Let's experience the marathon stage without backup Dakar

Created Date: 2023-02-17 07:24:00

Basic concepts
Unless the camp is destroyed by floods and cancelled as in 2022, the marathon is an essential part of the Dakar Rally every year. First of all, the marathon stage is not one stage, but two stages, and must be two consecutive stages. First, briefly summarize the main points, and then we can talk about the following core requirements of the marathon stage:

No backup team is allowed to participate in the whole process
Time-limited maintenance
No tire change

The purpose of setting up the marathon stage of the race is to reduce the unfair competition caused by resources between large teams with strong backing and weak individual drivers. Under the same conditions, a two-day stress test will be conducted on the drivers and racing cars. I personally understand that the pressure on cars is higher, and the pressure on people is not bad. For specific reasons, the following analysis.

Marathon Camp
The race itself of the first stage of the marathon is not much different from the ordinary stage. The difference is from the end of the first stage. After the race, the drivers need to return to the marathon camp, which is very different from the regular camp. No one can enter except the drivers and the organizers of the race, especially the backup team. Therefore, the drivers who originally lived in the backup trucks and camp dormitories can only pitch tents in the marathon camp. Sometimes they can pitch tents indoors to avoid the rain and keep warm.

Closed maintenance area
In the Marathon Camp, a closed maintenance area is set up (French Parc ferm é, English Closed Park or Marathon Service Park. I have seen a lot of machines or mistakenly translated into closed parks in China. Park here means parking rather than parks). After driving back to the camp, the driver directly enters the closed maintenance area to repair and maintain the vehicle, but the level of maintenance is lower than the daily maintenance level of the non-backup group, because:

1. Do it yourself: Although you can ask other drivers for help if you can't decide, only the drivers of the same group can help each other. Not only the car group can't help the motorcycle group, but also the Rally2 and RallyGP groups can't help each other across groups.

2.Limited tools: only the tools and spare parts (usually only the chain and filter element) carried by the driver can be used for repair and maintenance. The car group is OK, but for the motorcycle, there are basically no tools. Even the pneumatic and electric tools that are usually provided to the non-backup team in the race are not available in the marathon camp. However, we can discuss in advance. You can take this one and I will take that one. Then we can use it together. This is allowed and encouraged by the competition rules. It is also restricted to the same group. Every year, we can see that because of frequent car crashes and lack of replacement parts, there are many problems in the marathon stage that can be solved by bandages and brothers.

3.Tires are not allowed to move: during the whole marathon, it is not allowed to change tyres and wheel hubs, and it is also prohibited to exchange wheels between drivers. Therefore, neither Fang Mingji's love for Sunil nor Andrew Short's friendship with Toby Price can happen in the marathon stage. Therefore, in order to enable a group of tyres to withstand the hardship of more than 1000 kilometers in two days, drivers may need to formulate tyre protection strategies and backup plans according to local conditions.

4.Time-limited completion: RallyGP group has only half an hour to repair and maintain, while Rally2 group has one hour. If the repair is not completed after using this time, the repair time can be extended by half an hour on the premise of accepting a penalty of 1 hour. After the half-hour delay, the second delay is not allowed, and the driver will be forced to leave the field. If the car is not repaired to the state that the competition thinks it is safe to participate in the race, it will not be allowed to start the next day and will be fined 6 hours.

5.See you the next day: drivers are not allowed to enter the maintenance area again after leaving the maintenance area. All vehicles will be strictly guarded in the evening. Until 10 minutes before the next day's departure, drivers can enter the maintenance area again to prepare for departure.

The next day, the race schedule resumed as usual. After the next day's race, we returned to the regular camp and ended the two-day stress test. Although the nature of the marathon stage is that there is no backup for the whole staff, the difference between the non-backup group and the non-backup group is that I think the non-backup group is more testing the drivers, and the vehicles are repaired every day and night for 14 consecutive stages; In the marathon stage, the more test is the car, which can withstand the ravages of more than 1000 kilometers for two days in a row, especially the tires.