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  Rally Raid

Snow, Mud and Sand

The Dakar Rally is now entering its seventh day, its fourth in Africa and the competitors are racing across the dunes of the Moroccan Sahara. A far cry from where the world's toughest off-road competition began. The prologue stage at Clermont-Ferrand in France was held in snow, while the second stage on the southern coast of France was so muddy that the stage had to be closed when Claude Arnoux's buggy got caught in a bog so bad even the rescue bulldozer was snared by the mud.

Defending champion Hiroshi Masuoka took up the lead at the end of Stage 5, but only after teammate Stephane Peterhansel picked up a five-minute penalty costing him the lead in the event after receiving an illegal tow for teammate Andrea Mayer. The Mitsubishis blasted into the lead of the event as the stages opened up.

Kenjiro Shinozuka won on his return to the event which almost killed him twelve months ago, taking out the Prologue Stage 1 in his '03 specification Nissan Pickup, thus earning him lead position in the queue when the rally proper began on Friday. That first mud-encrusted stage was won by seemingly the least likely of the front-runners, the two-wheel drive Schlesser-Ford buggy of Josep Maria Servia. The beach sand of Stage 3 in Spain saw the local maintain the lead under pressure from Giniel de Villiers (Nissan Pickup) who won the stage, and the diesel powered BMW X5s of Gregoire de Mevius and Luc Alphand.

Once into Africa, the Mitsubishis took command, initially Peterhansel and Miki Biasion, but with Peterhansel's penalty and Biasion crashing out of the Rally on Stage 6, just a day shy of his 46th birthday, Masuoka has taken up the lead. At the Tan-Tan bivouac in Morocco, Masuoka held a six minute lead over Peterhansel. Colin McRae settled into the rally gradually and now has his Nissan Pickup in third position, 15 minutes behind Masuoka and two minutes ahead of his South African teammate Giniel de Villiers. The third Nissan of Ari Vatenen is amongst the walking wounded after breaking down while attempting a river crossing. The same river crossing also sent the Volksawgen Touareg of former winner Jutta Kleinschmidt all but out of the rally.

As with last year, the BMW X5 diesels have made steady progress through the field with the former Olympic downhillist Luc Alphand sitting in fifth place just ahead of teammate Gregoire de Mevius. Another two-car team follows, the Schlesser-Ford V6 buggies of Jean-Louis Schlesser and former rally leader Josep Maria Servia. Non-prototype Pajeros complete the top ten with privateer Nasser Al Attiyan leading the factory backed Andrea Mayer. Just outside the top ten are Shinozuka, Mark Miller (Chevrolet Protruck) and the surviving Touareg of Bruno Saby.

In the motorcycle division, the KTM armada was led into Africa by a Yamaha. In the biggest shock of the rally, the innovative Yamaha 450 WR 2WD of David Fretigne won the first two competitive stages of the rally, the two wheel drive system providing cornering and traction the KTMs could not make up with horsepower. Once onto the open road, horsepower took hold and Fretigne was swept aside.

Isidre Esteve led the rally by almost two minutes at Tan-Tan, but problems have struck the Spaniard on Stage 7 only hours ago and the lead looks to have been lost. Most likely to take up the lead is Nani Roma on a KTM 660 LC4 ahead of the similar bike of Cyril Despres. Two minutes further back is the imposing profile of the big V-twin 950 LC8 of Fabrizio Meoni. KTMs fill the first fourteen places before Fretigne appears on the timesheets on the Yamaha.

Another defending champion Vladimir Tchaguine (Kamaz) is the leading truck on the rally ahead of 23-year-old Gerardus de Rooy in the DAF. De Rooy led the rally across the Mediterranean, only to lose the lead to the Russian Kamaz in Morocco. Andre de Azavedo is third in the Tatra, almost half an hour behind Tchaguine.

With eleven stages still to run, the rally has a long way to go before the final stage in Dakar, Senegal on January 18.

Result of Dakar Rally, After Stage 6 of 17, Morocco:

Cars

Pos  Driver/Navigator                            Car
 1.  Hiroshi Masuoka/Gilles Picard               Mitsubishi Pajero
 2.  Stephane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret      Mitsubishi Pajero
 3.  Colin McRae/Tina Thorner                    Nissan Pickup
 4.  Giniel de Villiers/Francois Jordaan         Nissan Pickup
 5.  Luc Alphand/Henri Magne                     BMW X5
 6.  Gregoire de Mevius/Alain Guehennec          BMW X5
 7.  Jean-Louis Schlesser/Jean-Marie Lurquin     Schlesser-Ford
 8.  Josep Maria Servia/Francois Borsotto        Schlesser-Ford
 9.  Nasser saleh Al Attiyan/Marc Bartholome     Mitsubishi Pajero
10.  Andrea Mayer/Andreas Schulz                 Mitsubishi Pajero

Motorcycles

Pos  Rider                                       Bike
 1.  Isidre Esteve Pujol                         KTM 660 Rallye
 2.  Nani Roma                                   KTM 660 LC4
 3.  Cyril Despres                               KTM 660 LC4
 4.  Fabrizio Meoni                              KTM 950 LC8
 5.  Alfie Cox                                   KTM 660 Rallye

Trucks

Pos  Driver/Crew                                 Truck
 1.  Vladimir Tchaguine/S.Yakoubov/S.Savostine   Kamaz 4911
 2.  Gerardus de Rooy/T.Colsoul/A.Slaats         DAF CF 75
 3.  Andre de Azevedo/T.Tomecek/J.Martinec       Tatra T815
 4.  Firdaus Kabirov/A.Belyaev/D.Kamalov         Kamaz 4911
 5.  Karel Loprais/J.Kalina/P.Gilar              Tatra T815