A blown turbo-charger has forced the retirement of the remaining Garland MotorSports Isuzu D-MAX ute competing in the 2010 Dakar Rally.

Swedish duo Pelle Wallentheim and Olle Ohlsson started the 12th stage of the event in 51st place after a disappointing day yesterday but had made up ground to 23rd after 21km of competition.



However around the 40km mark, with absolutely no warning, the turbo blew, relegating the crew to the side of the track until other competitors had passed and they could crawl safely to a checkpoint.

We had been going so well and then this happened, said Wallentheim, admitting he was feeling quite empty.

It was a new turbo. The team changed it on the rest day over the weekend as part of a planned maintenance schedule for the second part of the event, so it shouldnt have been a problem, but we dont know what has caused it. We are just devastated – so much hard work for all of us and no result.

Wallentheim and Ohlsson returned to the 21km checkpoint, which was where the special stage met the local highway. Several members of the Garland MotorSports team were there, taking charge of the stricken D-MAX to transport it through to the overnight camp.

It was heartbreaking news for the crew after a solid year of work, especially as team boss Bruce Garland and co-driver Harry Suzuki had to retire from the competition this time last week when a freak accident smashed their radiator.

Obviously well be trying to work out what happened with the turbo, said Garland, because we’ve never had a problem like this before.

A few days back the guys got a lot of dust through the engine. That may have had something to do with it, but I honestly dont know, and wont know, until we’ve had a chance to strip it down.

For now, well just clean up, pack up and head back to Buenos Aires. Its beyond disappointing, given how well we did last year, but this is Dakar and things happen. Its a cruel sport and this is the toughest event of them all.

Stage 12 was a massive stage, 790km in total, including the special (competition) section that was 470km long. Just 59 cars of the 134 that started the event in Buenos Aires (of a total field of 362) started today.

When it finished, it was the VW Touareg trio at the top of the order: Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mark Miller. The same trio are leading the event, with two stages remaining before the official finish in Buenos Aires on January 17. Of last years podium, (Giniel De Villiers, Miller, Robby Gordon), defending champion De Villiers (VW) is seventh and Gordon (Hummer) eighth.

The Garland MotorSports/Tubus Racing teams have contested the 2010 event in Isuzu D-MAX 4x4 utes, built in Garland’s Sydney backyard. The standard 3.0-litre turbo-diesel production engine has been slightly tweaked for better performance, especially for the high altitude sections of the event. It has maximum torque of 600Nm – up 66 per cent on the standard roadgoing D-MAX ute – and peak power of 180kW, which is 50 per cent more than the standard vehicle. They were competing in Class T1.2, which is modified 4WD diesel.


There are regular event updates on the SBS website (www.sbs.com.au/dakar) every night at 6:00pm AEDT to January 18 and then a one-hour Dakar review from 11am to 12noon on Sunday, January 24.

Sand, dunes and heavy-duty camel grass combined to make the last stage in Chiles Atacama Desert a tough day for the remaining Garland MotorSports Isuzu D-MAX ute competing in the 2010 Dakar Rally.

Stage Nine from Copiapó to La Serena originally included a 338km special (competitive) section but that was reduced to 170km because of fog (a safety issue for medical and event observation helicopters). The transport section at the end of the stage was 209km for a total distance of 379km but the reduced distance didnt make for an easy day.




On the whole we went quite well, all things considered, apart from losing 20 minutes at the start of the stage, said D-MAX driver, Pelle Wallentheim.

Our tyres heated up very quickly once we got into the stage and we got bogged. Once we sorted that out, we were okay, but it was a tough stage. Lots of sand, lots of dunes, and lots of camel grass.

That stuff is so tough to drive on. Its like rocks. You want to drive around it if you can, but in some places it was too close together. And in some places it was up to a metre high, and you just could not avoid it.

There were also some very steep dunes made of very soft sand that were hard to get through. There are a lot of cars and trucks still stuck out there.

Aside from the general difficulties of the stage, Wallentheim and co-driver Olle Ohlsson had no problems. They say their Australian-built and serviced Isuzu is running perfectly.

