Why is there a penalty for speeding in Daka

Created Date: 2023-02-17 08:30:41

All for safety

In fact, the speed limit of Dakar Rally is the same as the maximum speed limit set on our public roads to ensure the safety of drivers. Dakar, as the toughest rally event in the world, will inevitably bring a variety of dangerous situations to drivers. Paul Gonzalez in 2020 and Pierre Cherpin in 2021 are all Dakar warriors who died due to a car crash during the motorcycle race. The 15-day Dakar Rally in 2023 was just on the fourth day. The No. 1 and No. 2 seed contestants Sunderland and Brabeck have both withdrawn from the race because of car injuries. The same happened to the other five motorcycle riders.

Have to do

Unlike public roads and track racing, Dakar Rally is a kind of survival race in the wild. There is no fixed track at all. The race will only be given a series of punch points every day. It is all up to the driver to find the way. Without the track, it is impossible to set up warning signs, guardrails, tire walls, water horses, safety nets, buffer zones and other common safety protection facilities beside the track.

What's more, the race is conducted in the field. Once the driver is injured, although it can be recognized by the race through the GPS signal in time, the efficiency of helicopter rescue is far from high in the city or the field, and it is easy to fail to rescue in time.

Speed limit requirements
Therefore, the Games had to formulate a series of speed limit requirements through the rules, including:

Technical speed limit: for Rally GP and Rally 2 drivers, the maximum speed limit for the whole journey is 160 km/h, and the speed limit for Rally 3 drivers (similar to amateur group) is 130 km/h. And Rally 3 drivers are not allowed to participate in Dakar Rally.

Traffic regulation speed limit: When driving through local public roads (it is very common in the connection section, drivers will drive back to the camp through the local road), they need to comply with the speed limit requirements set by the local traffic rules. Therefore, in addition to the racing driver's license issued by the FIM, the drivers are required to have the civil driver's license approved by the local traffic management department of the race. At the opening ceremony, we found that many drivers of the car group pasted the native language translation version of the local traffic speed limit sign (Arabic) on the dashboard to avoid being punished for misreading the speed limit.

Speed limit on dangerous sections: When driving through dangerous sections, the race will set speed limit zones according to the specific conditions. This speed limit may be as low as tens of kilometers per hour, requiring drivers to pass slowly to avoid risks. The specific speed limit requirements will be reflected in the guidebook.

Speed limit in the transfer zone: In the timing stage, sometimes the line will pass through towns and various civil facilities. In this case, the Games will set a transfer zone in the timing stage. In the transfer zone, not only the speed limit will be set, but also the minimum passing time will be set. The time to enter the transit area plus the minimum passing time is the time point at which the driver can leave the transit area and continue running. The stopwatch in the transit area does not count.

Speeding penalty
The driver's overspeed behavior will be automatically recorded by the on-board GPS, the overspeed signal will be recorded every 150 meters or every 10 seconds, and the driver will be reminded of overspeed on the instrument

Within 20 km/h of overspeed, each overspeed signal will be penalized for 1 minute
Between 21 and 40 km/h, each overspeed signal will be penalized for 2 minutes

Overspeed of more than 40 km/h, 6 minutes for each overspeed signal

For example, if a driver is in the speed limit zone of 40 km/h and is recorded with two overspeed signals at 100 km/h, one overspeed signal at 70 km/h and one overspeed signal at 50 km/h, then he will be punished with two 6 minutes, one 2 minutes and one 1 minute, totaling 15 minutes, which is easy to understand?

This is not all. If the driver exceeds the speed limit again in the next second speed limit, the race will also double the penalty according to the number of times of speeding, that is, multiply the number of times of speeding on the basis of the penalty time, and increase the punishment, until you have to slow down. You see, the race will take great pains to ensure that drivers can cross dangerous sections at a reasonable speed.