Deacon has team-mate in his sights in Paris-Dakar Rally
John Deacon has BMW team-mate Jimmy Lewis in his sights as the 38-year-old motorcycle dealer from Plymouth in Britain aims to snatch sixth place overall on the 14th stage of the Paris-Dakar Rally.
Deacon faces one of the shortest stages on the event, 160 miles between Tidjikja and Tichit.
American Lewis has a painful wrist injury which will hamper him as the rally starts to move towards the border between Mauritania and Mali.
Deacon set himself a target of a top-three finish before the event started in Paris on New Year's Day.
Problems on day two have left Deacon with a revised target of a top-five place overall and sixth-placed Lewis is his next individual target.
A fall late in the 13th stage which started and finished in Tidjikja meant Deacon could only close eight minutes on Lewis.
With rally leader Fabrizio Meoni now nearly four hours ahead of Deacon the British rider has little chance of taking the overall rally victory by catching the Italian KTM rider.
But if any of the riders in front of him suffer problems Deacon is well placed to move up the rankings before the rally reaches the finish line in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on January 21.
