Thixton still on the safe side at Dakar Rally
WHEN he arrived in Saudi Arabia Zimbabwean motorbike rider Ashley Thixton said his main mission was to complete the 2024 Dakar Rally and it’s slowly coming to fruition for him.
The 30-year-old biker, who is representing Zimbabwe for the first time in the Dakar Rally, is still in the fight to last the full distance in the toughest and biggest motor rallying event in the world after he successfully navigated his way past the first three days in the Saudi dunes after some incredible racing at the weekend.
There was some smart riding again from Thixton in Stage Three yesterday as he came home in 40th place.
Navigating the Dakar Rally looks extremely complicated and it’s still a long way to go for his mission to be accomplished, but Thixton showed some resilience and is determined to go all the way in this tough and unpredictable event in which anything can happen during each day of racing.
Thixton, who is not looking for any stage win but to last the distance during this year’s tough event, first did well to finish in 105th place out of 147 bikers who took part in the Prologue during the opening day of the 15-day Dakar on Friday.
Receiving some tips from his father, Trevor, who is part of his supporting team, he cleverly made his way out of the opening Stage One in 44th place on Saturday.
Sunday saw things hotting up for all the participants as they entered into Stage Two and Thixton, knowing that there’s plenty more to come in this event, remained focused and settled for 74th position.
Stage Two was very fast and really tricky to navigate as some of the bikes got caught by the cars early in the morning and the dust was crazy but Thixton, overall, had a good day.
And yesterday it was back in the dunes again as Thixton was involved in Stage Three and it’s so far so good for him as he kept himself in contention for a place among the finishers of the whole Dakar Rally course, come January 19.
The daunting Stage Three, from Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya, was the longest of the Rally so far in terms of the monster 733km total distance.
The 438km special included a mixture of rocks, sand and dunes.
The rally ‘proper’ got underway on January 6, and will eventually pass from Al Henakiyah — whose capital city Medina is the second-most holy city in Islam — to the final stage in Al Madinah, whose capital, Yanbu, hosted the first stage of the 2023 rally. In total, the route will cover 4 954 miles, including 2 937 miles of special stages.
Meanwhile, it was the end of the Dakar Rally adventure for British rider Sam Sunderland at Stage Three yesterday.
Sunderland withdrew from the Rally after some misfortune struck the British rider, who had been stopped for over 3 hours and 30 minutes at km 11 due to a mechanical issue.