It's a common procedure

As a Dakar fan, I'm quite disappointed with the A.S.O. For me, this rally was the epitome of the off-road competition. Endurance, intelligence, team work and top of the line racing equipment.

I always tought they were not like the FIA people, with all it's corruption. A.S.O. for me was the brightest race organization in the world, for making such difficult race happen, wich must be very difficult for itself.

And maybe this difficulty is one of the reasons why A.S.O. is clearly manipulating the results. The sponsors and big money teams, are starting to take over the Dakar. It's sad, because this rally stills one of the few worldwide competitions that the independents can shine over the mighty money factories team.

But the reality is, BMW/Mini already spent lot's and lot's of money on this competition, and the car is very slow for the competition standard. They know that, and they will do whatever they have to do to ensure victory, so they can merchandise over it.

After losing with shame for the VW Touaregs, now that the VW'S are out, they cannot afford to lose for an independent team, it will hurt their image pretty bad.

From the day one, with one of the multiple cars they signed in, it was settled that Mini would win this year Dakar, and that's what A.S.O. is ensuring to happen. A.S.O. is making it, maybe to defend their sponsors, like BF Goodrich...and to ensure the big sponsors like Monster and Red Bull still on the Dakar for the next years to come.

If you ask me, it's wrong...true competition is the sport soul, if you take competition out of the sport, turns it into a friends camping over the wilderness. And people don't want to see a bunch of rich fellas having fun, people want competion, motorsport.

I'm pretty sure now, this kind of situation have happened before, with a lot of competitors and other teams. Every time I see the Red Bull biker, Cyril Despre, and how he managed to get out of the mud and not loose any time (thanks to the organization, who credited him all the minutes he lost)...I feel ashamed...that's not racing.

The organization (A.S.O.) even PUNISHED the portuguese rider who helped him, because he was helped by locals. The curious thing is, if the section was cut off from the rally, why punish him them?

And Peterhansel, who deliberately rammed over a stuck motorcycle rider inside a flowing river?! He hit'n'run the guy, pushed his bike to the water and was TOTALLY clear with that.

If Robby was the one pushing the biker into the river, what you people think A.S.O. would do?

Competition is always fair, the best wins. But this, this is not competition, it's a marked game.

The tv coverage A.S.O. is providing is rich in images, but very poor on info, always speaking how great Peterhansel is with it's nine victories (but how he managed to win nine times...like this year?), and always making fun of non factories racing teams.

The good thing is, in south america people have cameras, and are posting videos on youtube...if you search, you will see who are the competitors the crowd loves, and the mini-mini pilots are not among them. There's no A.S.O. helicopter on earth who can prove that wrong.

"La Hummer, la Hummer" "La vien Robby", "Nasser Hummer, que loco"...and a lot of screams, hands to the air and people going crazy. The mini-minis only appear on the videos when they happen to be near a Hummer, otherwise most of the people don't even bother.

It's sad to see such a incredible race, in such beatifull place, tainted by this corruption scheme.

But people, let's be concient, who has ever watched the 2010 movie about Senna?
2010 Senna Movie

French driver Prost, F1 multi-champion...winning in conditions like this, with a lot of corruption from the french sport organization.

I'm not saying french people are corrupt, and it's not right blame a nacionality for something like this. But these kind of situations happens on sports, people should be aware of it.

I live in Brazil, if Robby is racing next year Dakar, will take the trip to argentina to see the Hummers close and cheer for the Speed Team wins.

Views: 1258

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Big Daddy P on January 14, 2012 at 8:44am

The analogy of the TdF and Lance Armstrong and Dakar and Robby Gordon have a lot of similarities. I've followed the Tour de France and Dakar Rally for well over two decades. I does seem at times like ASO controls their products (events) very tightly - usually for "the betterment of the sport" as they say. In reality it is for the betterment of their bottom line. Robby winning Dakar sadly does not translate into a easy to sell marketing platform to a mostly European sponsor pool for the event. As always, it's all about the money.

Permalink Reply by Turtle7 on January 14, 2012 at 10:57am

I would include the Mini's sponser in this - Monster. They had to pony up some big bucks, which they never threw RG's way, to sponser the X-Raid team. What company wants to see a market competitor that is spending way less beat them. I agree, I think this is all about the money and not the sport.

