Alphand goes for second Dakar success
Reigning champion Luc Alphand is looking to join the ranks of motorsport’s elite by claiming victory in the 2007 Dakar Rally, which gets under way in Portugal tomorrow.
Former skiing champion Alphand won the gruelling endurance event 12 months ago and now hopes to emulate the achievements of Mitsubishi team-mates Stephane Peterhansel and Hiroshi Masuoka, both of whom have won the rally twice.
“It was like a dream for me to win the Dakar Rally last time,” Alphand told www.mitsubishi-motors.com.
“I have won major skiing competitions, but this was so very different. It was a great team effort and that is the important factor with the Dakar.
“Everyone plays a vital role in the successes we have achieved and I am confident that we have a great team again, which is more than capable of winning the Dakar.
“Stephane and Hiroshi have won the Dakar twice. I would like to do the same.”
The Mitsubishi team will be gunning for a record seventh straight win in the classic race, which is being staged for the 29th time.
Contested over a fortnight instead of the traditional three-week duration, the rally’s distance has been shortened from 10,000 kilometres to a little under 9000km, but still takes in six countries and two continents, including 5010km of timed ‘specials’ during the 15 stages.
Beginning in Lisbon, competitors will pass through Portugal and Spain before hopping on a Mediterranean ferry to Africa for a blast through Morocco, the dunes of the Sahara in Mauritania and the Senegalese bush before finishing at Lac Rose, near Dakar.
The last stage in Lac Rose, originally planned as a showpiece event as a prelude to the podium ceremony on the rally’s final day, has now been reinstated as an official stage and will count towards the final result, while stages 10 and 11 have been rerouted to avoid Timbuktu after safety concerns were raised by local officials.
Volkswagen are expected to provide Mitsubishi with their sternest challenge in the coming weeks, with 2006 runner-up Giniel De Villiers and former double World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz teamed with four-time Dakar winner Ari Vatanen of Finland.
The BMW X-Raid team will also fancy its chances of upsetting the Japanese party, with Guerlain Chicherit keen to build on last year’s maiden stage victory alongside Jutta Kleinschmidt.
In addition to the 185 cars permitted to contest the rally, there are also 240 motorcycles and 80 trucks set to take the start in the Portuguese capital.
In the truck class, the supremacy of the KamAZ Master team is widely tipped to continue, with team leader Vladimir Tchaguine seeking to match Czech legend Karel Loprais’ all-time record of six wins in the category.
Britain’s assault on the famous race will again be led by Rally Raid UK, the team founded in 1999 by Paul Round.
Three cars and 10 bikes will contest the 2007 event under the Rally Raid UK banner, with Round expected to lead the four-wheeled charge alongside co-driver Martin Coulson.
