MOTORSPORT: Dakar a new world for superstars

The Dakar early in the new year has a couple of new stars – nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb and a man who was runner-up to him four times, Mikko Hirvonen.

And, if Formula 1 came to pride itself on teenager Max Verstappen’s emergence this year, the toughest cross-country race on earth’s answer could be Sheldon Creed (pictured).

Already known to Australians from racing in Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks show at some V8 Supercar events, Californian Creed will be the youngest competitor in Dakar history when he starts in Buenos Aires at 18 years, three months and three days.

The Australian representation in the 38th Dakar – and the eighth in South America, after terrorism fears drove it out of Africa – is quality rather than quantity.

Among the 354 vehicles – cars, trucks, bikes and quads – and 556 competitors are just two, or it could be said 2½, Australian entrants.

Our big hope is motorcyclist Toby Price, who was a stunning third in the two-wheel category on debut last January.

Now with a two-year contract as a KTM factory rider, there is a prospect of even bigger things from 27-year-old Price with two five-time winners having gone in other directions – Frenchman Cyril Depres to four wheels while Spaniard Mark Coma has become the event’s sporting director.

Price admits “there’s a little bit of pressure to do better”, but his first aim in the two-week (with one rest day), 9237km rally raid, this time through only Argentina and Bolivia, is just to be on the podium again.

Our hopes in the car section are solely with Peter Jerie and Dale Moscatt in a Toyota Hilux.

Bruce Garland no longer competes and there’s no Geoff Olholm this time, nor Adrian Dilallo.

Jerie is Czech by birth but began rallying in Australia and his international competition licence comes via CAMS. He usually divides his time between one base in Switzerland and a home on NSW’s Central Coast, but he has spent three quarters of this year camping around Australia, clocking up 40,000km.

Having recently turned 50, it will be Jerie’s sixth Dakar. His first three were when the event started in Europe and finished in the capital of Senegal in west Africa – except that he never made it there.

Last January he notched his first finish – 42nd, with a best stage result of 25th.

He’s in the same Hilux, prepped by German outfit South Racing, and this year has won the Dakar Series – shorter ‘desafios’, or challenges, that are training grounds primarily for South American competitors – in it.

Jerie triumphed in Paraguay’s Desafio Guarani in atrocious wet conditions, was third in Argentina’s Desafio Ruta 40, while Peru’s Desafio Inca was cancelled.

The series title earned earned Jerie a free entry to the Dakar, a saving of €30,000 but there’s still airfares and other costs. He’ll have a different navigator, with experienced Frenchman Laurent Lichleuchter moving to a leading Toyota entry and Australia top special-stage co-driver Moscatt taking his place.

It’s Moscatt’s Dakar debut – and it will be quite a change for him. There’s no opportunity for reconnaissance, and thus no pace notes to call to the driver. Instead the navigator is handed a road book each night for the next day’s stage and immediately needs to put in hours of preparation on it. In competition there’s satellite navigation and GPS.

Moscatt has done loads of “homework”, including chats with Garland’s long-time navigator Harry Suzuki and French mate Matthieu Baumel, who partnered Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah in his second Dakar victory little more than 49 weeks ago.

In between, Moscatt has co-driven Chris Atkinson in China and Jack Monkhouse to victory in the Alpine Rally in Victoria in recent weeks.

Jerie and Moscatt have been friends for more than a decade and doing Dakar together has been a dream.

“We don’t see much of each other, but I always wanted to bring Dale to Dakar one day – and now it’s happening,” Jerie said.

“It’s always difficult to predict how things will go on the Dakar. There are so many factors… And you need a bit of luck. If we don’t break anything or have any other great dramas we should improve on where I finished last time,” Jerie said.

Jerie said “getting lost for half an hour happens to everyone” but two big delays last January – the worst of them caused by a driveshaft failure – cost him a combined 12 hours “and maybe 15 spots”.

“The most important thing is to finish… That’s the goal.”

