Defining the Dakar
DEFINING THE DAKAR
RACE WATCH
Ten things,you should know about the world’s toughest rally
JIMMY LEWIS
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED to know about the Paris-to-Dakar off-road rally? Not quite, but as a self-proclaimed expert with first-hand experience in the Dakar, I’m going to
give you more than a day-to-day report of the 26th running of the race. Instead, I’ll address the questions I’m most frequently asked about the event. My answers are candid and reflect this man’s opinion.
is i-ke t'ot~otv? You really must live in a cave, or you're a typical American stick-and-ball sports fan who doesn't know that the Dakar is a reality TV show broadcast live throughout much of the world during the month of January. Without using sex (possibly the reason for the low TV ratings?) it portrays two types of racers-the few who enter to win and those simply trying to finish, all of whom come to suffer the most grueling motorsports event known to man. Think of soloing the Baja 500 or Vegas-to-Reno for three weeks straight! It isn’t outright challenging in terrain, but the length (usually 6000 plus kilometers, or close to 4000 miles) and the duration (as many as 20 days) add up to a culmination of mental anguish and physical suffering that bleeds (sometimes literally) through the TV screen. Motorcycles, cars and trucks all compete.
2: WUy isVF popt\l¿nv ív\ ^mevicA? An event isn’t an international event unless Americans are competing in it, a fact that promoters of almost any world championship recognize. Furthermore, if Americans are not competing, American fans for the most part don’t care. There have only been a handful of Americans in the Dakar, and while we haven’t won the damned thing yet, it’s not for a lack of trying. Since it’s perceived that our top riders aren’t the ones who are going there, we simply write off the winless record as having never sent our best shots to the Dakar. Wrong answer.
The race format is foreign to us. The riders who win are foreign to us. And the deserts of Africa-quite possibly the most incredible and inhospitable place in the world to ride dirtbikes-are foreign to us. Most Americans would rather watch cars go around in a circle for three hours.
3: WU<*F's FUe Aeo\ 1 wiFU Rovn<n? Juan “Nani” Roma is a Spaniard (Catalan actually, and it makes a difference to him) who has been doing the Dakar since 1996. He’s finished it only once, placing 19th in 2000-a year in which the race culminated in Cairo, Egypt-but going into the ’04 event had yet to make it to Dakar, Senegal. He has led the race almost every year he’s been in it only to have his bike break, suffer a mental malfunction, or more often than not, crash out and get airlifted to the rally’s infamous portable hospital.
But this year was different. Nani is clearly one of the fastest dirt-road riders in rally racing. He can navigate and haul ass like no other. His weaknesses are in totally off-road sections and in keeping his mental game together. With team manager Jordi Arcarons (who himself finished on the podium many times without a win) as a mentor and strategist, they played out a textbook Dakar, keeping Nani calm in one of the closest races ever, defending challenges from young Cyril Despres and three-time winner Richard Sainct. His maturity allowed him to keep his head when things went wrong, letting his riding speak for itself. And at the finish, no one could say that he didn’t earn this year’s victory.
“When 1 was little, my mother gave me a book on the history of the Dakar, from its creation to 1985. Every night I would read it,” recalls the Repsol KTM rider. “I would have never imagined riding a bike one day, competing in a Dakar and winning it! It’s amazing being a part of its history.” A motorcycle parade 10,000 strong greeted him on his arrival back home. Congratulations!
4: W^sVf f Leve ¿nn /A^evic^n fe<nw? Yes, there was. Red Bull and KTM backed a three-rider U.S. squad consisting of offroad legend Larry Roeseler, multi-time Baja winner Paul Krause-who already had one Dakar finish under his belt-and the winner of a nationwide talent search, Casey McCoy. Unfortunately, McCoy crashed while testing the twin-cylinder racebike in Tunisia and was sidelined with a badly broken leg. With his travel documents already in place-not to mention more rally experience than anyone else available-team manager Scot Harden stepped up to the plate.
But the team was bigger than that. It included a mechanic for each rider, another team manager and a team doctor. A top-flight, top-dollar effort. They didn’t just sign up and then show up, they trained for long distances and honed navigation skills. They tested in Tunisia and raced the Baja 1000 just for kicks. It was the first time there was a true U.S. team, due largely to the fact that KTM is trying to build stateside interest in the race that they so dominate. A Motocross des Nations-style team scoring system was supposed to be adopted by the promoter, yet it never materialized, save KTM official press releases. Going to Africa, goals expressed by team-manager-turned-rider Harden were, “We wanted all riders to finish, get two in the top 10, and if everything went well, one rider in the top five. But most of all, we want to get some interest in America.”
S: Höiw AXA \M€. Ad Okay, good or great depending on how you look at it. Just finishing the Dakar is a feat in itself. Roeseler did just that in 12th place in his first try, and we wouldn’t call L.R. a “spring chicken” either. At age 46, Roeseler has competed in and succeeded at every form of dirtbike racing known to man, with the Dakar a missing jewel in his crown. But it almost wasn’t to be as L.R. crashed extremely hard while training for the rally. “It was one of the worst crashes I’ve ever had," he reckons, forcing him to recoup while the rest of the team was rolling up seat time in the last couple of months leading up to the race. He was just about ready once the race got going, though. “I got better every day, I felt better every day we rode,” he relates. And who says motorcycles aren’t therapeutic? “Apart from the first two long days in Africa, where I learned some valuable lessons, I had a great time,” says Roeseler. The first such learning experience was making a rookie navigation mistake and getting lost. The second was having his front brake caliper fall off, causing a crash and bending up the bike. Ever the trooper, L.R. took it all in, sucked it up and soldiered on to stronger and stronger finishes as the rally progressed-though his generosity helping other riders with gas quite possibly helped him right out of the top IO: “I gassed up the guy that beat me twice!” And what you don’t know is that two days from the finish, Roeseler twisted his leg and suffered a broken bone, but, “I wasn’t going to quit there, no way.”
