Page 116 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)

Dakar
ROMANIAN

HUBERT AURIOL RIDER EMANUEL

GYENES WON
9ROCKED UP! 10THE ORIGINAL

FRENCH OFF-ROAD star Hubert Auriol, who became the first BY MOTUL CLASS
person to celebrate Dakar wins on both two wheels and four,
rocked up to the Saudi Arabian-based event during this year’s ON HIS 10TH Dakar attempt, KTM rider and newly crowned Dakar
rest day. The now 67-year-old rode a BMW R 80 G/S to both Legend Emanuel Gyenes won the unassisted Original by Motul
the 1981 and 1983 Dakar victory, before taking the car spoils
in 1992 in a Mitsubishi Pajero. The John Surtees of the Dakar class by finishing 1h12m ahead of French rider Benjamin Melot
world then went on to become the event’s director, which (KTM). Australia’s Trevor Wilson did a sterling job in what was his
he did for nine years, and he’s responsible for launching the first-ever Dakar, finishing 17th in the class, the second highest
rally’s unassisted Malle Moto class, which still runs today ranked rookie in the iron man category.
under the Original by Motul guise.
“Bikers give a special dimension to this race because a
biker is fragile, and a biker has to deal with everything alone,”
he said during this year’s event. “He takes decisions alone. He
navigates alone. He repairs his bike on his own. He has to be
in charge. There’s a heroic side to bikers – it’s an exploit to just STAGE 6 WAS A

finish the race on a bike.”
TURNINGPOINT

HINDSIGHT’S A wonderful thing
and, on reflection, there were plenty
of incidents which occurred on the
sixth stage of the Dakar Rally which
set the course, set the scene and set
Brabec’s lead in stone.
The previous day, the tables
appeared to be turning for the
successful KTM squad, who
struggled to keep the hugely
determined factory Honda team
in its sights. Just when there
were four KTMs in the top-five
stage rankings, 2017 winner Sam
Sunderland suffered a nasty crash
187km into the special, in which
the Briton cracked six vertebrae
2020 DAKAR TOP 10 AFTER 12 OF 12 STAGES and a shoulder blade, ending his
2020 rally.
POS RIDER NAT BIKE TIME Teammate Price flew the orange
1 R Brabec USA Hon 40h02m36s flag and went on to win his second
2 P Quintanilla Chi Hus +16m26s stage of the 2020 event, leap-
3 T Price Aus KTM +24m06s frogging from fourth in the general
4 J Ignacio Cornejo Chi Hon +31m43s
5 M Walkner Aut KTM +35m00s standings up to second.
6 L Benavides Arg KTM +37m34s Stage six, the last before the well-deserved rest day and the first real
7 J Barreda Bort Spa Hon +50m57s day of sand dunes, Price lead out, but his rear tyre had other ideas and,
8 F Caimi Arg Yam +1h42m36s just as he’d conceded to continue the stage riding on the rim, Rockstar
9 S Howes USA Hus +2h04m01s Husqvarna rider Andrew Short offered his rear tyre to the KTM rider.
10 A Short USA Hus +2h10m40s “For me I had a really good day going, then I just had to be a team
player. It was a long ride in the desert [with no rear tyre],” Short said.
And while Short’s teammate Quintanilla probably wouldn’t have been
too happy that the American helped his closest rival, it proved how far
the parent company was prepared to go to stop big red running away
with the win. Rather remarkably, the whole incident only cost Price
16m30s, but Brabec went on to win, putting over 25 minutes between him
and his closest rival.
“It’s frustrating cos you risk your life all day, then you lose some time
for something that’s out of your hands,” said Price.
But little did he know, the setback would take a far higher toll on his
campaign, for it meant he would start a fair way down the order in 11th,
three places behind Hero’s Paulo Goncalves…

114 amcn.com.au