Colin McRae is better prepared for the Telefonica Dakar Rally this year than he was 12 months ago, and whilst the Nissan Rally Raid Team driver is aiming for a podium finish, he believes winning motorsport's greatest challenge at only his second attempt is a real possibility.
This year's Dakar Rally begins in Barcelona on 31 December, and while his fellow Scots will be celebrating Hogmanay, McRae will be preparing to drive his race-prepared Nissan Pickup over 5,565 gruelling miles and through five countries in 16 days, in the greatest motorsport adventure known to man.
Co-driven once again by 37-year old Swede Tina Thörner, McRae is part of a three car Nissan Rally Raid Team which also includes four-times Dakar winner Ari Vatanen (co-driven for the first time by Tiziano Siviero) and South African Cross-Country Rally Champion Giniel de Villiers and his co-pilot Jean-Marie Lurquin.
Since winning two special stages on his Dakar Rally debut in January 2004, Colin has played an integral part in the development of the new Nissan Pickup 2005 - which is 80% different to the vehicle he drove to 20th position on the Dakar 2004. This year the 36-year old 1995 World Rally Champion has tested the Pickup in Tunisia and Morocco, contested the UAE Desert Challenge and drove the 4.0-litre V6-engined six-speed sequential-shift Pickup 2005 to victory on its debut appearance on the Baja Portugal.
It's the new Pickup 2005, a highly motivated team and his experience of racing across the Sahara that fills Colin with quiet confidence in the countdown to the start of the Dakar Rally 2005.
McRae said: "We are aiming for a podium result, but it's such a long endurance event that it is possible to win. You have to approach the Dakar with the right attitude and have a certain amount of experience on different types of terrain, but it's an event you can win on your first attempt if you have the right car and the right team. Last year we were very under prepared compared to where we are now and we had some reliability problems. Since January this year we've been testing and developing the new Pickup and hopefully we're now at a level where we can do the full event with a minimum amount of trouble. I don't think anyone does the Dakar and doesn't have a problem, so you've just got to limit the number of problems and manage them as best as you can. Personally I'll be setting off with a win in mind."
THE ROUTE: FROM RAMBLAS TO LAC ROSE
This year's Telefonica-Dakar Rally is shorter than in previous years, but it will be no less demanding. It races through five countries - Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal in 17 days - beginning with a super-special in Barcelona on 31 December and finishing on the beach in Dakar on 16 January. The route covers a gruelling 8,956 km (5,565 miles), with 16 special stages totalling 5,431km (3,375 miles) - equivalent in competitive distance to an entire Formula 1 season.
The longest stage of the event this year is in Mauritania. Drivers will face a 660km (410 mile) trek through mountainous dune fields and tall camel grass between Zouérat and the oasis at Tichit - only be told that their team cannot work on their cars overnight. This is the first of two marathon stages, where assistance from their mechanics is forbidden. To reach their team, another 520km (323 miles) of sandy stage awaits, as crews plot their way through the famous Nega Pass and follow a rocky and sinuous track to Tidjikja.
After the only rest day in Atar on 9 January, crews head south through Mauritania and into Mali (and onto another marathon stage between Kiffa and Bamako), before heading west to Senegal and the famous special stage around Lac Rose. The 27th running of the Dakar concludes with a return to tradition, with the run down the beach.
Q&A with Colin McRae
What do you think is a realistic aim for you in the 2005 Dakar?CM: We are aiming for a podium result, but it's such a long endurance event that it is possible to win. You have to approach the Dakar with the right attitude and have a certain amount of experience on different types of terrain, but it's an event you can win on your first attempt if you have the right car and the right team. Last year we were very under prepared compared to where we are now and we had some reliability problems. Since January this year we've been testing and developing the new Pickup and hopefully we're now at a level where we can do the full event with a minimum amount of trouble. I don't think anyone does the Dakar and doesn't have a problem, so you've just got to limit the number of problems and manage them as best as you can. Personally I'll be setting off with a win in mind.
Is it difficult to pace yourself on such a long event and where reliability is key?CM: The pace varies all the time depending on road conditions. The Dakar is a bit like the Safari Rally in that you've got to find a basic pace. You're usually pushing on at between ninety to ninety five percent and be prepared to vary your speed quickly depending on the road conditions and what you can and cannot see. What I learned last year is that we must push quite hard in the beginning and make sure we get into Africa in a good position. To get into the desert in a top three position would be ideal, because last year we didn't and we had so many problems with dust. We spent an entire stage last year driving in a thick cloud of dust thrown up by cars ahead of us and it makes it very frustrating and very dangerous when you're trying to catch someone and pass them.
Was contesting your first Dakar Rally last year a bit of a surprise or pretty much what you'd expected?CM: It was more or less what I expected really - the trick with that type of event is to get used to the vastness of it and the length of the stages. Having said that, I remember thinking to myself at the start of the first long section last year that I knew what I was in for and that I could anticipate what was ahead. Things were going fairly well and I thought I must be half way through the five hundred kilometre stage - but when I looked at the trip meter we'd only done a hundred kilometres! It's dealing with things like that which you have to overcome and keep driving, even your brain tells you, 'hold on, you must have passed the finish line by now'. You've got to get into a sort of fairly laid back mode and not worry so much about time. You don't worry about losing a minute or two or having to stop to change a puncture; it's all about getting away from a World Rally Championship mentality, relaxing a bit and at the same time obviously driving as quickly as you can in the given conditions.
Is the Dakar physically difficult?CM: I didn't know what to expect so I did a lot of physical training last year and I've done the same this year again - probably more. I was really quite surprised how easy it was physically. Your arse gets numb after a while, but it wasn't too tiring. Sometimes we'd arrive late at night and have to do a bit of work ourselves, but even then it wasn't too bad. It's very tough for the team, especially the mechanics, because they're working on the cars all night, drive all day and then work on the cars all night again. For them it's really tough but for the crew it's not too bad at all.
Do you have to put your own tent up?CM: Considering we were in the middle of the Sahara we had quite reasonable dwellings, and I only actually slept in a tent for a quarter of the time. Tina and I kept having bets on different things and the loser had to put the tents up - she generally lost so she had to put my tent up most of the time!
Are you worried about the dangers of driving across the Sahara?CM: No, not really. I don't think about the dangers - it's just the challenge of doing it that excites me. Everybody said before I went that, 'oh it's dangerous, you shouldn't do it, you can have a big accident,' and yeah, you can if you approach it in the wrong way. For sure there's always a risk, but there's a bigger chance of having a more serious accident on a World Championship rally than there is on the Dakar because in the WRC you've got to push yourself 100 per cent all the time if you want to achieve a result. On the Dakar if you're not quite sure of a piece of terrain that's coming up you just back off, lose a few seconds - even 10 seconds, it's not the end of the world. If you did that in the WRC, forget it, you aren't going to win. So for me anyway you could argue that the Dakar is safer if you approach it with the right mentality. Having said that, I'll probably have a big accident now...