Permalink Reply by Ken on January 14, 2012 at 11:11am

Easy on Monster................they did throw a lot of money RGs way. RG decided to go his way.

Permalink Reply by mark roye on January 14, 2012 at 2:15pm

What they (ASO) must be made to realize is that this event is now on the American continent, with far more interest than ever before from Americans, north and south. A European sponsor pool will be forced to understand that the Americas, north and south, is by far the world's largest market for automotive products----at least until the Chinese become a bit more affluent. This is true of related, but non-automotive sponsors as well. I lived and traveled widely in South America for three years, and never saw a single Mini. I did however see endless Toyotas, Nissan, Ford Rangers, Chevy Blazers, Hyundais etc, etc. And no Norte Americano would ever think of a Mini as an off-road vehicle. The point is that if the event hopes to stay relevant and prosper, the smartest thing they can do is aggressively stimulate true competition. This brings more manufacturers, more sponsors, and future success of the event. To do otherwise will assure that the event withers in the long run---witness CART/IRL when it became a spec series with one engine etc. It is incumbent on all of us to make them hear this message.

Permalink Reply by paul murray on January 14, 2012 at 9:21am

just looking at eurosports website under motorsport, seems like mini are not very popular for this seasons WRC, they have been given some sort of waiver by the FIA take a look and make your own minds up ?

Permalink Reply by Ms Gibby on January 14, 2012 at 1:50pm

Thank you, Fabio. Good post!

Permalink Reply by Carl Abrams on January 14, 2012 at 1:53pm

All I can say is,
Well spoken and thank you.

Permalink Reply by pdxracefan on January 14, 2012 at 2:19pm

Well said Fabio.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Ball on January 14, 2012 at 3:24pm

You encapsulate well the rather sad feeling I've had for the last few stages of this race after starting out with such optimism. Now I wouldn't go so far to say that there are webs of conspiracy and results are actively manipulated by organisations such as the FIA and ACO .... but.... I do think that officials are far too much in awe of the 'big names' either owners, drivers, sponsors and especially car companies. Auto racing has this unique problem in sport that the providers of the equipment can quit at any moment and leave the whole sport in trouble. The Dakar organisers have already seen VW walk off into the sunset now that they've fulfilled their marketing requirements and are presumably their worst nightmare would be for BMW/MINI to leave because they penalise Peterhansel. Such thoughts have to be swimming round their minds but are they big enough to be independent and impartial? Indycar's crediblity was nearly ruined by a chief steward who couldn't penalise a Penske or Ganassi driver if his life depended on it. Not, I stress, because I think he was corrupt, but because he didn't have the guts to change the result and have to stand up to some seriously influential people.
But they are fools to themselves. It's personalities that crowds love, not commericals based on how many wins a certain brand has. It cheers me up to read that the crowd are all going nuts for the Hummers and don't really care about BMW's marketing strategy.

Permalink Reply by Brian Perkins on January 14, 2012 at 3:48pm

Its is very interesting that after Nasser "QUIT" is when tech "ASO" came look in at Robbys Hummer. Did Nasser tell ASO about this air intake? Or did they wait tell after Nasser was out of the political picture? Sounds very French to me. If Robby hits "grazes" a motorcycle he is gone from Daker comp.aka. Peterwiener. Look what happen to the Russians in the trucks, We must keep the Deroy name in front Col. Klink!

Permalink Reply by Luiz Carlos da Silva on January 14, 2012 at 6:13pm

parabens fabio grande comentario,e nototrio que gordon e o mais veloz deste rally,pena que a organizaçao desde o inicio da competiçao esta privilegiando os mini (bmw) O QUE E UMA PENA, pois ver o hummer competindo e uma maravilha so pelo som do seu motor (usina) v8 e de arrepiar, acompanho gordon desde a nascar ,ele merece pela competencia em off roud, e seu carisma pena que os franceses so olhem para o futuro comercial do seu rally, estao arrumando suspeitas para nao deixar gordom aparecer mais que seus pilotos(RED BULL;MONSTER) SPEED ENERGY vem ai força robby vamos mostrar a força americana para estes europeus que so ganham mesmo com cartas marcadas

Permalink Reply by J.R. Sands on January 14, 2012 at 6:42pm

Fabio, Thanks for the good read....

RSS

© 2024   Created by TOG.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service