UTVs at DAKAR 2013

[Bajaxp]

It looks like there are going to be quite a few UTV's at this year's Dakar. Please post up what you see and here regarding UTV's. Here is a picture of the Polaris Team from Europe. Extreme

 

[Ignore Amos]

Here one of the Nextel Can Am Commanders from Chile that are going to run this year..these UTV's are so different than what we run in Desert racing

 

[NIKAL]

Bummer news! The Spanish team running the two XP900/Smart cars will not be making the race due to not getting the funding to run the rally.


From Marathonrally.com

Bad news for the friends of the Spanish Feber "Rally Raid Smart" Prototype: As the team today announced, they finally can not run the Dakar Rally 2013. The project, led by José Luis Ãlvarez, has failed "with all the sadness" to meet the necessary funding the race - so the team has decided not to participate in the test.

"The last few days have been crazy, non-stop meetings and calls to save a project for a year, a unique project here in the developed world Spain in Segovia for details and the amount of 17,000 euros has come down, because we have not been able to get" the Team reported.

"In vehicle development, design, works approval, registration and more we had spent more than 80,000 Euros - now only to have a beautiful 4x4 Smart."

 

[Bajaxp]

Here is a pic of the RZR of Carlos Medina from Brazil. He will be racing the Dakar solo. So far it looks like there are 8 Polaris RZR's signed up, three Commanders and I hear rumor of one Wild Cat. There might be more, but that is what I have seen so far.

 

[JoeyD23]

So bad ass. Thanks for posting the pics Matt. Dakar is on my bucket list for sure!

 

[Bajaxp]

Here is a link to the DAKAR website. Carefull, tracking Dakar is addictive and you may be glued to your computer everyday for updates, particularly with 12-15 UTV's tackling the over 5000 miles of the rally over the next 15 days. The race starts this Saturday. I believe that the there is a very good half hour show on NBC Sports (formerly Versus), but I will have to check.

http://www.dakar.com/index_DAKus.html

 

[Bajaxp]

Pic of Bruno Sperancini from Brazil testing. BTW...it looks like there will be a special RZR Facebook page put up for Dakar that you can follow. I will post up the link when I get it. From what I understand it will have daily updates, stories, pictures, results, etc.

 

[Bajaxp]

Dakar pilots Bruno and Thiago RZR #386 from Brazil at the Jagged X RZR LE press intro for South America. BTW the press intro was hard work...

 

[dmurray]

Great, another addicting event to take more time I already don't have. Hopefully they will have the daily recaps like last year on nbc sports! Look forward to how many trucks the utv guys beat this year. Can't wait.

 

[Bajaxp]

This is a pic at scrutineering (aka tech inspection) of last year's Dakar UTV winner William Alcaraz (French dude) from Team Extreme Plus. Also one of the teams chase trucks that actually follows the racers 3-4 hours behind.

 

[JoeyD23]

Here's a few images from around the web. Race-Dezert.com has full coverage.

 

[Bajaxp]

Here are some pictures from Day 1 that I took.

 

[OFFROADSWAPMEET]

Great shots,Keep them coming.

 

[Bajaxp]

Dakar RZR's are heavy beasts as they must carry 40+ gallons of fuel. But it makes G-outs gnarley! Pic of Peruvian Oscar Rocha and Henry Ynga. They are running the new Walker Evans 2.5" needle shocks on all four corners, so they are in good hands.

Ok...contest time! I will buy a 2 slice toaster for whoever can guess who I am standing next to and what his credentials are. Eg...championships in other forms of racing, wins at a certain off road race, current standings in said race, nickname, etc. They guys on race-dezert.com would get this quickly, but I want to see what sort of game the Ute vatos have.

 

[Pete.A]

Carlos Sainz (aka El Matador) WRC world champ, dakar champ, and im not sure what pos he is in until 11:30 tonight. Can I get my toaster in red bull colors please?

 

[Bajaxp]

Carlos Sainz (aka El Matador) WRC world champ, dakar champ, and im not sure what pos he is in until 11:30 tonight. Can I get my toaster in red bull colors please?

Ooooo...we have a playah. But you didn't say how many times CARLOS SAINZ was WRC champ or how many times he won Dakar. And you need to throw down the current standings after Day 3. Bonus points if you can tell me who built his car. Super bonus points if you can tell me where it was built. And a four slice toaster if you can tell me which headlights he is running. Toaster will be a stock Toastmaster or GE, but I can supply 'factory' Jagged X stickers.

 

[Pete.A]

WRC champ 1990 &1992, both withToyota
Dakar champ in 2010 with VW
This years car is built by Damen Jefferies ( i believe built in So Cal) and is one of two sponsored by Qatar and Red Bull. Nasser Alatyah is his teammate.

El Matador holds the record for the most starts in a WRC car, and has signed with VW to help develop their 2013 WRC entry.

I'm guessing on the lights, but they look like Baja Designs new Onyx series.

 

[Bajaxp]

WRC champ 1990 &1992, both withToyota
Dakar champ in 2010 with VW
This years car is built by Damen Jefferies ( i believe built in So Cal) and is one of two sponsored by Qatar and Red Bull. Nasser Alatyah is his teammate.

El Matador holds the record for the most starts in a WRC car, and has signed with VW to help develop their 2013 WRC entry.

I'm guessing on the lights, but they look like Baja Designs new Onyx series.

Well done and wikapedia would be proud. The lights are actually Polaris XP 900 headlights, modified to accept a turn signal inside. Their guys told me at scrutineering, that they really likeed them because they throw out awesome light, have high/low beams and use very little power.

DAKAR NOOBS...READ THIS. Race Dezert posted a comparison between desert racing and rally raid racing. Good read... http://www.race-dezert.com/home/dakar-101-dezert-vs-dakar-37923.html

 

[Pete.A]

A little wiki combined with a lot of RDC- with a sprinkle of some Dakar.com thrown in for good measure

 

[JoeyD23]

This is bad ass! Polaris just created an app to help track all of the Polaris UTV racers in Dakar! Check it out

http://www.facebook.com/PolarisOffRoad/app_395314640553531