HALF TIME REPORT

Team Dakar USA;
Officially declared out by OLN television. (mechanical)

Team Hog Wild;
Out (Mechanical)

Andy Grider
Out (injury)

BLAIS
8th overall on the Bikes 1hour 28 mins back.

Ronn Baily
Still in the War,
Sits in 91st 42 hours back.

Mitsubishi;
The team is in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 14th place. Team Orders are now in effect.
Spanish Roma and Andorra-based co-driver Henri Magne have settled into a vital support role for their team mates. "I am still in touch with Stéphane and Luc and well-placed to have a big say in the overall result," said Roma. "The pressure is not on me to win at this point, but I will be able to push next week and put the pressure on Giniel de Villiers and the Buggies. This will benefit our top two drivers."

Volkswagen;
3rd, 5th, 8th, 13th, 15th, 16th
Kris Nissen (Volkswagen Motorsport Director) "From the technical side our cars or functioning very well, but we suffered a series of setbacks on both the seventh and eighth stages. We were always one-hundred percent competitive and ran with the leading group just as long as nobody got bogged down or lost. We are no longer leading and have to claw back 26 minutes, which is possible but very difficult. In the dunes we are suffering from the fact that the engine gets hot too quickly. In deep sand you need the most cooling, but have very low speeds and consequently low dynamic air pressure in the cooling ducts because you often only drive at walking pace, and spinning wheels require a lot of power. It's the same for everybody. So that the engine does not overheat the power is reduced automatically by a few per cent when required. The system functions very well but it could still be improved. Perhaps we didn't test enough in deep sand. Now we look forward: We have an excellent team and the motivation is as high as ever. As before, we want to win this rally and will do everything possible to achieve this all the way to the flag in Lac Rose.”

# 309 – Mark Miller (USA) "I'm a little disappointed since our two rolls on the seventh stage have effectively robbed us of the chance of winning. I must now do my best to move up the overall leader board from day to day and to make no mistakes. I'm happy that I'm just as quick as the others. This should help me in the future. It's great to drive for such a professional team – the Volkswagen team works fantastically. I want to help Jutta and Giniel get on the podium – hopefully on the top step.”

Dirk (Marks Co-Driver) Sums up The Dakar Well... "It's shocking just how close good and evil sit at the ‘Dakar'. We were in a good position after the sixth stage, and thought that we had thrown everything away by rolling twice on the following day. We were lucky that in spite of our bad luck we are still in the top 10. However, it hurts to see just how close we were to a big prize. Plenty can happen on a ‘Dakar'. We have another tough day in front of us after the rest day. You can never be sure of a good position here. The rally only finishes at Lac Rose.”

What a War this race is.

This is WAY WORSE than 15 Daytona 500s