The half time whistle blows. After seven days 4,553 km's and 30 hours of sleep, it is half time. The team gets an opportunity to regroup and catch its breath before tackling the second half of this epic adventure.
Today's stage was the longest racing stage yet with 419km's of sand and later massive dunes. Giniel showed why he is a former winner with a storming drive and sat 20s from the lead after two and a half hours of racing. In the soft sand of the big dunes in the last third of the stage, he lost out to the MINI's. “We suffered from axle trample in the soft sand and the MINI's started to pull away from me.” The end result was a 6th place for Giniel, a 12th for Lucio Alvarez and 16th for Duncan. The Toyotas now lie 5th (Giniel), 9th (Lucio ) and 11th (Duncan).
The Imperial Toyota Hilux's remain crowd favourites. Apart from their aggressive appearance it is the sound that appeals to the crowds. Unlike the noxious hiss of the diesel powered cars, the Toyota V8s dance across the dunes in a crisp, high pitched celebration of internal combustion power, and the people love it.
The team is in high spirits, and the realisation has set in that the South African built, privateer Imperial Toyotas are legitimate front runner and can be expected to trouble the leaders.
The Dakar, in one word, encompasses an adventure, a people and a landscape of unreal proportions. An illustration of this is local rider, Sergio Lopez, who fell over the handlebars and into la-la land early on today's stage. He was unconscious for a while and the helped up by some of the South African supporters. While they were thinking of medical assistance he got back on his bike and tried to take off again only to fall into the first bush next to him. Again he got up, the handlebars about 30 degrees off and the rear mudguard flapping in the wind. Frantic Chilean supporters gave him a shove down the road and off he went. He finished the stage in 22nd place.
Tomorrow will be a rest day and the Imperial Toyota team will use the time to perform preventative maintenance, as the vehicles are still without any mechanical failure at this stage and there is no need for serious repairs.
Toyota have stronger change of winning due to the superior design of the hilux. It has aftermarket truck accessories that are not available to any electric powered vehicles on its league.
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