Wednesday 8th January 2014

Mr Dakar: PH Meets

Dakar Rally bigwig on the Race2Recovery team and the event's future

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In case you didn't catch it, PH had a very special delivery job to do at the end of 2013, dropping off the Race2Recovery team's Wildcat 2014 Dakar Rally contender at the event's scrutineering.

Gavory; as steely as you'd expect of 'Mr Dakar'

The R2R team might are not having the best of luck in the Dakar this year - see here - but the show goes on and while we were in Le Havre we managed to corner Dakar organiser the ASO's (Amaury Sport Organisation) head of competitors, Xavier Gavory.

Here's what he had to say on Race2Recovery and the future of the Dakar.

Outside looking in
An amateur team like R2R turning up on the start line at the Dakar was bound to raise a few eyebrows, but far from being excluded, the British outfit was made to feel welcome, according to Gavory.

"From the very beginning, last year in 2012 when we first met the team to talk about that project, immediately we felt something very different. There are a lot of teams who we are in contact with, but this project was definitely different from the others. Immediately it raised a lot of interest from the public - from the press, the media - and it's very unusual.

Race2Recovery's 2014 event hasn't gone well

"It's a great asset because the project itself is to prove to everybody that you can 'achieve something extraordinary' - this is the R2R catchphrase - is absolutely true."

The cars weren't without their problems on last year's event, which meant the team had to pull together, gaining the respect of other competitors in the process as Gavory recalls.

"The other teams weren't sceptical. I think from the very beginning they welcomed R2R. But at the same time, people looked at them like, who are they? What will they manage to do? There were a lot of question marks, and then after a couple of days everybody really gelled with the team. Everybody was behind them and pushing, and people became very friendly with the guys in the bivouac.

"It's because they are pure amateurs and at the same time they are very special people."

PH's Sean chats with the Dakar's main man

There's a lot of resonance between the team and the Dakar spirit. These guys don't give up in the face of adversity. It meant the team weren't just a bunch of outsiders looking in, but were welcomed into the fold.

The French connection
Unsurprisingly, given its roots, the French go crazy for the Dakar. In the UK - PHers excepted - the level of awareness just isn't the same.

One factor that'll help the ASO's plans is more official entries. As we know from the relative demise of the WRC in the late 2000s and the recent rise of sportscar racing, manufacturer involvement makes for a great competition and a great spectacle. This will be key to the Dakar's future, Gavory assures us.

"There's some projects coming in probably for 2015 - there's a lot of interest. The coverage of the event is getting bigger and bigger and this makes it more worthwhile for manufacturers.

Diversity of Dakar hardware remains unique

"For the bike category the level has never been so high. KTM, Yamaha and Honda are all back with new bikes in 2014 - we hope it could be the same for the future with the cars, with more manufacturer-backed entries.

"Ford Racing is returning this year and we are in talks with other manufacturers for the future. I will not tell you which manufacturers, but we could have new brands coming for the car category."

Operation efficiency
While the ASO is doing its bit to secure the Dakar's future with more works-backed entries, together with these new teams the organisers are going to have to consider the issue of efficiency. With the inauguration of Formula E set for 2014 and an increasing emphasis on energy recovery in the World Endurance Championship and F1, it's something the ASO is well aware of:

Just how epic is the Dakar? This epic...

"We are 100 per cent open to any ideas and any solutions from manufacturers. We have opened a special NRJ class for hybrids, special fuel cars and so on. On the Dakar we have cars that are running on special biofuel and two years ago we had a fully electric car on the Dakar. These cars get special treatment so they can stop within the special stage to refuel or recharge.

"We can adapt the regulations to encourage this kind of initiative and we are ready to do more in the future if manufacturers come with good ideas.

"Improving efficiency will definitely become a bigger part of the Dakar in the future, but at the same time the technology has to be adapted for this kind of race - it's much more complicated to have an electric car or a hybrid car on the Dakar than it is to have one on a circuit. The race is 9,000km, with 5,000km of special stages this year. 50-degree heat makes it really tough, so the technology will have to be adapted and will probably need more time to be engineered for this kind of race."

