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Collin Matiza Sports Editor—
ACE Zimbabwean motor racing driver Conrad Rautenbach is slowly finding out that competing in the Dakar Rally is no piece of cake.
The 32-year-old two-time African rally champion is taking part in what is dubbed “the toughest race on earth” for the first time in his illustrious career and he really has found the going tough during the first three days of the two-week Dakar Rally which revved off in the Paraguayan city of Asuncion on Monday.
Rautenbach and his seasoned South African navigator Rob Howie, in a Toyota Hilux, have, in fact, met with some mixed fortunes during the first three days of the Dakar Rally in which they have faced numerous problems, ranging from losing power steering to electrical fault in their car.
After having made some decent progress in the gruelling race on Tuesday where they climbed one position to 14th overall in the car category in which they were more than 14 minutes behind the leaders, Rautenbach and Howie lost further ground during Day Three of this event on Wednesday after their car developed an electrical fault.
On Wednesday, the route of the Dakar Rally began with a steady climb into the foothills of the Andes with a special stage between San Miguel de Tucumán and San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina with cars competing over 364 competitive kilometres in a day’s route of 780km.
And Rautenbach managed to finish in a respectable 12th position and was declared the best-placed rookie driver to finish the endurance race despite an electrical problem that his car had developed during this tough Stage 3.
Speaking to The Herald from San Salvador de Jujuy late on Wednesday night, Rautenbach admitted that they really had a tough day in which they lost over an hour.
“We had a really tough day. We had an electrical problem with the car so we lost over an hour but we managed to get through to the finish finally and the guys are fixing it up right now. It was really a long day and a tough stage,” Rautenbach said.
According to reports from Argentina, the first enduro stage of the 2017 Dakar Rally on Wednesday truly lived up to its billing as there were some dramatic change on the car leader-board.
Dakar Rally’s reigning champion Stephanie Peterhansel of France led a Peugeot 1, 2, 3 ahead of teammates Carlos Sainz (Spain) and Sebastian Loeb (France) with Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen, in a Mini, claiming fourth position ahead of Cyril Despres (Peugeot).
Peterhansel (51), seeking a 13th career triumph in the gruelling 9 000km endurance event, finished the San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy stage in Argentina in 4 hours 18 min 17 sec.
Sainz, the 2010 champion, was second, coming home 1 min 54 sec behind the Frenchman Peterhansel. Third was nine-time world rally champion Loeb at 3 min 8 sec off the lead.
At the end of business on Wednesday, Loeb stayed in the overall lead with a paper-thin 0.42sec advantage over Sainz and a 4.18sec gap on Peterhansel.
Qatar’s Toyota driver, Nasser Al Attiyah’s car limped to the stage finish two hours behind the race leader.
The 2017 Dakar Rally is now beginning to bite.
Another Toyota driver, Giniel de Villiers of South Africa, finished second from last and SS3 was indeed an elimination stage and one to quickly forget for the Toyota racing team, which includes Zimbabwe’s Rautenbach.
Wednesday’s stage was split into two sections with the second part over a 124km timed run seeing the competitors race at altitude hitting 5 000m for the first time in the 2017 event.
However, it was a test too far for Toyota, who are seen as Peugeot’s major rivals for the title.
Yesterday saw the competitors taking part in Stage Four of the 2017 Dakar Rally with the route taking them from San Salvador de Jujuy to Tupiza with an estimated total distance of 521km in high altitude dunes.
At around 3 500 metres, yesterday the Dakar Rally reached “a cruising altitude” of which competitors will have to navigate for six days. There are few that have already seen dunes at this altitude that will require an expert climbing technique.
And the co-drivers will have no time to relax, with a number of direction changes in the Bolivian section of the special stage.
Today’s Stage Five of the rally will run from Tupiza to Oruro which has an estimated total distance of 692km for cars and this time the Dakar Rally will take up residence on the Bolivian Altiplano.
While the organisms will become acclimated, fatigue will set in. In this context, the large variety of terrain makes this stage one of the most demanding. In the purest Dakar Rally spirit the density of the day will be characterised by the two dune sectors that will complicate the final kilometres of the special stage.
Online Reporter