Krause placed 18th on the mighty 950cc Twin, raising some eyebrows along the way. “Every one of the KTM riders came up to me at one time or another and asked if they made me ride the 950. When I told them I chose to ride it, they looked at me like I was crazy,” Krause laughs. “Now I know why. It’s a great bike to ride, but it is downright scary to race!” Due to the nature of the course, called the toughest Dakar in history, the Twin was raced by only one other man, Fabrizio Meoni. “I was struggling, so I went to him for advice. He told me, ‘Paul, you must hold the throttle open no matter what, like a 125.’ I couldn’t believe that someone could do that, then I rode with him at one point and that is what he does! He just doesn’t want any weight on the front wheel.”
Harden, 47, was the surprise of the team, even if it was short-lived. He converted from Desk Jockey to Factory Rally Racer in no time, and was scratching at the top 10. “Riding the 950 Adventure so much last year and playing around with the navigation during all the press intros really helped me get ready,” says Harden. “I had a game plan and I was sticking to it: Get out of Europe close enough to not get left behind by the leaders, and then ride steady in Africa. I was slowly moving up and making up time with good navigation, not by riding too fast.” Harden had lived the life of a full-factory rally rider in the mid-1980s when, “We had to pull out a compass and take a heading. There wasn’t this electronic thing doing it for you.” He was consistently in the top 15 and finally soared to a high stage finish of sixth on a critical navigation day, breaking into ninth overall. But the next day spelled disaster as Harden caught his foot in the sand and spun it around, snapping tendons right off the ankle. It was plane-ride time.
6: WUy c<*v/F ^vn€vlc¿nv\S Vx/iv\? We can, just not right now. Just like the Six Days, the Dakar is a Euro event with Euro rules. We have to learn how to play the game and then get good at it. We have the riders with the skills, but finding young riders with the Harden-like heart to really want to win the Dakar is the challenge. Former race director Hubert Auriol used to tell me that it is like an addiction. If you get infected, you can't stop. Most innoculate themselves from the disease because they know they are not tough enough to fight it. Even the times I went home beat to a pulp, he'd say. “See you next year.”
7: Is H\e TuEiwe oT EUe The race is going through a lot of changes. KTM has painfully and systematically learned how to win at the Dakar so well that they have made it almost impossible for any other manufacturers to compete. They have the bikes, the support and all of the top riders. So the sanctioning organization, TSO, is looking for ways to get other manufacturers involved. They think that a 450cc class is the way to go, but I feel they are wrong on many fronts. All they see is that every manufacturer has a 450cc Thumper, but those bikes are not designed to race at these levels. Contrary to the full-factory 2WD Yamaha effort that placed seventh overall, most 450cc bikes were intended for motocross, not being held wide-open for hours on end. And the lure of Dakar is adventure. Who thinks of a 450cc bike as an adventuretourer? For the Dakar to be utilized by manufacturers, they must be able to sell something similar to what they race. KTM did a good thing by exploiting the des Nations aspect to the race, which France won, but word on the street (sand?) is that everyone would like to see BMW, Honda or any of the other brands join the game.
S': WUÖ FUe Uell is CUwlle R«ni\seo? The American Privateer. Truly. Not wealthy, but selling everything but his soul to get to the Dakar. Charlie is just like 170 of the 195 bikers who leave the Paris startline $30-70 grand lighter in hopes of making it to Senegal. Knowing just enough to stay out of serious trouble, but cursed with that enthusiasm that gets you into serious trouble, the Northern Californian made it to the treacherous eighth day before bowing out. From breaking a chain to crashing and injuring his ribs, from losing his electric starter to helping other riders through the dunes only to have them leave him low on gas, Charlie proclaims, “I have some unfinished business in Africa.” We hope sponsors seek some value in Charlie’s business.
*h WUy Jivnwy Lewis v\Ae. fUis ye¿nv? That is the $100,000 question. Literally. I had a dream, to finish the Dakar. After my first try (and a lesson on dehydration), I said I’d never go back. But I did and finished a strong fourth overall on a support KTM. I’d accomplished my dream and said I’d never go back unless I was getting paid. So in 2000, that chance materialized with BMW and a third-place finish. I was, from then on, only racing it to win. In 2001, I was victory-bound-right up until I cartwheeled through the desert on a works 900RR Beemer, shedding parts like a pinwheel firework. I came home battered saying I was never going back, but I still want to win that damn rally.
10: Ac I verily f Uiv\V? The Dakar is the true Desert Race. It is getting more marketable due to the increased television coverage, especially at a time of year when most are forced by winter weather to the TV for some form of motorsports relief. It is appealing to even those not so interested in motorcycle or car racing for the sheer beauty of the landscapes and the human trials and tribulations that unfold. Trust me, Hollywood has an eye on Dakar. To my knowledge, four more Americans have been terminally infected with the disease, and many more show early symptoms. Red Bull was happy enough with the results that it is looking to keep the ball rolling with some pretty big plans. KTM is, as well. Sounds liks group therapy is in order. We all know there is no known cure. □
