SA’S Giniel de Villiers fights back
OUTH African driver Giniel de Villiers clawed back precious time on the Dakar Rally’s 717km fourth day on Tuesday, and after the three and a half hour stage the 2009 overall race winner was listed as third in the standings.
After suffering a navigational setback on day three, the Imperial Toyota Hilux driver finished fourth in stage four, jumping him from fifth overall to third behind current leader and ten time dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel in a Mini, and 2011 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah in a Red Bull buggy. De Villiers and German navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz were just over 33 minutes behind the leader going into stage five.
“We had a good day,” said De Villiers. “It was a very long stage, over three and a half hours of hard driving and navigating, the first really hard stage of the rally so far. The Hilux ran well.”
De Villiers’ South African teammates Duncan Vos and Rob Howie were unfortunately forced to retire on Tuesday after rolling the second Imperial-sponsored Hilux.
The pair were sitting in 12th position overall, but damage to the bakkie’s roll cage necessitated retirement as per rally rules.
The third South African entry in the cars category, a ProDakar McRae buggy driven by Johan van Staden and Mike Lawrenson, was stuck in stage four with a clutch problem and yet to check in at the overnight bivouac.
In the bikes category Yamaha rider Olivier Pain leads from French countrymen David Casteu and last year’s winner Cyril Despres, but SA KTM riders Darryl Curtis and Riaan van Niekerk are putting up a good fight in 13th and 19th places overall. South African Honda rider Brett Cummings was still in the running down in 91st position, but team-mate Glen Grundy retired after the first day.
A lone South African entrant in the quads category is holds the flag high, and after finishing stage four in eighth place, Sarel Biljon on his E-ATV is classified seventh. Biljon has finished in the top ten of every stage so far.
SUsual dakar front-runner and previous winner Carlos Sainz is over three hours behind and out of contention after a navigational problem on day three. The Spaniard had complained that his GPS was not registering a waypoint along the route, and was later reinstated stage winner after a technical enquiry, only to be penalised again after officials discovered he had turned off his back-up GPS unit at the time. Sainz and his Red Bull buggy were classified in 24th place.
American showman Robbie Gordon and his high-flying Hummer also lost insurmountable time when the big V8-powered vehicle landed on its roof after launching over a dune. Gordon managed to recover and finish the stage more than two hours later, and now sits in 43rd place.
The 2013 edition of the Dakar Rally, which is again being held in Peru, Argentina and Chile, finishes on January 19 in the Chilean city of Santiago.
For more information, or to watch the progress of our South African drivers via live timing and daily results, visit www.dakar.com