar is run on a European Rally style of point-to-point competition, much like the World Rally Championship, only on steroids… lots of really powerful steroids.
During the event, competitors will rise from tight rally style roads at sea level, to the great expanse of sand dunes that make up the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth that resides at 4,000-metres in altitude. Temperatures regularly soar well above 40-degrees Celsius, and it’s not uncommon for the cabins of competition vehicles to see temperatures as high as 70-degrees Celsius. There is a reason why these are some of the toughest racers on the planet, and the Dakar has a legendary status among the worlds greatest adventures, let alone competition events.
For 2015, the Dakar will visit 12 cities in three countries - Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. A total of 13 competitive stages will be run with a single rest day being held near the halfway point in Iquique, Chile.
THE STAGES OF THE DAKAR 2015:
- 4/01: Buenos Aires - Villa Carlos Paz
- 5/01: Villa Carlos Paz - San Juan
- 6/01: San Juan - Chilecito
- 7/01: Chilecito - Copiapo
- 8/01: Copiapo - Antofagasta
- 9/01: Antofagasta - Iquique
- 10/01: Rest (cars/trucks); Iquique - Uyuni (bikes-quads)
- 11/01: Iquique - Uyuni (cars/trucks); Uyuni - Iquique (bikes-quads)
- 12/01: Rest (bikes-quads); Uyuni - Iquique (cars-trucks)
- 13/01: Iquique - Calama
- 14/01: Calama - Salta
- 15/01: Salta - Termas de Rio Hondo
- 16/01: Termas de Rio Hondo - Rosario
- 17/01: Rosario – Buenos Aires
THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT
No strangers to these pages, both Dakar regulars, Aldo Racing and El Martillo Racing, will be representing the Maple Leaf down in South America. And in the case of El Martillo, the Mexican flag as well. However, the teams have taken two very different routes to arrive on the start line in Buenos Aires.
Aldo Racing, (featured in volume 16, issue 7) piloted by Montreal’s David Bensadoun, will be campaigning a traditional Dakar contender – a T1 spec Toyota Hilux/Tacoma. After a very successful run at the NORRA Mexico 1000, the team has completed testing in Quebec, rebuilt the Toyota and has shipped it to Europe to meet up with the rest of the Dakar competitor shipping containers.
Bensadoun will not have things all his own way however, an AC ligament injury in his right knee will plague him throughout the coming race, however his confidence is running high now that he has a competitive vehicle under him.
Calgary’s Matt Campbell has taken a much different direction than Bensadoun in his bid for Dakar. Competing in a custom built tube-frame Dodge Durango that looks more at home in the Baja 1000 than the Dakar rally, the Jimco built three-seater is a magnificent peace of engineering unto itself. The team came back from the 2014 event with a great deal of R&D, and a fine tuned direction to take both strategically and vehicle wise.
However, El Martillo’s road to Dakar is proving just as challenging as the race itself. Just prior to the shipping date, the team found a crack in the block of the big 7.6L V-8 due to a casting flaw. The engine had just been put together at the teams Mexican headquarters and was going to need a rebuild. The problem was that the Category Four strength Hurricane Odile was quickly approaching.
The team quickly packed up the car and made a run for California before the storm could end any chance of getting to Dakar. Team members Scott Rattray and Ron Klarenbach towed the racecar with the team chase vehicle through the heart of the lethal storm. The two braved the worst weather Baja had ever seen, delivering the car to RedLIne Motorsport in California safe and sound. The car has since received a fresh block.
The drama was not over for the team, as a second chase vehicle with seven-tons of equipment needed for the race was left down in Los Cabos. Once the storm had subsided, Matt Campbell along with several team members and friends packed what they could and started making their way north, not knowing what condition the roads or any infrastructure would be in. After a slow three day drive over washed out roads, blasted towns and through bad weather conditions, the rest of the team’s crew and equipment arrived in California, just in time to throw it all into a container and ship it off to Europe. After this adventure, the Dakar should be a cinch.
Competition begins on the 4th of January 2015, and will continue across the South American continent for two weeks. We’ll be sure to report on the trials and tribulations of the Canadian contingent in our February issue.
DAKAR BY THE NUMBERS
- 713 competitors – 51 nationalities
- 3.9 million spectators
- 1,200 hours of TV broadcasting in 190 countries
- 431 race vehicles: 174 motorcycles, 40 quad bikes, 147 cars, 70 trucks
- 48% of competitors managed to finish the race in 2013. The last time there was a lower percentage of finishers was in 2006: 41%.
- 51 nationalities were present; the most represented countries were France 17%, the Netherlands 13.5%, Argentina 12.6%, Spain 5.4% and Chile 5.3%.
3.9 million spectators (Breakdown):
- Argentina: 2.5 million
- Bolivia: 410,000
- Chile: 1 million
Economic fallout and reputation for the host countries
- The economic impact of the 2014 Dakar in Argentina amounted to 150 million dollars.
- In Bolivia, the economic impact amounted to 62.3 million dollars.
International media coverage
- 70 broadcasters provided 190 countries with images of the rally, corresponding to 1,200 hours of total coverage.
- 272 permanent journalists – 143 media – 1,200 accreditations distributed.
A digital Dakar: website, social networks, mobile applications, video-sharing website
- Website: 81 million page views and 8.6 million unique visitors
- Youtube: 4.6 million videos watched
- In addition to the content provided on dakar.com, the official Facebook page brought together more than a million fans, while more than 160,000 followers signed up for the Dakar’s Twitter account.