In past years, I’ve been all over covering Dakar. This year though, I just haven’t been able to wrap my head around it. That is a shame, because Conor Malone and Tom Frank are attempting to become the first Canadian team to finish the Dakar on 4 wheels.
As of this writing, the Team Chinook Chevy is still on the road, having passed today’s waypoint 6 in 110th position out of 135 cars. This is despite an off yesterday that required some all night welding and a 40 minute delay caused by a misplaced nomex balaclava!
One of the problems of covering an event that is so far away and so remote is that news and images come ever so slowly. On the images side of things, the auto racing photographer community is a small place and most shooters are welcome to help out a their peers. A bit of digging and I got in contact with Argentinian photographer Jose Villamil, who has been able to cover a few stages. These shots of Malone & Frank were taken during a muddy spectator stage yesterday.
Google translate has made a complete mess of Jose’s note, but it sounds like photographers are covering long distances and are having a tough time getting any internet service to upload photos. One comment he made did make sense:
We are preparing to cross into Chile and then back through the desert of San Juan, and the true spirit of the Dakar!
Support Team Chinook at their website. You can also check out Jose’s work at his main website. If you read Spanish, he is blogging about Dakar when he can.
Leave a Reply