Stage 2: San Luis –San Rafael
Road connection: 304 km
Special Stage: 433 km
Road connection: 62 km
Total: 798 km
The second special stage of the Dakar was quite fast with a portion in the dunes of Nihuil, the favorite terrain of Willy Alcaraz, who took the 55th position. At the arrival in San Rafael, the temperatures were around 40°Celcius The heat wave is back in Argentina.
Willy Alcaraz N°350 – 55th: “The selective section was fast, and I was going up to 100-105 km/h did not have much of a chance. I was going as fast as I could and it was somehow frustrating. It´s over rough and sinuous roads that make the difference. I got better in the dunes, and then I passed some cars, and I had fun in spite of the very, very, soft sand. It was way too hot. Then, I had a puncture and I lost 15 minutes… I reached Coronel in the dunes, but at the moment of my puncture, he passed me and finished 10 minutes ahead of me. There is a long road ahead of us!”
Nicolas Duclos / Sebastien Delaunay n°364 – 67°: “It was a hard day – says Nicolas exhausted at the arrival in San Rafael. We had two punctures, at km 44 and then 45, and we still had 400 km to go and without the spare wheels. It was rock & roll on fesh-fesh, the stones and a very fast road. I could not take any risks, so we had to leave many cars pass us by and we ate dust like crazy, it was terrible! But we were saved by the dunes and even if they were very soft due to the hot weather, we passed some cars. This special was like a graveyard for cars, bikes and trucks… they were everywhere! But we managed to complete this special on the 68thplace.”
Garry Connell / Annie Seel n°366 – 83°: “We were lucky the road was rough, with many stones, and we had three punctures… but managed to repair a tire and get going. The fesh-fesh got everywhere inside the RZR, it´s all covered in white. The sand in the dunes of Nihuil was very soft because of the hot weather, but we managed to get through it well. Merzouga rally was useful to understand how to pass the dunes. Unfortunately, right before the end, a tire went off because it had very low pressure and we lost time. In spite of everything, it was a great day, but slow…”
Yasir Saedan / Laurent Lichtleuchter n°386 – 91°: “Terrible day, we faced several bad situations: fesh-fesh, 7 punctures, soft sand, even someone touched our car on the rear while in the fesh-fesh while we were on a line and no one would make space to let us go through… Fortunately, Marco Piana was behind us and had tires in the truck. We would have not been able to finish this special without him!”