Stage 8 Antofagasta > Copiapo. McRae’s still in the race after “a day off”

http://www.volkskrantreizen.nl/

Update 23.40: CP3 has been reached by Tim and Chris. Tim is 4’39 hours behind the leader in place 60 and Chris is 5’26 hours behind in 61th place.

Update 21.30: Tim reached the 245.0 kilometer point in 61th place.

Update 21.23: Tim passed CP2 in 62th place. Leyds gained some places passing a few cars in 60th place.

Update 18.31: Problem is solved apparently, since Tim has crossed the first checkpoint in 56th place.

Update 18.22: Tim has problems with his support-bars and oil leakage. Pascal de Baars is not far from him to help.

Update 16.29: Tim came by the 48.0 km marker in 48th place. Leyds did this in 57th place.

After a rest day the McRae’s are going on. The rest day was not particulary a rest day for the McRae buggy team, since they finished the previous stage rather late.

But they are still competiting in today’s stage. Stage 8 exists out of 568 kilometers, where the special (timed) part of the race is 472 kilometers. The stage will begin with a hard surface (with tricky parts), where the speeds can get pretty high, but after that there will be 90 kilometers of beautiful white sanddunes.

Starting times for Tim and Chris are:

62 (347) Coronel T. 010h45’30″

67 (369) Leyds C. 010h52’00″

Dakar.com says:

568 km including a 472-km timed section are on the menu of the 8th stage. Following on from the rest day, the competitors will have been wise to enjoy it, because the race resumes with another “biggie”. For this penultimate stage in the Atacama, the remaining competitors in the 32nd Dakar will have to pick their way through terrain at the start of a special stage that is full of stones and extremely tricky, with in particular several zones of fesh-fesh. Afterwards, the pace will quicken dramatically as the competitors gobble up some 300 km of winding and fast tracks that will lead the caravan through the ranges of dunes above Copiapo, before a final 90 km of “total sand”.