MOTORSPORT: New Dakar roaring success

VWs one-two after two days, with Mitsubishi in third
It's only two days old but already the new-look Dakar Rally is proving a huge success in South America.

Spanish world rally championship legend Carlos Sainz has taken the lead for Volkswagen on the second day in Argentina after Qater's Nasser Al-Attiyah won what he called a "fairly easy" long first stage in a BMW.

The VW Touaregs and the new Racing Lancers from Mitsubishi -- the manufacturer which dominated the last seven Dakars in the event's traditional home, Africa -- started to impose themselves on day two.

Australia's Bruce Garland, 51st after day one in the Isuza D-Max ute he built at his Sydney workshop with 160kW of power and 500Nm of torque at 2000 rpm, was 72nd in the car division on the second stage.

He and co-driver Harry Suzuki have now slipped to 65th outright -- four spots behind Swedish teammates Pelle Wallentheim and Olle Ohlsson.
In the bike section, the three Aussie competitors are all in the top 100 of 192 two-wheel competitors.

David Schwarz is 15th on a KTM, French-born Christophe Barriere-Varju 72nd on another KTM and Simon Pavey 100th on a BMW.
And Richard Hayes is aboard a Mercedes truck with two Spaniards that is running 50th in that category.

Sainz won the 237km second stage from Santa Rosa to Puerto Madryn by 1 minute 14 seconds from the Mitsubishi of France's Stephane Peterhansel, the winner of the previous Dakar in 2007 -- last year's was cancelled at the last minute because of terrorism fears which subsequently saw the event moved to South America this year.

One of Sainz's VW teammates, South African Giniel De Villiers, was third on the second stage, while first-stage winner Al-Attiyah was ninth in his BMW -- more than 6½ minutes behind Sainz.

"It was a very difficult stage with all the dust and the bikes," said Sainz, who won the Rally of Argentina twice during his WRC career. "At times we nearly had to stop. I even hit a biker at one point; I hope he's going to be OK."

Peterhansel, bidding for a 10th Dakar title after winning the motorcycle section six times and the car event three times, was satisfied with his second place after a disappointing sixth in Saturday's opening stage from Buenos Aires.

"We ended up in the dust thrown up by the bikers and there were some sections with quite thick vegetation," Peterhansel said. "We were almost stopped at that point, because visibility was down to one or two metres.

"The bikers were all over the place, so we had to be very careful."

De Villiers also had visibility problems.

"The start of the special was very quick, but as soon as we arrived in the off-track part it was not very easy to navigate and we got a little bit lost - we must have lost a minute or two," he said. "Then in the last section there was lots of fesh-fesh (very soft sand) so it was very difficult to get past the bikers."

Villiers is second overall after two days, 2 minutes 19 seconds behind Sainz, with Mitsubishi's Peterhansel third behind the two VWs, 3 minutes 51 seconds off the lead.

Behind that trio are the BMW of At-Attiaya and the Mitsubishis of Spaniard Joan Roma and Frenchman Luc Alphand.

Dutch rider Frans Verhoeven won the second motorbike stage on a KTM after having been fourth after the first, 371km stage.

Spaniard and fellow KTM rider Marc Coma retained the overall motorcycle lead despite finishing about 12 minutes behind Verhoeven, who finished 40 seconds ahead of France's former champion Cyril Despres on another KTM.

Despres had been 41 minutes behind after a puncture on the opening day.

Another Frenchman David Fretigne, on a Yamaha, was third on the second stage.

Meanwhile, Aussie driver Garland -- a multiple winner of the Australian Safari -- has reported that the ceremonial start of the new Dakar in Buenos Aires was "beyond belief".

"The news bulletins here were reporting around a million people in Buenos Aires to see us, but even if that's exaggerated half a million wouldn't be -- it was incredible," Garland said. "It's the biggest thing to hit Argentina since the soccer World Cup back in the 1970s."

Garland and Japanese-born Aussie Harry Suzuki started 62nd of 188 cars and made up considerable ground on day one to be 51st overnight -- 44 behind the leaders.

"It was unbelievably dusty," Garland said. "We ate dust for miles and miles.

"So many people doing this event don't know how to pass in the dust, so we would come up behind a car and find it was part of a convoy. Then we would have to find a way around the convoy, which could take ages.

"You just have to be patient and wait your chance and then take a big gulp of brave and do it.

"We passed about 12 cars. We knew we would be faster than a lot of them, so we're hoping to be re-seeded within the next day or so.

"We know we have another day with these sorts of conditions and then it should get more open and interesting."

While Garland was upbeat at that point the times from day two, and the fact he and Suzuki are now 3 hours 18 minutes and 38 seconds behind the leaders after two days, points to major problems on the second stage, so we're awaiting a Garland update with interest.

On day three the field heads west on a route that eventually leads to Valparaiso on Chile's Pacific coast.

After that the route will take competitors back into the Andes Mountains and the Atacama Desert -- the driest place on earth.

Sir Jackie spray for Bernie and Max
While we still await word of a buyer for Honda's Formula 1 team, we came across an excellent interview in The Times with Sir Jackie Stewart in which the triple world champion, now almost 70, pulls no punches in his comments on the way Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley are handling the sport.

That interview is here

The 26-year-old IndyCar driver, winner of the Japanese round of the Indy Racing League last April, has just been fined US$196 for driving at 54mph (87km/h) in a 35mph zone in her home town, Scottsdale, Arizona. She was driving a 2007 Mercedes-Benz.

Early last year she was nabbed for doing 57mph in a 40mph zone in Scottsdale and attended a defensive driving course to avoid any greater penalty.

Reports from Arizona say she has had "several tickets in the past three years".

Hopefully she will show more speed on road courses this year than she did at the Gold Coast Indy last October!