Bel-Ray SuperB Honda enjoyed a strong start to the first stage of the Dakar, which began in the early hours of yesterday morning, with riders Quinn Cody and Sam Sunderland finishing the special section in fourth and seventh positions aboard their specially modified CRF450X machines.
The 763km route for the first day started at Mar Del Plata in Argentina and finished in Santa Rosa De La Pampa. As part of the journey, the riders completed a 56km ‘special’ section with last year’s top ten finisher Cody completing the section just 30 seconds behind race leader, Francisco Lopez. Dakar debutant Sunderland finished the day in an impressive seventh place just 1:05 behind the top spot. Another notable performance was from Honda Racing Argentina rider Javier Pizzolito, who also enjoyed a strong outing, completing the day in third position aboard his CRF450X machine.
The Dakar route, on which riders will cover a range of tough terrain through Argentina, Chile and Peru over fifteen days, sees riders compete special sections throughout the thousands of miles as they navigate their way through various check points. Today’s route (Monday 2nd January) will see riders complete 487km, which includes a mammoth 295km special stage.
Henk Hellegers: Bel-Ray SuperB Honda Team Owner
“Today we had a very good performance from Quinn who finished in fourth place. We had some minor problems and if we hadn’t had that then we would have probably won the stage, so it was a really good day for him. We are in a good position for the second day being 30 seconds from the leader in fourth place. Sam did a good job as this is the first ever Dakar he has competed in. With this being his first ever Dakar stage it was a learning experience and there was a section he came through too fast so he ended up with a penalty dropping him from first position, but we have time to make this up over the next 14 days. Our third rider Juan Carlos was just taking it easy today not tasking any chances he’s a better on the rocks than in the sand anyway. We are looking forward to continuing with our progress tomorrow (Monday).”
