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Dakar 2016 Bikes podium with Australia's Toby Price
upon the Top Step. (Image source: mcnews.com.au)
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Funny how a few weeks Screamin' by your humble No
Fenders scribe Tomaso seems an eternity, which obviously cannot even remotely
compare to the travails of this year's DackCar' competitors epic journey!
Has half of January already slipped by? As I
tried keeping abreast of this year's Dakar's daily Stages via thee voice 'O
"Peacock-lite," nee NBC Sports Leigh Diffey each afternoon prior to
departing for "Snottsdale," (Scottsdale) where Blogmeister Miguel was
kind enough to read me Stage updates daily via Zed Intrawoods, before returning
home for the remaining tape delayed half hour vignettes, albeit I was so
crushed by the Seahawks implosion vs. Carolina that I forgot to watch the final
day's wrap-up special whilst commiserating with Thy 12S'; Hya!
Since if we
stur-retch' Thy chains mythically, perhaps it's somewhat Apropos that Messer
Peterhansel, who's NOT related to Gretel; Hooah! Was appropriately busy joining
thou legendous' ranks of 12S'; Hya!
Thus I'm ARSE-Sumin' Y'all know that Monsieur
Dakar, nee Stéphane
Peterhansel won his record extending twelfth Rally Raid
and now has an amazing six Cars victories to match his previous six titles
captured on two wheels; Aye Karumba!
As only runner-up Nasser Al-Attiyah, defending Cars
champion, who won two stages along with rookie
team-mate Mikko
Hirvonen capturing his maiden Stage victory aboard
Mini's were able to beat this year's All Conquering Peugeot 2008 DKR! Which
breaks the Four Wheel Drive dominance of all previous South American Dakar
Rally winners.
As Monsieur WRC, the legendous' nine times consecutive
World Rally Championship winner (Sebastian Loeb) who was making his DackCar'
debut mesmerized with his blistering pace during the rally's first week before
an upside-down excursion effectively halted his plans for victory!
And another rallying legend El Matador, aka
Carlos Sainz, father of Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 Pilote' Carlos Sainz, Jr. swept
into the lead after Loeb's pitfall only to see his harrying pace result in a
spacer between the Peugeot's engine and transmission break, causing the elder
Sainz to retire once again - leaving Thy door open for the wily Desert Fox
Peterhansel to effectively cruise to victory once more.
Toyota's lead Gun-slinger Giniel de
Villiers claimed third once again, continuing his
impressive streak of Top-4 finishes overall en route to holding off the hard
chargin' Hirvonen,
who finished fourth overall in his maiden Dakar outing with Toyota's Leeroy
Poulter rounding out the Top-5 Cars finishers.
Ironically Loeb, who I believe won the most
Stages this year, held off his former Citroen WRC 'Wingman Hirvonen en route to
winning the rally's final Stage, as surely Miko's getting a bit
"Frosty" over always finishing runner-up to Loeb, eh?
Meanwhile, guess I picked the right Bloke;
Err Aussie' to root for in the Bikes category, as it shouldn't have been a
surprise that KTM collected its fifteenth straight victory, claiming a 1-2
finish with Australia's Toby Price being victorious whilst becoming the first
Aussie' to ever win any Dakar category!
And was unawares' that actually five Yanks
were making their DackCar' Scooters' debut this year, with the previously
mentioned Ricky
Brabec finishing a
fine ninth for Honda, finishing a scant two hours, eleven minutes and change behind
Price after some 5,700+ miles and over 48 grueling hours in the saddle!
While it was another Yank apparently living
up to Thy moniker 'O Gordoun! As
reportedly Robby Gordon, who had a dismal rally which featured his rookie
team-mate Sheldon Creed, the rally's youngest competitor at 18
being disqualified for missing too many wave-points when
trying to finish a stage while trying to make up for lost time.
As Robby found himself having to withdraw
after crashing into his own team's support vehicle at 80mph whilst trying to
exchange some water bottles en route to the Post-race celebrations; YOUCH!
As this latest
blunder by Gordon reminds me of when his "One 'N Done!" team-mate
Greasy 'Ol Salad-bar, aka Eliseo Salazar raced past Robby's stricken Humdinger,
forcing Gourdoun' to abandon the race!