The Dakar 2012. One Week In

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Trouble never strays far from the Paris-Dakar Rally. In 1982, the son of then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sparked a six-day rescue mission when his rally-prepared Peugeot 504 strayed nearly 50 kilometres off-course. Now in its 33rd year of competition, the pitfalls are no smaller.

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Following the withdrawal of Mitsubishi and VW from this year’s line-up (with the latter preparing instead for its inaugural World Rally Championship campaign), the X-Raid team’s fleet of Mini Countrymen remain favourites for the winner’s laurels. Having locked out the podium on day one – with Russian rally raid specialist Leonid Novitskiy sealing his first stage victory ahead of Polish regular Krzysztof Holowczyc and team leader Stephane Peterhansel – a cheeky bet on Mini seemed like money in the bank, as did each driver’s turn at the top of the table.

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But ‘The Dakar’, a notorious car breaker, is anything but a foregone conclusion. The rug was whipped from under Novitskiy’s Goodrichs after just one night, the lead yo-yoing between Peterhansel and Holowczyc over the next three stages. The battle lines drawn between these Mini team-mates– save six minutes lost for Peterhansel on day three repairing not one but two punctures, and a somewhat lethargic second outing for Holowczyc – allowed fellow- X-Raid pilot Nani Roma to grab the fourth stage victory and Team (Robby) Gordon’s fleet of Hummer H3 machinery to close the gap.

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The NASCAR race winner is no new boy on the dunes, his podium strike rate on the stages thus far rubberstamping that. Despite a string of mishaps on stage four, a superb time on day seven – beaten only by team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah – leaves the American third overall, splitting Holowczyc and Roma.