Savage desert heat of 50-degrees causes problems for bike and car competitors. Dakar organisers compelled to stop Stage 9 at 179km for safety reasons.
Once again the weather conditions determined the result of a Dakar special stage. In the opening week, very early on, rain put paid to many a competitor’s Dakar challenge. But today’s weather in the Belen-Belen stage proved to be the opposite extreme in the desert arena. With competitors in the bike classes having problems with the severe desert floor heat, Dakar officials made the decision to stop the race at CP2 for safety reasons.
The result for Stage 9 was determined by the best time at CP2. For early flyers Erik van Loon (NLD) and Wouter Rosegaar (NLD) in the Van Loon Racing (#306) MINI ALL4 Racing, this gave them their best result so far this Dakar with a stage finish of second. This result now has the Dutch duo currently in eighth in the overall top ten. Read More »