-- KTM Report

2013 Dakar Rally gets underway in Peru

Red Bull KTM factory riders completed Stage One of the 2013 Dakar rally on Saturday with a short timed special of just 13 km in a loop around Pisco, Peru after completing the 250 km liaison rider along the coast for the official start in the capital of Lima.

The top 32 riders were all within a minute of the leader Chaleco Lopez of Chile riding a KTM with Cyril Despres, KTM’s title defender in fifth place just 13 seconds behind. KTM Factory rider Kurt Caselli (USA), who is standing in for the injured Marc Coma finished at thirty second place in the field of 180 bikes, of which 178 were at the finish line. He trailed the leader by just one minute. The Orange factory riders are competing on the KTM 450 Rally bike

KTM team manager Alex Doringer said he had instructed his riders to take no risks in what was largely a ceremonial start to the grueling 8000 km plus rally that takes competitors on a north-south trajectory from Lima into Argentina and Chile to finish on January 20.

“I am happy with the riders,” Doringer said. “I just wanted them to take it easy and find their rhythm. The serious business starts tomorrow.”

On Sunday riders face another loop from and around Pisco but this time there will be 242 km of timed special and just 85 km of liaison and this will represent the first real shakeout of the 2013 edition. Organizers have promised tough going and plenty of challenges in the first half of the rally this year.

-- HRC Report

HRC President Tetsuo Suzuki at the start of Dakar 2013 with Team HRC
Day 1 Lima – Pisco 263 km - 250 km liaison 13 km Special

Dakar 2013 has begun! 183 bikes, 153 cars, 38 quads and 75 trucks for a total of 449 vehicles were at the starting blocks early this morning in Chorrillos (Lima) by the sea.

For the first time the South American Dakar takes a north-south perspective over the 14 stages and 8,420 km and today the riders started to tackle the costal desert of Southern Peru meeting the dunes already in the first special stage near Pisco.

HRC President Tetsuo Suzuki attended the opening ceremony of Dakar 2013 and personally wished the best of luck to Helder Rodrigues, Javier Pizzolito and Johnny Campbell on the starting ramp.

After 250 km of liaison along the coast, the riders warmed up in the 13 km special before things get serious in just 24 hours on the sands of Peru, which will be the first decisive challenge of the rally.

For Team HRC, at their debut on the Dakar Rally as factory team after 24 years, it was a strategic prologue to decide the best starting position for tomorrow’s stage.

Helder Rodrigues aimed at arriving behind his direct rivals and he finished 29th. It was a very positive start also for Javier Pizzolito, who finished 8th and Johnny Campbell, 49th.

Francisco Chaleco Lopez took the first stage of the 2013 Dakar in the motorcycle category in front of Frans Verhoeven and Pablo Quintanilla from Chile, third on a Honda CRF 450X.

Javier Pizzolito, SS1 8th 08’12 +0.21: “Finally the wait is over and the Dakar has begun! It was a very good start for me, I enjoyed the small dunes and the prologue that will decide tomorrow’s starting order. It was a nice warm up and I was feeling comfortable with the machine”.

Helder Rodrigues, SS1 29th 08’44 +0.53: “My target was to finish behind my direct rivals, so I’m happy with my position. It was a short but very nice stage and a good occasion to check the bike. It was a perfect start and it was amazing to see so many people”.

Johnny Campbell, SS1 49th 09’10 + 1’19: “It was a nice warm up today: first 250 km of liaison along the Peru coast and then a 13 km sandy Prologue. I feel comfortable with the machine and I’m very excited to be part of the Honda project”.

Tomorrow the riders will experience the dunes of Pisco which is a loop stage starting and finishing at Pisco (85 km liaison and 242 km of special stage).

-- GHR Honda Report

D-Day for GHR! The 2013 Dakar Rally has started.

Two years after their debut GHR Honda's second Dakar Rally campaign is finally under way in South America. Following 5 days of preparation and build up in Peru's capital, Lima, the four Honda CRF450X motorcycles and one Honda TRX700XX quad entered by GHR were waved off the start line with 444 other competitors and their machines. Embarking south on a scenic coastal liaison leg, they traced the coastline for 250km to arrive in Pisco where the racing began. The prologue stage of the 2013 event was a warm-up sprint loop through sand dunes merely 13km in length, so brief that most riders finished in under an hour before returning to the Pisco bivouac.

Lead GHR rider #156 Todd Smith from Condobolin finished in 34th place from 183 starters.

"Well, day 1 is done and dusted... I'm pretty happy with how it went, and just cruised through to come in 34th - a great place to start Day 2. I've done my map and the track looks good for tomorrow - some dunes and some road sections. It should be a good stage to learn the roadbooks and GPS. The bike is great, everything worked well."

Second time Dakar entrant, #131 Warren Strange from Western Australia was the next GHR bike to clear the stage and stands in 59th place. A veteran desert racer, he's aware that the race can't be won on the opening stage but it can certainly be lost. Tomorrow his start in the top third of the field will allow him to start chipping away at his objective of a top 20 finish.

GHR have within their ranks two South African riders, both of whom raced the 2012 Australasian Safari with the Australian GHR team. #89 rider Brett Cummings from Witbank - winner of the 2012 Dakar Challenge division at Safari - crossed the line in 103rd place today. The 29 year old engineer has been training hard in preparation for this year's Dakar with fellow South African competitor #91 Glen Grundy, 48, who ended the day in 168th on the time sheet. While Cummings is aiming for a top 50 outright placing in the event, Grundy's sole objective is to finish the race.

Victorian quad rider #274 Paul Smith started today as the first ever Australian to enter the quad class at Dakar. The 34 year old farmer is a seasoned competitor on 4 wheels and concluded the prologue 13th in the field of 38. He has his sights set on a podium spot this year.

Today's results have determined the start order Stage 2, consisting of an 85km liaison and 242km special over mixed terrain in the table lands to the west of the Andes. 3 sections of dunes will test the riders' navigation skills and endurance before they return to Pisco for the second night.

-- Yamaha Report

Yamaha Netherlands Verhoeven rider Frans Verhoeven made a promising start to his 2013 Dakar Rally today on his Yamaha YZ450F based machine, wrapping up the first stage in second place, an impressive single second behind the leader. Verhoeven had looked on course to lead the standings on day one with a time of 7’52 on the special stage until rival Francisco Lopez came in nearly 20 minutes later with 7’51. Joining him in the top ten was fellow Yamaha rider David Casteu, the Frenchman, representing the Casteu Adventure Team, completing the first stage in sixth place, just 15 seconds behind the front.

The first stage of the 2013 Dakar Rally was a short loop of just 13km around the bivouac in Pisco, some 250km south of Lima, Peru. On day two tomorrow Verhoeven will face a much bigger special stage after completing an 85km liaison ride. The stage will be another loop around Pisco, but this time a grueling 242km challenge.

“I did what I always do, nothing special,” commented Verhoeven. “To be honest I was on the brakes more than I normally do. It’s a hell of a bike; normally you cannot afford to hold still for a second, the sand is too soft. But with this bike I can ride in a higher gear than I would normally do and it doesn’t stop, it keeps going without wheel spin.”