What if there is no gas on the way in Dakar?
Created Date: 2023-02-17 07:32:15
Can I refuel halfway?First of all, the technical rules of the FIM do not set an upper limit on the total capacity of the main and auxiliary fuel tanks of vehicles. Secondly, the event organizer will set up fuel stations at intervals of no more than 250 kilometers in the timing stage, and set up fuel stations at the starting point, end point and camp of the stage as required. The location of all fuel stations will be informed to the driver in advance in written form such as maps and guidebooks. (In other events in which Rally Group 3, with a larger displacement, will participate, the interval between refueling points will be reduced to 125 kilometers, and Rally Group 3 has a maximum volume of 17 liters.)
Map of the fourth stage of the 2023 Dakar Rally
The above figure is the map of the fourth stage of this year, in which DSS and ASS are the starting and ending points of the timing stage respectively, and the yellow line is the 425-kilometer-long timing stage. Two motorcycle refueling points were set up at the starting point of the DSS and 250 kilometers of the stage. In addition to the refueling points in Daying, there are three refueling points in the 577 kilometers of the route on this day. From the time the driver leaves the camp, he will meet the refueling point at the 94th km (DSS), 344th km (at the 250th km of the timing stage) and 577th km (back to the camp). The three refueling intervals are 94th, 250th and 233 km respectively, not more than 250 km. (The aviation kerosene refueling point set for the media/rescue helicopter is 149 km away from the terminal ASS and the stage)
Drivers run all day, helicopters fly all day, and refueling is also needed halfway
With the location and distance information of the refueling point, drivers can roughly estimate the amount of fuel each time. For drivers who want to win the place, they must fill up the fuel just enough to finish the whole journey to achieve the lightest vehicle weight. In order to avoid the safety problems caused by the drivers' too harsh fuel consumption, the drivers are required to be responsible for their own fuel consumption and to increase the safety redundant fuel consumption by 10% on the basis of the estimated fuel consumption.
But in fact, whether new or old, every year there are drivers who run out of fuel tank due to wrong estimation of fuel volume. And this nightmare is more common in the old birds, because they are more in the pursuit of ranking. For example, this year's No. 13 seed driver Ross Blanche ran out of gas in the fourth stage.
What's more, those who run too far and miss the refueling point! In the penultimate stage of Dakar in 2021, it was at the most critical moment in the race for the championship. The Honda team's driver, Badar, who was the first in the stage, unexpectedly made a mistake in his busy time, missed the refueling point at 174 km, and had to stop at 267 km. You should know that he ranked fourth in the total score at that time, and was the hot candidate for the championship that year.