The Swedish duos Australian teammates, Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki are now part of the service crew, having been forced out of competition late last week when a freak accident smashed the radiator, causing the engine to overheat. Because the Australians left the desert rally route to reach camp safely, they were excluded.

Todays stage was won by Nasser Al-Attiyah ahead of Carlos Sainz with defending champion Giniel De Villiers in third, all three members of the VW Touareg factory team. Overall, though, its still Sainz in first with Al-Attiyah second and Mark Miller, also in a VW, in third. Stephane Peterhansel (BMW) is fourth and De Villiers seventh. US NASCAR star Robby Gordon (Hummer), who shared the podium last year with De Villiers and Miller, is 10th.

Tomorrow (tonight, Australian time), the Garland MotorSports/Tubus Racing team will tackle a 238km special stage between La Serena and the Chilean capital, Santiago. The day starts with 112km of liaison (transport), before the 10th competition stage winds its way along narrow agricultural-type tracks. Theres a second lengthy (236km) liaison to the overnight halt.



Santiago is located in Chiles central valley at an elevation of 520m above sea level and is one of Latin America’s most modern commercial centres.

Only 211 vehicles started the ninth stage, of the 362 vehicles which left Buenos Aires on New Years Day. Tomorrows stage is the last in Chile before the cavalcade turns east to return to Argentina for the last four stages and the official finish in BA on January 17.

Wallentheim and Ohlsson are driving an Isuzu D-MAX 4x4 ute, built in Garlands Sydney backyard. The standard 3.0-litre turbo-diesel production engine has been slightly tweaked for better performance, especially for the high altitude sections of the event. It has maximum torque of 600Nm – up 66 per cent on the standard roadgoing D-MAX ute – and peak power of 180kW, which is 50 per cent more than the standard vehicle. They are competing in Class T1.2, which is modified 4WD diesel.

In 2009, the Swedes finished 44th outright. Their Australian colleagues had finished 11th outright and were first amateur (non-factory team) home. They also claimed bragging rights as first diesel ute and first production chassis car. The Swedish duo is now chasing those honours for the Isuzu team.

The Dakar Rally is the worlds premier off-road endurance competition. First staged in 1979, it was traditionally run in Europe and Africa, but moved to South America in 2009 because of safety concerns. The 2008 race – the last to be held in Africa – was cancelled on the eve of the start after the deaths of four French tourists. Their killers had links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network and threatened Dakar Rally organisers and competitors.

There will be regular updates on the teams performance on the official Isuzu Ute Australia website (www.isuzuute.com.au) and also on the SBS website (www.sbs.com.au/dakar); SBS ONE will show daily highlights of Dakar 2010, every night at 6:00pm AEDT to January 18 and then a one-hour Dakar review from 11am to 12noon on Sunday, January 24.

TIMES: STAGE NINE (all correct at time of writing)

1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW): 1h 59m 18s
2. Carlos Sainz (VW): + 6m 09s
3. De Villiers (VW): + 7m 48s

24. Pelle Wallentheim/Olle Ohlsson: + 1h 55m 04s

TIMES: OVERALL (all correct at time of writing)

1. Carlos Sainz (VW): 33h 33m 40s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW): +8m 26s
3. Mark Miller (VW): + 27m 17s

26. Pelle Wallentheim/Olle Ohlsson: + 23h 17m 24s

An errant spare wheel has ended the gallant 2010 Dakar Rally effort of Australian driver Bruce Garland and co-driver Hiroaki (Harry) Suzuki on the event’s 418 km sixth special stage from Antofagasta to Iquique in Chile.

His Isuzu D-MAXs spare wheel dislodged from its special rear tub mounting on the rough trackless wastes after being hastily refitted by Garland after he used it as a safety auxiliary stand while effecting some minor underbody repairs.

The wheel bounced forward, hitting and cracking the rear-mounted radiator and causing the engine to overheat. Garland then had to depart the rally route and limp to the stage end via the highway, whereupon the rally stewards ruled him out of the event.

We’d fixed the problem but it put us back last on the road, behind all those trucks and their blinding dust, ruts and rocks said Garland.

We were going alright and wouldn’t have lost our overall road position until the spare wheel flew off when we hit yet another of the many washaways in this talcum-powder filled furnace.

