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It's Monday morning and we've just bought petrol from a roadside shack about 100km south of San Luis. We had to as we're about to roll into the desert and there's no fuel station for the next 250km. I'm writing this from the back seat of a Mini Countryman that we've already done over 1000km in since yesterday morning. So far the Dakar has been eventful, so I thought I'd fill you in on what's happened so far.
Saturday was proper entertainment. After scrutineering, something that happens behind closed doors, all of the 431 competitors were presented to the thick melee of people that packed into the area around Rosario's Monumento de la Bandera. Each and every one rode or drove their machine up onto the podium and was interviewed. If they didn't speak Spanish, their words had to be translated. This took a while. About seven hours, in fact. The crowds never thinned, and even at 10pm there were still people up lamp posts and trees.
Robbie Gordon is the crowd favourite, especially when he hits the ramp at speed in his bright orange buggy and jumps clean through the podium. Carlos Sainz has the coolest looking buggy, Race2Recovery the best support truck. One of the cars has what appears to be a pair of bike wheels strapped to its back deck.
Yesterday was amazing. You know Dakar must be the biggest thing to have happened to Rosario in the last couple of decades when there are still cheering crowds lining the motorway 45km outside of town. It felt more like a Papal visit than a motor race. The race proper didn't start until a few hundred km of road section had been completed - all of it through hot, hazy, flat and agricultural land. Parallels with America's mid-west are not misplaced.
Written By:- Ollie Marriage
More of this article on the Top gear website
