Dakar Rally 2012
Sponsored Post: Dakar 2012 – The Ultimate Race?
When it comes to challenges, there’s nothing bigger than the world’s biggest rally raid, the Dakar Rally. Running since 1978, the race originally followed a route from Paris to Dakar, but following terrorist attacks in 2008, it has since switched to South America, and this year runs from Mar Del Plata in Argentina to Lima in Peru.
Strangely there haven’t been many videogame versions of the rally, with Paris-Dakar by Activision in 2001 for Xbox, PS2 and PC, and Dakar 2 following up in 2003 for Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox. The main reason is probably the immense scale of the race and the challenge of including all the competing classes, which span motorcycles, quads, cars and trucks.
But if you’re a racing fan, you need to see what the Dark involves and there’s amazing coverage with videos and photos on the Red Bull Dakar 2012 site , in addition to sponsoring a number of competitors.
Their team in 2012 includes Toyota Hilux driver Giniel de Villiers, who became the first ever South African winner of the Dakar in 2009. He’s looking set for a podium position at the moment after a tough battle with the Hummer of American Robby Gordon, which means he can relax a little and admire the scenery!
‘The second part of the stage was super tricky and technical. We had to climb up a big canyon and the four-wheel drive of our Toyota Hilux was a definite help. As we came to the end of the stage, we were found ourselves amongst a million big rocks. On the rare occasion the pressure to avoid all the obstacles was off, we had a look around and I was blown away by my first views of Peru – it was like we were racing on the moon!’
You can read see more about the challenge of competing on four wheels on his Dakar 2012 Diary
But possibly even more insane than driving a truck at high speed through these stages is the idea of tackling it on a bike. And the battle for victory is between two Red Bull riders, the legendary Marc Coma and Cyril Despres. Coma has won the Dakar rally three times, as has Despres, and the pair are still separated by just a matter of seconds going into the final stage.
Both riders are amazingly calm when they pass on their experiences:
The day started with me getting a bath in a stream as I pushed the bike along the track. After that it was another hard day but, apart from a small crash I had at low speed, I’m pleased with how the stage went.
There was a modification to today’s roadbook and that meant one of the tracks wasn’t very visible. I rode 100 metres too far at one point but then I saw that Marc was turning around and coming back. Marc started two minutes ahead of me today so it was good to catch up with him.
It may sound relatively normal, but check out the videos on the Red Bull Dakar site to see exactly what it’s really like!
Red Bull Paris Dakar Video
Gran Turismo 5′s Nurburgring Nissan goes up for sale
You could own the Shulze Motorsport Nissan GT-R N24 #71 which was co-driven by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi at the 2011 Nurburgring 24 hour race, and was then added to GT5 in the Spec 2.0 release back in October 2011. That’s assuming you have 120,000 Euros or $155,000 to spend, plus sales tax.
The car recorded a class victory at the 2011 event, driven by the team of Kazunori Yamauchi, Tobias Shchulze, Michael Schulze and Yasuyoshi Yamamoto. They completed 134 laps in 24 hours, 2 minutes and 26.9 seconds, having recorded a fastest lap of 9:17.707.
MotoGP stars Rossi and Lorenzo take battle to Gran Turismo 5
The 2011 MotoGP season may have ended, but two top motorcycle racers are continuing their racing rivalry via Gran Turismo 5 during the break.
Valentino Rossi endured a tough first season riding for Ducati, failing to record a single victory for the first time in his 15-year career, so was possibly trying to boost his morale when he issued a Gran Turismo 5 challenge via Twitter. “I’m issuing a challenge: Gran Turismo 5. Nurburgrïng. Driving the Zonda R. A lap time of 6.14.211. Can anyone beat that?”, and clarifying the rules with “Simulation mode, not driver aids except traction control at level 5. With the steering wheel.”
Given than he has almost 250,000 followers he was probably expecting a challenge, but possibly not from Yamaha MotoGP star Jorge Lorenzo, whose title challenge had ended after he was forced to miss the Phillip Island round of the championship due to injury. After asking “That was a warm-up lap, right”, Lorenzo followed it with photographic evidence of a 5:58.2 lap, which he has since dropped to 5:48.7. Rossi took the response in good humour, responding “5:58.2 Jorge? Nice lap. I have to practice!”
Valentino Rossi has famously raced in various rallies, including the Rally GB, and tested Formula 1 cars with times comparable to many of the permanent F1 drivers at the time. But Capcom are probably wondering why they chose to battle via Gran Turismo 5 rather than MotoGP 10/11!
Incidentally, if you wanted to take up the challenge and don’t have a wheel, don’t forget we reviewed the awesome Thrustmaster T500 RS, which is the officially licensed GT5 wheel and pedal set. And with Christmas almost here, it’s not too late to drop a few hints to anyone who might buy it for you! Or to potentially pick up a bargain on ebay at the moment.