We patched up the water leak but we had lost too much coolant and the lack of cooling with a tailwind meant we had to back off.

I reckon Ive got about 100kg of dust in my belly Garland said ruefully.

Garland had hovered around 20th outright throughout the event and was looking to consolidate his position as more of the speedier specials up front were claimed by the conditions in the enduros second week ahead. He had had a torrid time yesterday, caught behind one of the 12-tonne truck competitors and eating its blinding dust for 200km while fighting a chest infection.

Their Swedish teammates Pelle Wallentheim and Olle Ohlsson finished 43rd fastest on the stage, enough to hoist them up three places to 23rd position, their best yet.

The latest stage featured dune crossings, fast off-piste tracks through bone dry wastelands and mountainous walls of sand – the last a three kilometre slide down in view of the Pacific Ocean to the overnight seaside camp.

At the front end of the field, previous rally leader Stéphane Peterhansel (BMW X3 CC) bounced back from his stage five transmission failure and 33rd place, to claim outright victory for the day and eighth overall

But the outright lead still belongs to the VW Race Touareg trio of Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mark Miller. Defending champion Giniel de Villiers is 16th, also in a Race-Touareg, while American NASCAR driver Robby Gordon (Hummer H3 RWD), who was third last year (Miller was second), is currently in sixth.

Fridays stage (tonight, Australian time) takes the competitors south to Antofagasta again, the last stage before Saturdays rest day. A short 37km liaison section guides crews to the start of the longest special stage of the entire rally – a daunting 600km competitive challenge, which finishes just four kilometres from the coastal city. The stage features seven passage controls and two refuelling points for the bikes.

Event officials reckon that this will be the most varied special of the entire Dakar, featuring sand dunes, an unusual area called the salar (crystallized salt blocks) – where speeds may drop as low as 10km/h – and faster and rockier sections to the finish. The rulebook permits competitors to reach the rest day by 18.00hrs the following day – such is the potential severity of the stage.

The rally had claimed 112 vehicles by the start of todays sixth special stage, just 250 survivors from the 362 which left the official start ramp in Buenos Aires on New Years Day.

They have now completed three stages each in Argentina and Chile. Continuing their 9030km journey, there are four more stages in Chile (plus a rest day on Saturday) before the caravan crosses the Andes back into Argentina on January 13 for four stages and the official finish back in Buenos Aires on Sunday, January 17th (Monday 18th am AEDT).

Coverage
SBS is the official telecaster of Dakar 2010 and there are regular updates on the team’s performance also on the SBS website (www.sbs.com.au/dakar); SBS ONE is screening daily highlights daily at 6pm AEDT until Monday, January 18 and then a one-hour Dakar review from 11am to 12noon on Sunday, January 24.

Australian driver Bruce Garland says he knows what hell looks like, after racing for six and a half hours during the fifth stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally.



Garland and his co-driver Harry Suzuki finished the 483km stage through Chile’s Atacama Desert in 24th place*, while their Swedish teammates Pelle Wallentheim and Olle Ohlsson finished 39th*, both crews driving Isuzu D-MAX utes built by Garland MotorSports. The results have dropped them back marginally in the order, to 21st* and 26th* respectively (*correct at time of writing), from 19th and 23rd * yesterday.

I know what hell looks like because I drove through it today,says Garland. Not a blade of grass the whole way. Just mountains, rocks and heaps of bulldust. It’s just so fine it gets into everything and it’s murder to drive through.

We got stuck behind a truck in all of that, for about 200km, just eating his dust. Im going to have my eyes flushed out later tonight because they are so gritty, and I need to see the doctor because Ive got some sort of cold or chest problem – the dust certainly didnt help!

We just tried to maintain the best pace we could, but taking it as easy as we could in the rough stuff. The stage is just littered with broken down vehicles – we passed so many of them, including Stephane Peterhansel.

He might have been leading yesterday but he isnt any more. He was having some major problems. I still cant believe how these guys just thrash their cars, but then they get into camp each night and their mechanics replace everything!



Stage Five was always going to be a marathon. While it was a similar distance to yesterday, there was a major difference: today there was only 187km of transport to do compared to 426km yesterday. The battle today was the 483km of competition, the second longest special stage in the event.

