MOTORSPORT: Hellish start to Dakar

The Dakar rally raid has had a horror start in South America, with the first stage cancelled in atrocious weather after the new prologue was halted a day earlier because of a crash in which up to a dozen spectators were injured.

Organisers delayed then scrapped the scheduled 258km stage in Argentina overnight – to have been run between Rosario, north-west of Buenos Aires, to Villa Carlos Paz – because of fierce storms which would have prevented the event’s helicopters flying, making it unsafe.

The previous day’s prologue was aborted after the Mini driven by Guo Mei Ling, the first Chinese woman to compete in the event, crashed barely halfway into the 11km section near Arrecifes, 200km from Buenos Aires, with four children and a pregnant woman among the spectators injured.

Four air ambulances and 11 vehicles – ambulances and other medical cars – ferried the injured to hospitals.

Australian Toby Price had already finished 16th in the prologue’s two-wheel category on one of the four factory KTM bikes.

Price admitted to having made a “slight mistake” but otherwise was feeling “really good” about the two weeks of competition ahead.

Having finished third overall on debut in the world’s toughest motorsport event last year, Price was 18 seconds slower on the prologue than the joint fastest pair, Spaniard  Joan ‘Bang Bang’ Barreda on a Honda and Portugal’s Ruben Faria on a Husqvarna.

The only other Australians in this year’s Dakar, driver Peter Jerie and his navigator Dale Moscatt, a rookie on the marathon, were 48th in the car division in their Toyota HiLux.

The cars motored over the first stage overnight without times being recorded, while the motorcycles and quads travelled in convoy and the trucks took a course reserved for assistance vehicles.

Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke had been the surprise pacesetter on the prologue, clocking the quickest time of six minutes and eight seconds in his Toyota HiLux.

Three seconds behind him were Spaniards Carlos Sainz and Xavier Pons in a Peugeot 2008 DKR and Ford Ranger respectively.

Another two seconds back was last year’s Dakar winner, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, in his Mini, ahead of another Hilux driven by Poland’s Marek Dabrowski.

Next were the MINIs of Spaniard Nani Roma and Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen, a four-time runner-up in the World Rally Championship but new to the Dakar, while South African Giniel de Villiers was eighth in his HiLux.

Then came three Frenchmen, all on equal time, in the other two-wheel-drive Peugeots – ‘Mr Dakar’ Stephane Peterhansel, nine-time WRC champion but Dakar debutant Sebastien Loeb and Cyril Depres.

Loeb said he was feeling “comfortable” but had no thoughts of emulating the feat of another WRC great, Finn Ari Vatanen, who won the Dakar at his first attempt – in 1987, when it was run in Europe and Africa.

The second stage tonight, Australian time, is to go from Villa Carlos Paz to Termas de Rio Hondo.

Competitors face almost another 9000km in Argentina and Bolivia before the finish at Rosario on January 16.