BFGoodrich Tires | 2004 Paris-Dakar Rally Details

2004 Paris Dakar Stage Reports

Thursday, Jan. 1, Stage 1:

The 2004 Dakar Rally got underway on New Year's Day with BFGoodrich partners dominating, taking nine of the top ten positions. The impressive show also established the starting order for the first special, ensuring BFGoodrich partners lead the way.

Friday, Jan. 2, Stage 2:

The first proper stage of the '04 Dakar Rally took place on Friday in the south of France and, as expected, BFGoodrich partners dominated the leaderboard. At only 25km, this stage is a bite-size taster of what's to come but it was not short of drama. The first 10km featured thick mud that worsened as more competitors traversed it and only 47 cars succeeded in completing the course after a buggy driven by Frenchman Claude Arnoux got stuck in a huge rut. Stage winner Jose-Maria Servia (Schlesser-Ford-BFGoodrich) completed the course only three seconds ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich) in 25min00sec.

Saturday, Jan. 3, Stage 3:

South African BFGoodrich driver Giniel de Villiers set his first fastest Dakar stage time on Saturday in his Nissan Pick-up as competitors experienced their first taste of sand on the final European stage before heading to African soil for stage four. Stéphane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich) finished third place on the Castellón beach stage and his time was good enough to overhaul overnight leader Jose-Maria Servia (Schlesser-Ford-BFGoodrich) to take the lead by five seconds.

Sunday, Jan. 4, Stage 4:

Ari Vatanen made history during Stage 4 as the Nissan-BFGoodrich driver took his 50th Dakar stage win on the fourth leg of the event. Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich driver Stéphane Peterhansel, who has won the event six times in the motorbike category, finished the 75km stage 10 seconds adrift of the Finnish stage winner, but comfortably holds onto his lead 1 minute 7 seconds ahead of team-mate Miki Biasion. The BFGoodrich-clad Chevrolet Protruck of Mark Miller is also quickly making up time on terrain more familiar to the Baja 1000 champ, with the American bettering his 23rd place to 18th overall after the first stage on African soil.

Monday, Jan. 5, Stage 5:

Combined with an enormous amount of experience, recent testing in Morocco paid off as Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel drove his BFGoodrich-clad Mitsubishi Pajero to a spectacular stage win, finishing a huge 4min35secs ahead of his nearest rival and team-mate Hiroshi Masuoka. Nissan-BFGoodrich driver Giniel de Villiers finished a further eight minutes behind Masuoka, but the South African now leads the Nissan crews. BMW-BFGoodrich drivers Gregoire de Mevius and Luc Alphand lie in third and fourth ahead of de Villiers.

Tuesday, Jan. 6, Stage 6:

Hiroshi Masuoka (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich), Japanese defending Dakar champion, clocked a personal 22nd stage win on the sixth special of the event and adopts the lead for the first time. Team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel who has led for the last two days now lies second overall after he dropped seven minutes to change a damaged tyre. The Protrucks of Mark Miller and Eric Vigouroux (Chevrolet-BFGoodrich) both stepped up the pace during Stage 6, with Miller back in contention in 12th. "We still have a computer problem so I couldn't drive full throttle but today we hammered through the rocks which is my favourite thing to do! That is usually when people ease off a bit but I have so much confidence in my BFGoodrich tires that I know I can go as fast as I like!" Finally, on the eve of his 46th birthday, two-time World Rally Champion Miki Biasion (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich) retired from the Dakar Rally on only his second outing in the four-wheel drive Pajero, after he rolled while lying seventh in the overall standings.

Wednesday, Jan. 7, Stage 7:

At 701km, stage seven is the longest and most challenging yet. It is the second longest of the 2004 Dakar and few competitors escaped difficulties. Involving 579km of sand and dunes, many crews dropped a considerable amount of time but the top three positions remain unchanged and Hiroshi Masuoka holds onto the lead in his BFGoodrich-equipped Mitsubishi Pajero. Masuoka escaped any delays during Stage 7; he had no punctures and no technical problems and as a result set a time five minutes faster than his closest rival, team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel.

Thursday, Jan. 8, Stage 8:

Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich driver Stéphane Peterhansel took his second stage win of the rally finishing a comfortable 28 minutes ahead of his nearest rival and taking the overall lead in the process, ahead of Gregoire de Mevius (BMW-BFGoodrich). Stage 8 is the first of the event's two marathon stages; with 93 competitors starting this morning it will be interesting to see how many survivors see the finish line considering its reported difficulty. Gregoire de Mevius had an excellent run in his BFGoodrich-equipped BMW, setting third fastest time on the stage. "This stage was worse than yesterday," said de Mevius. "The

navigation was difficult and it was so slow — we were in first gear over a lot of the rocks. The tires (BFGoodrich Baja T/A Rock tires) have to be so tough to get over those tracks and we had no problems...it was like driving on the moon today and it was almost a case of just surviving but it was our tires that kept us going. I love those tires! If you imagine how hard it was on us inside the car, you can imagine how strong the tires have to be to survive and our BFGoodrich tires did!"

