Dakar D -2

Friday 2nd January 2015

Technical and administrative checks at Tecnopolis Park in Buenos Aires

An air of spring with nice a light breeze can be felt at the Tecnopolis Park in Buenos Aires. All competitors know that they must enjoy these moments because Argentina is well known by its unbearable hot weather.

 

It is time for the technical and administrative checks for the Polaris Xtremeplus Factory Team. The most important part of the technical check has already been done in the port of Le Havre last November, before embarking to Buenos Aires, so the afternoon goes by without stress. The entire team is ready to face the pitfalls and traps that the Dakar 2015 has waiting for them.

 

For Willy Alcaraz, triple winner of the Dakar in T3 class, it is time to put his title in the game. “This is my 24th Dakar -tells the French that rides in a single seater. This is my forth time driving a Polaris RZR, but this time I take the race with the RZR 1000XT+30, and not the 900TX+40. The technical team has done an extraordinary work developing this machine and this RZR is truly piece of jewel. During the tests, I was astonished by its performance, its shock absorbers, chassis, breaks… The way the RZR works has been improved and now, it can reach 125 km/h.

 

I hope the tracks are hard because that is an advantage for our RZR, just like the sand, but unfortunately this year we will not have too much of that. My ambition is, of course, to win the T3 class and to improve the overall result. The challenge is that the car goes faster, so it is harder to take the dangers and navigation while being alone, but I have the advantage of the weight…

We also have new tires from Maxxis. This should prevent punctures and will allow me to go faster in rough tracks. If everything goes well, I should be able to climb up overall because the Polaris RZR 1000XT+30 is truly performant and our team has experience and it is effective!”

 

Tomorrow, Saturday January 3, it will be the starting podium. The real start of the race will be on Sunday January 4 with a special stage of 838 km between Buenos Aires and Villa Carlos Paz. 175 kilometers of this stage will be timed.

Marilyn Urtubia
Journalist & Translator 
+56 9 6686 9857 | Santiago, Chile