Jan 7th, 2012 Dakar Rally Stage 7 Race Info & Discussion

Join in and discuss all the action from Stage 7 of the 2012 Dakar Rally. Robby Gordon finished 2nd in stage 5 & Nasser Al Attiyah finished 11th. Cars begin stage 7 at 7:56am/et (9:56am local). Raceday chat will be available throughout the entire 2012 Dakar Rally. Raceday chat now works on the Ipad & Iphone.

STAGE 7 TRACKING

STAGE 7: Copiapo > Copiapo

Connection 154km | Special Stage 419km | Total 573km

COURSE OVERVIEW

The loop will be the biggest challenge of the week, although the beginning of the special stage, which will travel along tracks in the middle of the hills and cacti, might appear easy. But afterwards, the strain of the kilometres covered since Mar del Plata will begin to take their toll, exactly at the time when a great number of dunes will follow one after another. The last string of dunes to be crossed, so near and yet so far from the finish, may well resemble a bivouac which has been transported to the middle of the desert. Thankfully for the latecomers who pitch their tents, the regulations allow vehicles to be presented until 6 pm on the rest day.

STAGE BY STAGE RESULTS

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 7, 2012 at 4:23pm

Robby is driving smart, and he's driving great, but he will have to close the gap sooner or later. To win, he and Nasser must reverse the trend and close time, not loose time, on the reaming stages. In other words, in order to win, Robby and/or Nasser must have stage wins from here on out. There's no other way. Well..., other than the leader going dnf.

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Permalink Reply by Carlos Durazo on January 7, 2012 at 3:59pm

Hope they built more reliables hummer for next Dakar. But nothig is wrote yet.

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Permalink Reply by bighead on January 7, 2012 at 4:16pm

one thing for sure is that it shouldn't be hard to find a driver for the second Hummer

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Permalink Reply by redlinetech on January 7, 2012 at 4:22pm

RGM shouldve hooked with nasser 4-5 years ago. Those Touwrecks wouldnthad a change, VW wouldnt have won a single Dakar.. Who on this planet predicted this scenario, the scenario thats playing out right now, Nasser beating factory cars big time! using a high tech class 1 with a smallblock? I know robby's gotta play it safe, Nasser is all out with his all or nothing attitude. would like to see Robby go all out, but again , would hate to see em screw up by not being conservative enough. We got a shot with Robby at winning this thing with Nasser in reserve, taking all the stages from now on. looking back at the results now, without all the bad luck and more seat time for Nasser, this dakar shouldve been a Hummer 1-2 from day 1 till now and all the way to the finish. Lets hope it works out!

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Permalink Reply by Andre on January 7, 2012 at 5:25pm

There won't be Hummers next year. http://www.puro-off-road.com/baja-racing-news/maserati-suv-based-on...

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Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 7, 2012 at 4:17pm

I know I should do my own math, but how many total miles, or kilometers, is the Dakar? I'm thinking that the Dakar is equivalent to 5-7 Baja 500's 13 days in a row! This is truly an amazing race.

Okay, a couple more question. How do you think a US-style trophy-truck would fare in the Dakar?

Does the rear-engine Hummer handle better than a trophy-truck?

I love the US trophy-trucks and Class-1 buggies, but I'm truly amazed at how fast the small cars do in the Dakar.

How would a VW from last year or a Mini from this year do in the Baja 500 or 1000?

Is the terrain they are crossing similar or different, Baja vs. the terrain of the Dakar?

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Permalink Reply by pdxracefan on January 7, 2012 at 4:27pm

OA length is around 9000K
TTs have been tried at least acouple times and if I remember correctly, didn't do well, tho I don't know why that was.
Does a Class 1 buggy handle better than a TT?
Rigs with short wheel travel are not successful at Baja in recent times
As you can see, some is vastly different, some is similar. Biggest difference are the high elevations

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Permalink Reply by Carlos Durazo on January 7, 2012 at 4:31pm

what about class 1 in dakar? or even trophys?

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Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 7, 2012 at 4:51pm

I'm thinking that the Hummer's pretty much are Class-1 cars. PDX answered regarding trophy trucks. He called them TT's.

What we need are more American off-road racers entering the Dakar.

But it seems that there is a terrain that works well for American off-road cars and a terrain that works well for toughened-off-road-rally cars. Dakar is a variety of terrain, tight turns, and navigation. American off-road seems more wide-open, but I don't really know. But then again, a river-bed or sand-wash is what it is.

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Permalink Reply by FD REBEL on January 7, 2012 at 5:32pm

The Hummer is a large buggy chassis with trailing arms, trans axle, ect...with a giant body on it much like a Truggy from the past. as long as you keep an eye on the CV's, boots, shocks/mounts, bearings, axles, steering components and filters.. they can go for a few thousand miles with a de tuned choked down LS7 for power. When you add 400 more HP and 20" more travel (Trophy Truck) things start to come apart sooner.

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Permalink Reply by Hendricus on January 7, 2012 at 4:43pm

Thanks PDX. I'm thinking that in Baja both TT's and Class-1 would leave these toughened, off-road type rally cars in the dust. Probably no contest. But it fascinates me how fast these cars are in the Dakar terrain. So far, it looks like most of the terrain is dirt. Seems to be very little pavement.

Do you know, is the Baja terrain long stretches of whoop-d-dos?

I'm also wondering, how much does navigation play into it? I would love to read more comments from both Johnny Campbell and Nasser's navigator. How hard is there job? How much do they contribute to the finish time? Is Nasser's navigator the same guy he had last year?

Answer only if you want to. I don't mean to annoy people with my questions. And yes... of course I could do my own research.

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Permalink Reply by redlinetech on January 7, 2012 at 5:02pm

A US style Trophy truck has 800+ horsepower, you can run more if you want, but around 700-800 seems the be the sweet spot for reliability AND speed. In the Dakar all vehicles are power restricted. If you have to cut that TT power down to about 300, there wouldnt be much "Trophy" left. All thats left is an inefficient heavy truck going nowhere. The RGM hummer is a tailor made vehicle specifically engineered for the Dakar Rally and Dakar Rule Book. So are all the factory (team) cars.