Communique 8 - Niamey, Niger
Thursday 13 January 2000

Mitsubishi Leads At Half Way
As Dakar Rally Is Airlifted To Libya

For the first time in 22 years the Dakar Rally has been stopped in its tracks in Africa and four legs have been cancelled. Because of the possibility of terrorist activity in Niger, the event will be airlifted to Libya, where it will restart on January 17.

Three giant Antonov 124 cargo planes will work 24 hours a day with 18 ten-hour flights carrying 336 vehicles and 1,365 people from Niamey in Niger to Libya.

While they wait to be taken to Libya, the surviving competitors have been forced into a not unwelcome rest period for five days, time to reflect on the event so far and look forward to the remaining stages in Libya and Egypt.

Rally leader, Kenjiro Shinozuka and his navigator Dominique Serieys have every reason to be pleased with progress so far in their Team Nisseki Mitsubishi Ralliart Pajero/Montero. The Japanese/French pairing grabbed the lead on the second leg between Tambacounda and Kayes and extended it to 6m 15s in a close battled with Jean-Louis Schlesser’s buggy by the time the rally reach an abrupt halt in Niamey. Schlesser fought hard to catch the Mitsubishi, but was frustrated at every turn as the Pajero/Montero gradually inched out of the French buggy-driver’s grasp. At Niamey, Schlesser is second.

Said Shinozuka at Niamey: "We won’t be driving for five days now, but I am sure I can stay focussed. I think one of us in the top six places will win this event. So far, the stages have been very fast - faster than I have ever experienced before - which should have benefitted the Schlesser Buggy and the Mega Desert with their higher top speeds. But I am obviously happy because we are still in the lead despite this. The first few stages in Libya will be fast again, but if we can stay in front before we hit the sand dunes, then we have a very good chance of winning. But of course, I always have to beware of punctures!"

It’s still going to be close when the event gets underway again in Libya - just over six minutes is a tiny margin after 2,038 km of special stages in an overall route of 3,767km so far! And Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel is less than two minutes behind in third place in his Mitsubishi-powered Mega Desert special.

It was Carlos Sousa of Portugal who led after the first leg between Dakar and Tambacounda in Senegal, however, in his Team Mitsubishi Portugal Mitsubishi Strakar/L200. Peterhansel won the following stage to Kayes, but as he was fighting back up from seventh after leg 1, it was actually Shinozuka who took the lead and held it to Niamey. Sousa dropped to second in the dust and by Niamey was in fifth position after scoring his second stage winning of the event on the sixth leg.

Said Sousa: "The car has been perfect. We were fastest on the last stage to Niamey because we kept a good rhythm and I enjoyed that stage much better than the faster ones with the big jumps - jumps are not my strength".

Jean-Pierre Fontenay holds fourth at Niamey in his Team Mitsubishi France Pajero/Montero, and is reasonably pleased with his progress thus far, even though puncture and a near miss with a 2-metre deep hole between Ouagadougou and Niamey have served to hold him back. On the fifth leg, he even managed to get lost briefly while distracted by an interview he was giving to a TV crew while driving between Bobo Dioulasso and Ouagadougou.

Joked Fontenay of his big moment on the way to Niamey: "The brakes are good! I really tested them when we almost went into that hole. I turned to Gilles and shouted that he must have made a mistake, but he had not. The road book was wrong. At least five big dangers - and one river - were not marked!"

Driving the Team Mitsubishi Germany Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero, all-girl crew Jutta Kleinschmidt of Germany and Tina Thorner of Sweden are still hopeful of a good result in Cairo, even though a string of punctures and a sheared wheel stud have been a cause of much frustration. At one point the glamorous duo had dropped out of the top 10, but has fought back to sixth at Niamey.

Jutta reported: "I could not believe we had so many punctures early on, but then it got better and we had some good times. But on the last stage, we hit a tree stump and had a puncture, and then later a wheel stud broke on the same wheel, so we lost some time".

Also fighting back well is Miguel Prieto of Spain who is the hero of the event with his storming drive back from 109th on Leg 2 to an amazing 25th at Niamey in his Team Mitsubishi Spain Pajero/Montero.

Hiroshi Masuoka of Japan and his German co-driver Andreas Schulz had been going very well in their Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero but unfortunately fell into the same hole that Fontenay narrowly missed on the sixth leg. The car was strong enough to withstand the crash undamaged, but the hapless Masuoka had to wait to be towed out and dropped to eighth.

Masuoka said: "We lost maybe 15 minutes in the hole until Prieto pulled us out. I couldn’t see in the dust behind Fontenay’s car and we couldn’t stop in time. The car is OK - it must be very strong!"

All the while, Nissan driver Gregoire de Mevius of Belgium has been battling hard in his overheating car to catch the Mitsubishi, and with Masuoka’s delay he’s only a few seconds behind.

In the T1 category for standard cars, Mitsubishi faithful Klever Kolberg of Brazil is putting in a strong performance in his Pajero/Montero, eventually climbing to fourth and the half way point with Frenchman and fellow Mitsubishi driver Jean-Francois Guinot just behind in fifth. In previous years the Mitsubishis have dominated the class, but strong competition from Riviere’s Nissan and Jean-Pierre Strugo in his Mercedes has fuelled an incredibly strong battle this year which is unlikely to be resolved until Cairo.

But for now, the battles must wait until all the cars, support personnel and competitors have been safely transferred to Libya and the event can restart on January 17. Of the 135 cars that started the event, 113 remain to be transported to the restart along with 143 motorbikes remaining out of 200 and 64 trucks from 66 starters. In total, 320 vehicles are due to restart on January 17 out of a total of 401 starters.

After the cancellation of four legs totaling 2,987km and 2,254km of stages, 4,148 km remain before the survivors reach Cairo, 2,834km of which will be driven competitively over the Libyan and Egyptian deserts.

All remaining vehicles will be placed in Parc Ferme from Thursday January 13th at noon when the Antonovs are due to arrive to carry them to Sabbah and Waw el Kabir airfields in Libya. 18 flights are planned and in addition to the competing cars, the planes will have to carry 16 press cars making it 336 vehicles in total, plus 715 competitors and 650 organisers, press people, mechanics and support personnel.

Providing all goes smoothly, the event will restart on January 17, destination Cairo!

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION IN NIAMEY