There was sand, sand and more sand, including the treacherous fesh-fesh (bulldust to Australians), which is more like talcum powder than sand, and extremely difficult to cross in high temperatures.



At the top end of the field, the nine-time (bike and car) winner, Stephane Peterhansel (BMW) is no longer a player. He began the day ahead of Carlos Sainz (VW), but major mechanical problems forced him to stop twice on the stage and he struggled to the end in two-wheel drive, finishing the day in 33rd, which put him back to 10th in the outright placings.

The stage was won by Mark Miller, but it is his teammate Carlos Sainz who now leads the field, by four minutes and 37 seconds, ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah with Miller third, all three in factory-backed VW Touaregs.

Miller was second outright at the end of last year’s event. This time around, hes ahead of both the drivers he shared the podium with. Defending champion Giniel de Villiers, also in a VW, had another day of drama to finish the stage 17th, putting him in 18th outright, while US NASCAR star Robby Gordon (Hummer), who was third last year and won yesterdays stage, was fourth on the stage and is fourth outright.

The sixth stage (to be run tonight, Australian time) from Antofagasta to Iquique is a total of 598km, including the 418km special stage. It features dune crossings, fast off-piste tracks and mountainous walls of sand – before the descent to the overnight camp beside the Pacific Ocean.




The stage also passes through the Pampa del Tamarugal National Reserve, world renowned for its rare forests found in the middle of the rainless Atacama Desert.

Iquique is the capital of the Tarapaca region of northern Chile and is one of the largest duty-free commercial ports in South America. Copper mining is a major contributor to the local economy.

A total of 268 vehicles started the fifth stage, compared with the 362 vehicles, which left the official start ramp in Buenos Aires on New Years Day. They have now completed three stages in Argentina and two in Chile. Continuing their 9030km journey, there are five more stages in Chile (plus a rest day on Saturday) before the caravan crosses the Andes back into Argentina on January 13 for four stages and the official finish (in Buenos Aires, January 17).

Garland and Suzuki are driving an Isuzu D-MAX 4x4 ute, built in Garlands Sydney backyard. The standard 3.0-litre turbo-diesel production engine has been slightly tweaked for better performance, especially for the high altitude sections of the event. It has maximum torque of 600Nm – up 66 per cent on the standard roadgoing D-MAX ute – and peak power of 180kW, which is 50 per cent more than the standard vehicle. It competes in Class T1.2, which is modified 4WD diesel.

In 2009, the Australian pair finished 11th outright and were first amateur (non-factory team) home. They also claimed bragging rights as first diesel ute and first production chassis car. Their Swedish teammates (Tubus Racing) finished 44th outright.

The Dakar Rally is the worlds premier off-road endurance competition. First staged in 1979, it was traditionally run in Europe and Africa, but moved to South America in 2009 because of safety concerns. The 2008 race – the last to be held in Africa – was cancelled on the eve of the start after the deaths of four French tourists. Their killers had links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network and threatened Dakar Rally organisers and competitors.

There will be regular updates on the teams performance on the official Isuzu Ute Australia website (www.isuzuute.com.au) and also on the SBS website (www.sbs.com.au/dakar); SBS ONE will show daily highlights of Dakar 2010, every night at 6:00pm AEDT to January 18 and then a one-hour Dakar review from 11am to 12noon on Sunday, January 24.

TIMES: STAGE FIVE (all correct at time of writing)

1. Mark Miller (VW): 5h 6m 15s
2. Carlos Sainz (VW): + 2m 10s
3. Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW): + 4m 27s

24. Bruce Garland/Harry Suzuki: 6h 29m 48s (+ 1h 23m 33s)
39. Pelle Wallentheim/Olle Ohlsson: 8h 2m 16s (2h 56m 01s)

TIMES: OVERALL (all correct at time of writing)

Carlos Sainz (VW): 16h 10m 51s
Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW): +4m 37s
Mark Miller (VW): + 9m 39s

21. Bruce Garland/Harry Suzuki: 20h 29m 04s (+ 4h 18m 13s)
26. Pelle Wallentheim/Olle Ohlsson 22h 55m 05s (+ 6h 44m 14s)