Dakar 2011: Day 08

The hours ticked by today and I thought I wasn’t going to get to chat to Glenn today. It so happened that they’d just been busy and were just about to knock off for the day. That said, it was after midnight and I could still hear impact drivers going.

Today was the first day that Jacob Smith received anything approaching a “break”. He started the day 44th on the stage and by WP1 he had set the 24th fastest time in spite of the dust and traffic. There were no mechanical or tank related issues, and perseverance saw him finish 19th just 3 minutes behind David Casteu. Currently he stands 27th overall, two positions up the rankings. All are justifiably pleased with the day considering just how difficult the stage had been even at the new “shortened” length.

This was the clear run Jacob was after when we spoke yesterday. He managed the navigation well and hit all the waypoints. The only real reason he lost time today was the dust. He passed at least 10 riders, and is set for a start within the top 20 on tomorrow’s “looped” dunes stage beginning and ending in Copiapo. The curve ball with this stage will be the group start!

The service last night revealed the specific cause of Jake’s stoppage drama yesterday. This was not the “known” tyre clearance problem with the rear tanks, so far solved by shaving the sides of the rear tyres. The rear tank failed at the 3km mark yesterday because of damage inflicted during manufacture. On close inspection, it appears that the tool used to separate the moulds used in forming had harmed the tank on the inside of the airbox – an area that is hard to inspect and that normally wouldn’t be cause for concern. It was a one-off fault limited to that single tank only but it was enough to ruin the day. The compromised section started to leak as soon as the bike was ridden on rough terrain.

The team are delighted to report that up to this point the engines and gearboxes have proven to be incredibly resilient, while they take note of the empty chassis in other bikes on service nights. Jake’s machine was fitted with a new engine over the rest day as a matter of course, but did not actually appear to need it. Warren’s bike had not been touched and it had completed the whole first week bar the 30km not covered as a result of his crash. The air intakes on all bikes have been kept remarkably clean considering the bull-dust conditions the filters have been forced to tolerate, and not even a single clutch plate has been required. The worrisome issue for many teams has been longevity of their 450cc machines, and once more there were failures today.

It’s been an interesting insight as an outsider to see how the collective attitude has evolved during the event. The first week featured sadness, frustration, shock and awe.

The sadness was felt by all when one of the four riders had to leave for home in tragic circumstances before the engines were warmed for competition.

Widespread frustration came with the delays in accessing the gear shipped in advance, then as a result of “debut blunders” and then component problems. Glenn had hoped to put at least one of the riders in the top 20 for the event based on prior understanding of their speed and reliability. The plan was let down by the reliability or lack thereof brought about by the outsourced components. The team had no reason to expect the fuel tank dramas and GPS failures encountered so far. There isn’t a clear way to react to or plan around such failures other than to build everything at home and conduct sufficient destructive testing and intentional abuse to be able to consider them Dakar proof.

Nobody expected to be so shocked by how vast some of the organisational differences are. Each and every day people are nearly killed on the transports. Everyone in the team had become accustomed to the common sense approach taken to transport sections on Safari, where the organisers keep track of how punctually the riders assemble at the start of the special stages. If the riders are all on schedule, the time allowed was obviously appropriate. If three quarters of the field are not on time, the organisers realise this and factor it in on following days so the competitors do not have to endanger themselves. Nobody at GHR was prepared for just how many risks Dakar competitors have to take to get to the start line by their allotted departure time, and the blame for this lies at the feet of the organisers who incidentally still complain about the way people are driving. Because of the way the ASO start the stopwatch at the prescribed start times regardless of whether the competitor has arrived in time or not, they have no way to accurately assess whether or not their planning was reasonable and there is no flexibility on this. All three of the GHR riders who started the event fell foul to this very problem.

There is now detailed list of things to alter for next time – adjusting weight allocation and handling characteristics are but two examples. None of the proposed geometry changes are hard to execute in the confines of development at home, but they are impossible to change during the race. The differences between Safari and Dakar are now becoming quite clear. Some are subtle and many are not, but none could be accurately quantified without jumping out of the pot and into the fire. This is all part of why the team are in Dakar this year.

Certainly, all the setbacks have toughened the characters of everyone but Glenn’s buoyant tone today reflects the sentiments of the whole team. If Dakar were easy, nobody would come all this way do it. GHR have now discovered first hand the magnetism that draws people from across the globe. Therein lies the awe. Bring on Day 9…