ORD hits the Wales Rally GB
Despite playing almost every rally game ever released over the years, I have to confess that I’ve never actually been to watch rallying live – my experience of rally cars was the circuit-based Rallycross alternative when the legendary Group B cars needed an outlet after being banned from the world stage.
However, that changed last weekend, thanks to Black Bean and Milestone, the people behind WRC 2. They kindly invited me along to Wales to watch Day 2 of the Wales Rally GB and obviously it was an invitation I couldn’t turn down. Sadly I’d hoped to meet up with the winner of our WRC 2 competition who had won tickets but unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute. Add in some technical and transportation issues during the weekend, and you’ll have to forgive the slightly ropey nature of the photographs I grabbed, but that didn’t change the experience of seeing the world’s best rally drivers hurtling through the woods and along the dirt tracks.
That was after the very strange site of rally cars travelling to stages on public roads, which would later spell disaster for world champion Sebastien Loeb when some Spanish spectators collided with him on single track road. I did mention to Black Bean that travelling between stages would be an interesting extra challenge for any future games!
We arrived at the Hafren stage without incident, and made it in time to see the national drivers competing in a range of modern and classic cars – the sight of vintage Escorts and other unusual cars was an unexpected bonus.
It was definitely a good stage to have picked as the weather stayed dry, so although clambering along the side of the track was a bit muddy, it wasn’t cold, and the enthusiasm of rally fans made for an upbeat mood. And despite the strange experience of seeing cars flash by and disapear for the rest of the day, from the higher vantage points you could see glimpses of them winding through the valley in the distance.
What amazed me most, having ridden on similar terrain in Wales on two wheels was that hardly any of the drivers at any level seemed to lift off for what seemed like quite big corners. Luckily if you wanted a bit more of a look at the cars, a handy hairpin provided the chance to admire a variety of techniques, including an unusual approach by Ken Block which involved having his boot fly open.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also eventually made it along to the service area at the end of the day, where we were able to witness teams working long into the night to fix and prepare cars for the next day.
This particularly lovely 1971 Alpine Renault A110, the former works car of Jean-Pierre Nicholas and Jean de Alexandris was also on display.
And obviously after witnessing the heroics of the drivers and co-drivers throughout the day, many fans were grabbing the chance to try their hand at driving on the WRC 2 setups available at the service area. Certainly the response was pretty favourable amongst the most hardcore of racing fans, and competition to record the fastest time was hotting up.
By the time we finally crashed into bed at the end of the day, it was safe to say that my conversion to rally fan was pretty much complete. It’s a very different experience to circuit-based racing, and it’s an interesting atmosphere as fans appear to be competing to find the best and most inaccessible vantage point from which to watch almost as much as the drivers are competing for the fastest time. Certainly if you’ve wondered what kind of nutters stand inches away from the cars trying to get the best photographs, you’ll be able to understand why when you’ve caught up in the event – luckily at Wales there were a lot of very friendly and helpful marshals and safety volunteers ensuring that we got as close as was relatively safe without causing any problems.
I did suggest that given the success of the GT Academy and iRacing champ Gregor Huttu when he tried a real car, maybe I should be a test subject to see if playing rally games helps you in actually driving a rally car. Not sure I convinced anyone enough yet, but I’m going to keep working on it – anyone fancy being my co-driver?
If not, I guess it’s back to WRC2 for the time being… In the meantime, thanks to Black Bean, Milestone, and their PR agency for a great trip.
Win a copy of WRC 2, merchandise and tickets to Wales Rally GB
WRC 2, the officially-licensed game of the World Rally Championship has just been released, and we’ve got one heck of a competition for you to celebrate the launch of the game.
The prize is so awesome we wish we could win it – one lucky winner gets 4 day passes to the Wales Rally GB for you and your family or friends, plus official WRC merchandise including a hoodie, t-shirt and cap, and a copy of WRC 2 in your choice of format – it’s available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, so we should have you covered.
The Wales Rally GB takes place from November 10-13, first running in 1932, and previous winners include Sebastien Loeb, Petter Solberg, Richard Burns and Colin McRae. And it also features in the game, so you’ll be able to put what you watch into practice!
Win tickets to see the world's biggest and best rally stars in Wales Rally GB
How to enter the WRC 2 competition:
We know you’re all passionate about online racing games, and you’re also pretty passionate about cars and motorbikes in the real world, so here’s how to enter. All you need to do is identify (or guess) the type of car you can hear revving up in the following audio clip:
ORDEngineNoiseCompetition by badgergravling
Think you know what it is? Have another listen, and then email dan.thornton@hotmodmedia.com with your name, age, postal address and contact number, plus the type of car. Include ‘WRC 2 Competition’ in the subject line of your email to make sure we see your entry. If you get really stuck, we may drop some hints in the comments on this article, on Twitter ( @ORDNews ) or on our Facebook page, so keep your eyes peeled.
