Today, we will read the 163-page “2019 Dakar Race Rules” to explore the world’s greatest and most difficult cross-country rally from another perspective. Many people refuse to add one to the end, and we applaud it.
(The following is the exclusive content of OMGRACE, welcome to share, please do not reprint)
Since ASO, the organizer of Dakar, is an authentic French company, the authoritative language of all rules is French. In order to make it easier for drivers around the world to understand the relevant rules, ASO has launched the English and Spanish version of the rules. At present, there is no official Chinese version of the content. Here, we concentrate on our desks, extract some important and interesting rules, and share them with you. Due to the loss of certain context when translating from French to English, we often have some difficulties in understanding when reading the English version. But this does not hinder our blazing love heart. This is a New Years gift for everyone. Since it is a gift, if there are flaws in it, please accept it with a smile.
In this issue, let’s take a look at some basic elements of the Dakar race.
camp
The camp of the long-distance cross-country rally is an important link between the past and the future. All kinds of race meetings, information communication, and vehicle maintenance are mostly carried out in the big camp. The big camp moves ahead of time as the race line changes. As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses move, the food and grass go first. Daying is a security-tight area. All participating drivers will get bracelets of different colors according to the vehicle group, and other personnel entering and exiting must also present relevant certificates. Although Dakar is a feast of speed and passion, there are speed limits in the camp, including the driving section. The speed limit in Daying is 20km/h. Anyone who tries to drive in Daying will be severely punished. In the big camp, each team can dress up in its own designated area. Once it leaves this area, no matter in any area, the team is not allowed to use various signs, nor can it sell products or distribute souvenirs.
Players Club
The organizer will arrange relevant player meetings every day. The race director hosts the players’ meeting, and all information about safety, routes, road books, revised road books, etc. will be provided directly at the players’ meeting. For the first race meeting, the team must send at least one maintenance personnel and one crew member to sign and report on the spot. Offenders are fined 500 euros (you must know that the prize money for the Dakar champion is only 5,000 euros).
time card
This is the lifeblood of piloting. Crew members are not allowed to change any details on it without authorization (except for those with a special area reserved for the pilot to calculate the arrival time), and the relevant stamps must be affixed after passing the check-in point. If you miss the seal, you may be eliminated directly. If the card is lost, or the card is not picked up at the starting point, a 5-minute time penalty will be imposed on the total score as a penalty.
Time control point (sending and dispatching point)
According to different stages, TC points will have their own independent numbers. The train crews must arrive on time to report according to their respective stipulated times every day. Except for a few special pick-up points, most TC points will impose penalties for early arrival and late arrival. For the first violation, a 10-minute time penalty will be imposed; for the second violation, an hour penalty will be imposed; for the third violation, players will be eliminated directly.
Punch point
The only way in the middle of the track, there is a punching and stamping area. When entering this area, there will be a fixed speed limit, and the referee will stamp the time card given by the pilot. In order to allow passionate drivers to better comply with the speed limit regulations (imagine that after more than 100 kilometers of cross-country racing, the adrenal glands of the drivers soar, it is difficult to control the sudden arrival of 30 or 50 kilometers speed limit), many up to There are independent speed limit control buttons on Karl’s top racing cars. When the warning sound of the speed limit zone sounds, Espier will directly turn on the speed limit button, and the driver only needs to keep the accelerator in a state of excitement, and the speed of the vehicle will be driven according to the accurate speed limit data. This will reduce many unnecessary conversations between the driver and the co-driver.
Pulse signal
All participating vehicles are equipped with GPS trackers. Note that the GPS here is only for tracking and does not have navigation functions. The car GPS will send out and record relevant pulse signals in different areas. In the speed limit zone of the track, GPS records a pulse signal every 150 meters; on the driving section, GPS records a pulse signal every 500 meters (a pulse signal is recorded every 150 meters in the village speed limit zone). This is an important reference data for judging whether the vehicle is speeding.
speeding penalty
The crew has two chances for speeding without penalty. If the vehicle group speeds in the three different speed limit zones, various penalties will be imposed according to the actual situation of the speeding, and the maximum can be directly removed. However, if there are two consecutive road sections in the same speed limit zone, the two speeding can only be counted as one time.
official route
All participating car groups must follow the instructions on the official road book, and each important point will be displayed in WPV, WPM, WPE, WPS, WPC, DZ, FZ, CP, CH, etc. These points will be specially analyzed later.
The 2019 Dakar has established a new competition rule: Parallel Challenge. The name is great, but the fact is that the track ahead is too difficult, so I give you a choice to take a detour. The roughly accurate understanding is as follows: non-ASO elite players can use two parallel routes (detour routes designed to avoid the most difficult stages) in the first week of the race. But such a detour comes at a price: the first time you use it, you will have a fixed time penalty of up to 50 hours, but you will not be eliminated, and you will still be ranked in the overall score list. If you use it for the second time, there will be no time penalty, but you will be kicked out of the overall score list and entered into the parallel challenge score list. Such a car group is not considered eliminated, and is still eligible to continue to complete the next competition. If penalties are incurred in subsequent stages, they will continue to accumulate until they pass the podium.
(list of elite drivers)
For safety reasons, as long as the track length is greater than 20 kilometers, the start interval between the motorcycle group and the car group should be at least 30 minutes. During the recent Dakar race, ASO occasionally arranged a stage with a mixed motorcycle and car group to increase the sensory stimulation. In the previous multi-country stages, there were often “connecting sections” so that vehicles could safely pass through the borders of various countries. But this year it will be held in Peru, such connecting road sections should not appear in the road book.
track
The official road book and supplementary road book will be given to the crew one night in advance. The official road book is in A5 size, designed to flip up and down pages (it is convenient to turn the front and back pages, and is used to better connect the two points at the end of this page and the beginning of the next page), five horizontal grid information per page, including distance, road type, key information, etc. The supplementary road book is the road book modification made by the organizing committee according to the actual situation after the 24-hour open-track car passed the relevant track in advance. The road survey work is generally completed several months before the race, and the actual situation on the track is likely to change due to weather or other man-made reasons. The 24-hour drive will go again. Therefore, the revised road book sent out every day is an important information that every pilot must take seriously. For safety reasons, the Dakar Organizing Committee will not choose to start at night. The longest distance of special stages will not exceed 800 kilometers. During the competition, the competition and safety officials of the organizing committee will operate 24 hours a day.
Let’s share these today. Please pay attention to the Dakar report in the next issue. At that time, we will explain some key terms in the road book, so that everyone can have a clearer understanding of how the car crew passed various difficulties and obstacles at high speed and boarded the car receiving platform.
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