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Entering The Desert
At the end of the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally, it is Stephane Peterhansel leading the field into the desert proper in his Mitsubishi Pajero. Stage 6 was the second of the long African stages. Peterhansel had been the overnight leader when the field reached Valencia at the end of the European leg, but had lost the lead to Hiroshi Masuoka on Stage 5. Peterhansel now holds a slim 49 second lead over his Mitsubishi teammate.
A surprise third position is Gregoire de Mevius in his privately entered BMW X5. After a slow start in Europe, the BMW has proved the revelation of the rally, storming up the standings as the rally got rougher. The Beemer is 15 minutes behind Peterhansel and 55 seconds ahead of the leading Nissan, that of Japanese veteran Kenjiro Shinozuka. The second BMW of Luc Alphand lost a lot of time in Stage 5 after the front right suspension collapsed.
Dual World Rally Champion Miki Biasion holds fifth in his Mitsubishi. The leading buggy is the Volkswagen Desert Nardo being driven by Stephane Henrard in seventh place, now the only Volkswagen running troublefree after Jutta Kleinschmidt was significantly delayed with tyre dramas in Stage 5 and is 43 minutes from the lead in tenth position.
Ari Vatanen holds eighth in the third of the Nissan Pickups, two spots behind teammate Giniel de Villiers. The challenge of the Schlesser-Fords is all but over with Jose Marie Servia over 75 minutes behind and Jean-Louis Schlesser out of the rally with engine failure.
In the bikes Richard Sainct continues to lead on his KTM 660 LC4 by a mere 17 seconds over both Joan Roma and Fabrizio Meoni. KTM are completely dominating the event on two wheels with the first non-KTM in the overall standings being the Honda 650XR of Jun Mitsuhashi, in 23rd place.
The de Rooy family DAF team lead the truck classification with Johannes de Rooy's crew six and a half minutes ahead of Gerardus de Rooy's crew. The Kamaz led by Vladimir Tchaguine is seven minutes behind. At twelve minutes is the Tatra of Andre de Azevedo with the Kamaz of Firdaus Kabirov at 14 minutes. There is only one other truck within an hour of the de Rooys.
Result of Dakar Rally (after Stage 6):
Gronholm Criticises New Points System
World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm has criticised the points system introduced for the 2003 World Rally Championship, saying drivers will not be rewarded sufficiently for winning a rally.
Under the new ruling, drivers finishing in the top eight positions will score points compared to six previously and the second place finisher will get eight points compared to last year's six.
"This new system is not correct," the Finn said. "The winner of a rally is not sufficiently rewarded. The winner is the winner so he should have a quantifiable advantage as far as the championship goes. This year it will not be so important to win a rally. The situation is too contradictory."
The same points change was applied to Formula One in October.
Gronholm scored 77 points in 2002 and secured the world title for Peugeot by a massive 40 points. The 2003 season starts on January 17 with the Monte Carlo rally.
Alister McRae Resigned to a Testing Year
Alister McRae and French teammate Francois Delecour are free to take any drives that come along after Mitsubishi decided to sit out this year's world rally championship. But the Scot, younger brother of former world champion Colin, told the official WRC website that nothing had emerged so far and he was resigned to a season of frustration.
"My main priority is testing this year but I'd consider anything else that came along. The problem is that in the current climate not many people are running third cars. There's no point in me going out and hiring a car as the world rally championship is so competitive these days that unless you have the best possible equipment, there's no point. You're nowhere."
Mitsubishi, world champions in 1998, announced last month that they would take a sabbatical this season to concentrate on developing a new car to become a stronger contender for the 2004 title. They are expected to enter a limited number of events, probably starting with the new Turkish rally in February to acquire data for next year.
McRae scored the team's best result last year with a fifth place finish in Sweden and he and Delecour remain on long-term contracts with the British-based team.
"I think it will be very quiet for the first half of the year, then pick up for the second," said the Scot of his prospects. "I haven't heard anything yet about which rallies Mitsubishi might be contesting but I hope to hear something soon."
Reports provided by Reuters
Meanwhile Formula 3000 runner-up Giorgio Pantano has signed with prospective CART team BC Motorsports. BC Motorsports has acquired the assets of former CART team Sigma Racing.
Meanwhile, after looking like he would miss out, Jimmy Spencer will be racing in Winston Cup in 2003 after all, following a deal with Ultra Motorsports to drive a Dodge Intrepid for the team.
Rally Raid
Pos Driver Car
1. Stephane Peterhansel Mitsubishi Pajero
2. Hiroshi Masuoka Mitsubishi Pajero
3. Gregoire de Mevius BMW X5
4. Kenjiro Shinozuka Nissan Pickup
5. Miki Biasion Mitsubishi Pajero
Pos Rider Bike
1. Richard Sainct KTM 660 LC4
2. Joan Roma KTM 850 LC8
3. Fabrizio Meoni KTM 950 LC8
4. Alfie Cox KTM 660 LC4
5. Cyril Despres KTM 660 LC4
Pos Driver Truck
1. Johannes de Rooy DAF CF 85 4x4
2. Gerardus de Rooy DAF CF 85 4x4
3. Vladimir Tchaguine Kamaz 4911
4. Andre de Azevedo Tatra T-815
5. Firdaus Kabirov Kamaz 4911
Rally
"I know I can jump into a car and go as quickly as I've ever done, so it's incredibly frustrating not to be doing anything," said the Scot. "I've got permission to take other drives as well -- it's something that would benefit Mitsubishi as much as me -- but so far there's nothing.
Briefs
As Herdez Competition moves closer and closer to being able to fund a second car for the 2003 CART season, the identity of the driver has become clear. Roberto Moreno has already joined the team in a testing capacity. With Mario Dominguez still recovering from off season surgery, Moreno will test the team's car at Sebring. Dominguez will benefit enormously from Moreno's experience and will be quite a coup for the CART series in general.
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