Don't expect rally raid hybrids and desert-storming EVs to challenge for the overall win anytime soon, then. Gavory reckons although the ASO is in contact with many manufacturers about alternatively fuelled entries, manufacturers are not really focusing on this technology with respect to their current Dakar projects.

Mini is among new wave of manufacturers

"As soon as the technology develops to the right point in other forms of motorsport, then it will be adapted for the Dakar."

It might take a few years for the technology to break through, but when it does (V8 + instant electric torque = yes please), PH will be volunteering as delivery drivers again.

 

 

 

 

[garypotter]

Yes the Dakar is EPIC!

[RizzoTheRat]

It's a shame the coverage in the UK is so rubbish, last year I set my V+ box to record all the programmes Eurosport put on in the middle of the night and half of them ended up with overrunning snooker!

[Ayahuasca]

Is it now going to be permanently in South America or will it go back to Africa at some point?

[anonymous-user]

""Improving efficiency will definitely become a bigger part of the Dakar in the future"


Oh god no, not again!


Let me say this once more: Energy efficiency in motorsports is a pointless and futile exercise

If you want to be "green" then simply don't drive a load of cars pointlessly to the other side of the planet for fun. Motorsport is about the spectacle, the sense of speed, the noise, the achievement, the camaraderie. It is not about dull but worthy saving of energy or reducing pollution. This is because the total global increase in emissions due to such events is negligble and unmeasurable and hence there is no requirement to reduce it.

[abbotsmike]

Max_Torque said:

""Improving efficiency will definitely become a bigger part of the Dakar in the future"


Oh god no, not again!


Let me say this once more: Energy efficiency in motorsports is a pointless and futile exercise

If you want to be "green" then simply don't drive a load of cars pointlessly to the other side of the planet for fun. Motorsport is about the spectacle, the sense of speed, the noise, the achievement, the camaraderie. It is not about dull but worthy saving of energy or reducing pollution. This is because the total global increase in emissions due to such events is negligble and unmeasurable and hence there is no requirement to reduce it.

Surely it's about being competitive as much as anything.

More efficient = more power for the same fuel, or the same power using less fuel.

Less fuel means further between fuel stops, and less weight.

Less weight means cars that can be built lighter (not carrying the increased load) and go faster.

Where's the downside of cars that can go faster. for longer, and use less fuel?!

Or would you find it more exciting if they had a 7 litre V8 from 50 years ago, with no power, and that needed 1000 litres of fuel to complete the stage. (All numbers invented)

That would be much less efficient, but I doubt it would be more exciting.

[MissChief]

Manufacturers can't get away with motorsport purely as a marketing exercise anymore. They need to show the board (which is more likely to be made up of accountants and other business types who haven't sat in the front seat of a car in years than Engineer-y types) that the money going out in Motorsport also has relevance towards the current and future products and technology. At the moment that's Hybrids, small turbocharged engines (as in F1) and better battery technology. You may not like it but that's how it has to be.

[FairfieldSteve]

RizzoTheRat said:

It's a shame the coverage in the UK is so rubbish, last year I set my V+ box to record all the programmes Eurosport put on in the middle of the night and half of them ended up with overrunning snooker!

I said on the other thread that even a live map with GPS dots would be useful...

[TransverseTight]

Max_Torque said:

""Improving efficiency will definitely become a bigger part of the Dakar in the future"


Oh god no, not again!


Let me say this once more: Energy efficiency in motorsports is a pointless and futile exercise

If you want to be "green" then simply don't drive a load of cars pointlessly to the other side of the planet for fun. Motorsport is about the spectacle, the sense of speed, the noise, the achievement, the camaraderie. It is not about dull but worthy saving of energy or reducing pollution. This is because the total global increase in emissions due to such events is negligble and unmeasurable and hence there is no requirement to reduce it.

I think you're missing the point of why they do this. It's not to make the event itself greener. It's too improve the tech and show the public it can be user in competitive motorsport. Whether it's high travel suspension, off road tyres or the latest hybrid drive, manufactures get involved in sport to showcase their brand and gain sales in the real world. And as someone else pointed out, using less fuel just makes sense in endurance events for weight reasons. If that wasn't the case you may as well enter a Shell petrol tanker in next year's Le Mans stick 3 drivers in the sleeper cab and do it in 1 stint.