Friday, Jan. 9, Stage 9:

The ninth stage is the longest and considered the most difficult of the 2004 Dakar but it was a successful day all round for BFGoodrich Tires. Lead Mitsubishi drivers Hiroshi Masuoka and Stéphane Peterhansel fought a close battle in their BFGoodrich-equipped Pajeros, with Masuoka taking the stage victory by 18 minutes, but Peterhansel still has a one hour advantage overall.

Saturday, Jan. 10 and Sunday, Jan. 11:

Just before crews arrived on Friday evening, a decision was made by the event's organizers to cancel Stages 10 and 11, Nema-Mopti (345km) and Mopti-Bobo-Dioulasso (448km), which will now be driven as liaison sections. The safety of competitors being of utmost importance and considering the difficulty of the event so far, Mali and French authorities cancelled the stages for security reasons.

Monday, Jan. 12:

Rest Day

Tuesday, Jan. 13, Stage 12:

Luc Alphand clocked his second ever Dakar stage win on Tuesday's tricky stage between Bobo-Dioulasso and Bamako in his BFGoodrich-equipped BMW X5. Jean-Louis Schlesser (Schlesser-Ford-BFGoodrich) was second fastest through the special but Stéphane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich), who was third fastest, still holds the lead 1h04m in the overall standings ahead of team-mate Hiroshi Masuoka. Commenting on his second-placed finish on the stage, Schlesser said: "That was enjoyable and I managed not to make any mistakes. I was behind Peterhansel and Masuoka but I couldn't do any better because of the dust. The next few days could decide the race as they are hard but anything can happen on this rally so we'll see. I hope to finish on the podium or better if things go my way. I know my car and tires are good enough to make that happen."

Wednesday, Jan. 14, Stage 13:

Making his debut on this prestigious off-road event, Nissan-BFGoodrich driver Colin McRae kept his promise by recording his first victory on a Dakar stage, and is the first Brit to win a Dakar stage in 14 years. On returning to the bivouac after his four-day 'adventure' in the desert, the former World Rally Champion said that while a stage win would be difficult running so far down the field, it was not impossible and the Scot flew through the 478km special. Team-mates Giniel de Villiers and Ari Vatanen were close behind the Dakar rookie.

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004, Stage 14:

French former downhill skiing champion Luc Alphand took another stage victory on Stage 14's fast and tough special through the Mauritanian sand dunes in BFGoodrich-equipped BMW X5. Close behind him was Britain's Colin McRae (Nissan-BFGoodrich) in second ahead of overall rally leader Stéphane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich). Both Alphand and McRae opted for the wider BFGoodrich Baja T/A Rock tire, knowing it would give them a more comfortable and competitive drive and it paid off, giving Alphand an 18 minute advantage over third-placed Peterhansel. Only four days before the end of the rally and after working so hard to stay in the event, four-time Dakar winner Ari Vatanen retired only 10 kilometres into the second marathon stage after crashing into a tree and damaging the engine of their BFGoodrich-equipped Nissan Pick-up. "Obviously I'm disappointed after all the effort everyone in the team put in to keep us going a few days ago but sometimes life throws these challenges at you," said Vatanen.

Friday, Jan. 16, Stage 15:

Hiroshi Masuoka stepped up the pace on the fifteenth stage and the last challenging sand stage of the Dakar Rally to take victory nine minutes ahead of team-mate and rally leader Stéphane Peterhansel and 17 minutes faster than Giniel de Villiers (Nissan-BFGoodrich) in third. Speaking from service Masuoka said: "I really enjoyed that stage. It was very difficult, there was lots of tough camel grass but it was good." Despite his comfortable lead, Peterhansel still has in mind what happened last year when a mechanical woe handed victory to his team-mate Masuoka. He said: "Every step is a step to victory but a mechanical problem can happen at any moment. Every kilometer has its own surprises so we can't relax until the very end."

Saturday, Jan. 17, Stage 16:

Volkswagen-BFGoodrich driver Jutta Kleinschmidt clocked her first stage win in the last two years Saturday, 59 seconds ahead of Luc Alphand (BMW-BFGoodrich) with defending Dakar champion Hiroshi Masuoka (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich) 1m24s adrift in third. Mitsubishi driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah recorded his best finish of the event, clocking fourth fastest on the stage in his BFGoodrich-clad Pajero. A perfect drive has pulled the reigning Middle East rally champion into the top ten for the final day. Nissan's lead driver Giniel de Villiers clocked sixth fastest time and the South African now lies seventh overall. "It was very rough and twisty on Stage 16 and you had to be careful or you could have been caught out," said de Villiers. "Jutta (Kleinschmidt) flew past us — she was going at a pace. We went past Peterhansel and he looked very nervous but he could afford to take it a little easier." Other BFGoodrich partners who have survived Dakar's challenges so far include Thierry De Lavergne (Nissan-BFGoodrich) who lies just outside the top ten in 12th, Lukasz Komornicki (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich) in 14th, Thai rally champion Siriwattanakum Pornsawan (Mitsubishi-BFGoodrich) in 15th, Josep-Maria Servia (Schlesser-Ford-BFGoodrich) in 19th, Eric Vigouroux (Chevrolet-BFGoodrich) in 27th and Lu Ning Jun (Nissan-BFGoodrich) in 50th.

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