About WRC 2:
WRC 2 features all the teams, circuits and manufacturers of the 2011 season, with a total of 13 official tracks and 5 Super Special Stages. Game modes include 4 offline options, including the ‘Road to WRC’ career mode, and a WRC Driving School. And there are also a number of online modes which let you race in real time against your friends or rivals, with other players appearing as ghost cars to let you see how you’re doing. And there are other 30 different cars available, including classic legends from the rallying scene as well as all the current top teams and cars.
WRC 2 Competitions Terms and Conditions:
- The competition closes at midnight GMT on November 1st, 2011.
- You should be over 18, and resident in the UK to enter.
- Employees, Contributors and Families of Hot Mod Media and OnlineRaceDriver.com can’t enter.
- Winners will be notified via telephone/email within one week of the closing date.
- No alternative prizes or cash will be offered.
- Personal details will be kept to allow us to provide your prize, and may be shared with third parties necessary to provide prizes on our behalf.
- We reserve the right to amend these rules at any time. Entry in the competition implies acceptance of these rules.
GT5 creator finishes first-in-class at Nurburgring 24 Hours
Gran Turismo 5 creator Kazunori Yamauchi raced at the real 2011 Nurburgring 24 Hours this weekend, and after a dramatic series of events, finished first-in-class with team-mates Tobias and Michael Schulze, and Yasuyoshi Yamamoto.
Despite mechanical problems which cost them some time, the team were able to put in consistent lap times to bring themselves back to 36th place overall as Kazunori Yamauchi himself drove across the finishing line. They achieved 134 laps in 24 hours, 2 minutes and 26.9 seconds, with a fastest lap of 9:17:707.
Meanwhile it wasn’t quite such a happy event for the two Need for Speed sponsored teams. The number 4 car was forced to retire with a mechanical failure, the number 76 car was forced out following a collision with an SLS, and the number 77 car was in a dramatic cash which sent the car flying over the railings. That left all the Need for Speed Team Schubert cars out of the race, and two of the BMW Z4 GT3 cars destroyed.
The overall win was taken by the Porsche 911 GT3 of Team Manthey, with drivers Lieb,Luhr,Bern and Duma taking the lead on Saturday evening and eventually completing 156 laps and almost 4000 kilometres. The only hiccup for the team throughout the race was a faulty petrol pump which cost them a minute when they had to push the car to the next working fuel pump – but aside from that, they had a pretty faultless race after taking the lead late on Saturday evening.
GT Academy wins big award
The GT Academy competition has not only led to Lucas Ordonez finishing in second place at the LMP2 class at the 2011 Le Mans 24 hours with Signatech Nissan – now it’s gone and won a prestigious award in marketing and advertising.
It picked up a Cannes Golden Lion at the equivalent of the Oscars for ad types, for ‘Best Use of Branded Content’. The reasons included being covered by over 160 broadcasters around the world, masses of print and digital coverage, 1.3 million downloads of the GT5 demo required to enter, and another previous winner, Jordan Tresson, has gone on to race in the European GT4 Cup in a Nissan 370Z.
It’s also good timing as Jann Mardenborough has just been announced as the winner of the 2011 GT Academy. The Welsh 19-year-old will be training to take part in the Dubai 24 Hour race in January in a Nissan 370Z.
If you’re thinking about training for the next one, you can get a PS3 with GT5 for £241 from Amazon, GT5 on it’s own for £45 (Or Prologue for £7.50), and here’s a handy guide to the best cars to buy in Gran Turismo 5.
The importance of simulators in Formula 1
In case you wondered whether simulators really benefit Formula 1 drivers, then take note of new Scottish driver Paul Di Resta, who started driving for Force India this season, and in his first three races, finished in the points twice.
For the past few seasons he’s competed in the DTM championship in a works Mercedes saloon, and yet has produced three great performances in his first three F1 races, finishing just outside of the points at the last race in China. And if that isn’t enough, he hasn’t even been able to take full advantage of all the practice sessions available during a race weekend, as Force India have also been fielding their test driver Nico Hulkenberg during race weekends. So how is he making up for his lack of track time?
Paul Di Resta. Image courtesy crosathorian (CC Licence)
Speaking to the BBC’s Martin Brundle and David Coulthard on the grid on Sunday, Di Resta referred to the time he’s spent on the simulator, and went as far as saying they’d found settings on the simulator which had worked to put him into Q3 and 8th on the grid.
And considering the range of adjustments that are available on an F1 car, it’s probably the most impressive endorsement of simulators yet.
