Stage 10: Iquique – Antofagasta
Road connection: 53 km
Selective Section: 231 km
Neutralized section: 185 km
Selective section: 215
Road connection: 5 km
Total: 688 km
The Dakar makes a U-turn and goes south next to the Pacific Ocean to the city of Antofagasta. There is no Dakar without fesh-fesh, says the brochure… but even if today´s stage was fairly long, it was not as hard as yesterday for the two Polaris RZR because it took place in opened spaces, the tracks, two selective sections separated by a neutralized section, was full of sand, dunes, mining roads and fesh-fesh. The bivoac in Antofagasta is located next to the natural monument of La Portada, which is close to the line of the Tropic of Capricorn, has brought luck to the two Polaris. Willy Alcaraz finished 34 and the crew Duclos/Delaunay closed the stage in the 38th position.
Willy Alcaraz N°350: “The stage started in the dunes, so I had to take out some pressure of the tires and I could not climb up in higher pressure. Then, I had fun crossing the dunes, without any troubles if it was not for two times that I was backing up because our small machines have limits sometimes. The second part was a lot faster on bigger roads, a bit too fast for us, but I had the wind on my back so I reached 124 km/h! That was the first time I saw the RZR going this fast. Unfortunately that made the tires to heat up and the one on the rear right exploded. I lost 7-8 minutes to change the wheel, but anyways, it was a beautiful day with zero troubles!”
Nicolas Duclos/Sébastien Delaunay N°364: “We were on our own most of the time of the special today, besides in the dunes, where there were cars everywhere. We saw Willy climbing up while we were trying to do the same, but he disappeared. We lost 15 minutes trying to get out of a hole where we got stuck. There was less fesh-fesh today; it was faster and technical, a lot nicer. It was really a beautiful special stage, very nice with wonderful landscapes.”