The Jerie-Moscatt Hilux’s support crew will comprise six mechanics, including Garry Kirk of Adelaide, with engineering and logistical help available from South Racing, which services several entries.

Jerie is motivated by “the excitement, the adventure” of the Dakar, and inspired to keep going back by regular competitors many years older.

However, he laments that Paraguay, particularly, as well as Chile and Peru are not part of the course. Chile pulled out to devote its resources to aiding flood victims.

From Buenos Aires on January 3 competitors will head west on narrow gravel roads and paths through forests and fields into the extreme elevations of the Andes mountains and north into Bolivia’s Uyuni region. Then they will turn around and head back south to Salta in Argentina, then east to the finish in Rosario – a port city in the province of Santa Fe, 300km up the Parana River from Buenos Aires – on January 16.

MINI has won four Dakars in a row and the X-Raid team managed by Sven Quandt goes back this time with Mikko Hirvonen joining 2011 and 2015 winner Al-Attiyah, Spain’s 2014 victor Nani Roma and Argentinian Orlando Terranova.

Hirvonen will be trying to bring Finland a sixth Dakar triumph after the four of Ari Vatanen and Juha Kankkunen. He will have a four-time winning co-driver, Michel Perin, and has been staggered in testing by the MINI’s strength and ruggedness.

“A WRC car is more precise and more responsive, but wouldn’t be able to go to the places we can go to with the MINI,” Hirvonen said.

“The Dakar is a much more physical race than a WRC rally. The stages are long, the tracks, where there are some, are in worse shape.

“In the WRC you know to the metre what to expect and can attack flat out. On the Dakar you don’t know what is hiding behind a dune or a corner. This first year is more than anything else about learning.”

Peugeot dominated the Dakar a quarter of a century ago, with four straight victories – three by Vatanen and the other by Kankkunen.

It is making its second foray with its two-wheel-drive 2008 DKR, completely redesigned from last time, and has added Loeb to a squad that already had the event’s ‘king’, fellow Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, Spaniard Carlos Sainz – a multiple WRC champion and 2010 Dakar victor – and ex-biker Cyril Depres.

Unlike Hirvonen, Loeb’s navigator will be his stalwart WRC co-driver Daniel Elena – another Dakar rookie.

“The Dakar is very different, another approach to racing,” said Loeb, who has spent two seasons with Citroen in the World Touring Car Championship since scaling back from the WRC.

“I’m a bit worried about getting lost in the desert with Daniel. He wasn’t the logical choice – it would have been more logical to do it with someone who has plenty of experience – but we have been through a lot together, so this is special for both of us.”

The MINIs and Peugeots won’t have it all between them. Toyota’s top man, South African Giniel De Villiers, won in 2009 (with Volkswagen) and has been on the podium five other times.

A newcomer in another Hilux is Czech Martin Prokop, the top WRC privateer this year, while American Robby Gordon has an even bigger task than usual.

Third once in a Hummer, but a retirement without a stage win in 2015, Gordon has strived for more than a decade to become the first American to win the Dakar and has the added responsibility now of inducting teenager Sheldon Creed to the ultimate torture test.

The reigning Stadium Super Trucks champion and X Games gold medalist, Creed already is the winner of 12 off-road championships.

He and Gordon are in a pair of front-wheel-drive HST (Hummer-style truck) Gordinis.

“My biggest challenge with Sheldon will not be going fast, but will be holding the reins back on him to make the vehicle last 13 days,” Gordon said.

Of his own chances, Gordon said: “Apart from the Dakar, there isn't a race we haven’t won. We have won in NASCAR, in IndyCar, and 24-hour races. We have won special stages on the Dakar, but not the Dakar [outright] – and it is very frustrating.”

And of the main players, Gordon said: “I have seen videos of the Peugeots and they will be very fast.

“Peugeot has a formidable line-up of drivers.

“As for the MINIs… They have proved themselves on the terrain and they could continue to kick ass.

“But we will be dangerous,” Gordon promised.