The High-Octane Soap Opera of Dakar 2024’s Stage 2

The Dakar Rally, where the sand is hot, the cars are hotter, and the only thing more inflated than the tires is the drivers’ sense of adventure. Let’s dive into the sandy saga of Stage 2 at Dakar 2024, a whirlwind tour of 462 kilometers that could make even a camel dizzy.

Leading the pack for Toyota Gazoo Racing, like a gazelle in a lion’s chase, was Seth Quintero, an American speedster with a taste for dust and glory. He and his co-pilot Dennis Zenz, a German navigating wizard, clocked the third-fastest time. Quintero, in his GR Hilux EVO T1U, proved he’s more than just a pretty grille, moving up to 4th in the general standings, faster than a tourist fleeing a souvenir shop.

Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon, another TGR duo, finished 9th. Starting 6th on the road, they navigated through the desert like two wise men following a star, only their star was a GPS unit. Despite losing 17 minutes and 15 seconds, they ended up in 8th place overall, proving that slow and steady can still mean you’re driving really, really fast.

Then there’s Guy Botterill and Brett Cummings, the South African dream team. Finishing 13th on the stage, they proved that you don’t need to be first to be a winner – just not last. They’re sitting pretty in 13th place overall, only 27 minutes and 21 seconds behind the lead, which in Dakar terms, is like being next-door neighbors.

Giniel de Villiers, the Dakar veteran, and his co-driver Dennis Murphy had a bit of a rough ride, finishing 22nd on the stage. They faced more navigation challenges than a pirate without a map, and even had to stop to change a wheel. Now in 14th place overall, they’re less than a minute behind teammates Guy and Brett, proving that in the Dakar, even veterans can have days rougher than a cactus massage.

Bringing up the rear for TGR was the rookie pair of Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet. Finishing 32nd, they tackled the rocky terrain like two squirrels in a nut factory during a fire drill. Despite losing 39 minutes and 26 seconds, they’re still in the race, proving that in Dakar, hope dies slower than a camel in quicksand.

Outside of TGR, the privately entered Toyota Hilux of Guillaume de Mevius and Xavier Panseri won Stage 1, sitting in 5th place overall. Yazeed al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk are in second place overall, showing that sometimes, the tortoise and the hare are both driving Toyotas.

Looking ahead, the Marathon Stage is up next, a 437-kilometer joyride that’s about as relaxing as a porcupine in your pajamas. With a limited two-hour service window, it’s more about car preservation than a vintage wine collection.

The drivers’ quotes after the race were a mix of excitement, resignation, and the kind of optimism you usually find in a fortune cookie. From “It feels amazing” to “It wasn’t as tough as yesterday,” it’s clear that Dakar 2024 is as unpredictable as a weather forecast in the desert.

So, as the dust settles on Stage 2, and the drivers prepare for more sand, speed, and surprises, one thing is clear: Dakar 2024 is turning out to be more thrilling than a roller coaster with a turbo button. Stay tuned, folks, because this rally is just getting started!

QUOTES:

Shameer Variawa, SVR Team Principal: “We had another good stage today, with all our GR DKR Hilux EVOs completing the stage without any mechanical problems. This is always gratifying, as it shows that our detailed preparation of the cars is paying off, and it gives our drivers the confidence needed to race in the toughest automotive challenge in the world. Tomorrow, we start the first part of the Marathon Stage, and we will be hoping for another clean run by all of our crews.”

Seth Quintero: “It feels amazing to come third on the stage today. It’s been a little bit of a wild ride. First day we showed a lot of speed and second day, I think I banked on the guys making too many mistakes, so I just kind of relaxed. Also understanding that it is Dakar and we got 13 or so more days to go, I didn’t want to push early on. So, today I wanted to go out and have some fun. I started right behind Loeb again, which in my mind is one of the better spots to be and caught him pretty early on and just locked onto his bumper. We had a lot of cars to pass together. I was kind of just laughing. I’m like, man, this is a surreal feeling being right behind this guy and we’re working around. And I knew we had a good pace. We were moving pretty good. And I had Stefan (Peterhansel) right behind me and he was absolutely going for it. And all three of us were within seconds. It felt good to finally lead something. Like I said, I had a lot of doubt in my mind coming to this race. I’ve been a T3 guy my whole life and you never know stepping up to the big guns. But the whole TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team has been doing such an amazing job, making me feel at home, making me feel comfortable. And I will say this car is an absolute beast. So, looking forward to the rest of the couple weeks and gonna have some fun.”

Lucas Moraes: “Yeah, feeling great to be honest. It was actually a hard stage. Of course, less stones, rocky compared to yesterday, but still very hard. But we managed, even though we were basically opening the stage, we were the third or fourth car on the road, the majority of the stage, it was really hard to see the lines. But we managed, Armand did a great job finding our way through it. And another top ten, which is important. We are just 11 minutes out of the lead of the rally, so everything is tight.”

Guy Botterill: “Yeah, that was a good run for us. Right in the beginning we went into some difficult dunes. Well, I thought they were difficult. So yeah, we took our time finding our feet, but I think it was alright. Yazeed (Al Rajhi) overtook us fairly quickly and we tried to stay with him, but his pace is quite quick in the dunes, and I didn’t really want to take that sort of risk. So, we backed off a bit and then after that it opened up into some really fast tracks with lots of blind rises. And it was very difficult to find the road. You know, yesterday we were a long way down the track. So, there were a lot more cars on the road than there were today, making navigation difficult. Brett did a fantastic job. A lot of the times I had no idea where we were, and Brett kept us on the road. There’s a lot more speed if we needed it, but we were very cautious not to make mistakes and being relatively high up on the road, I think we did a really great job.”

Giniel de Villiers: “It’s quite tricky. We had quite a few places where we went wrong for quite a bit. Your confidence suffers a bit when the navigation is difficult. It’s extremely difficult at the front of the field, we saw that yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be the same again. We’re starting a little bit further back, which should be good for tomorrow. We had a tyre come off the rim today, and I really had to take it careful in the rocks. If you get another puncture, then it’s a big problem. We lost quite a bit of time today, but I’m not too concerned. It’s still a very long way to go.”

Saood Variawa: “It wasn’t as tough as yesterday. It was slightly longer, so a very long time in the car. But we had a dune section in the start which I really wasn’t comfortable with yet. And we took it very, very easy there. And after that we were going but we ran into a lot of dust, and I didn’t want to take any risks. So, we’re hanging back and unfortunately that’s how we lost all our time. But at least we’re here and tomorrow is another day.”

DAKAR 2024 – STAGE 2 RESULTS

DAKAR 2024 – STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 2

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