31ST DAKAR RALLY (January 3rd-January 18th, 2009)MITSUBISHI’S JOAN ‘NANI’ ROMA AND LUCAS CRUZ SENRA FINISHES 10th OVERALL AND WINS A SPECIAL STAGE IN NEW ‘RACING LANCER’

The stage success occurred on the 12th special between La Rioja and Córdoba,

but they lost a potential sixth position in the overall standings when they incurred

additional time penalties before the finish, which dropped them down the leader board.

The event got off to a disappointing start with the loss of Hiroshi Masuoka (Japan) and Pascal Maimon (France)

on the opening special stage between Buenos Aires and Santa Rosa de la Pampa.

An engine pulley bolt failure reduced Mitsubishi’s challenge to three cars.

The cars showed potential from the outset, but an illness for co-driver Gilles Picard (France) forced Luc Alphand (France)

to retire the second car after a series of tricky sand dunes and swamp-like tracks on the run north through western Argentina.

Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret (both France) had been the fastest of the ‘Racing Lancer’ crews through

the early stages and Peterhansel was running well on the last stage before the event crossed the Andes into Chile.

But he was forced to stop with a small fire early in the stage and then he was sidelined with engine-related problems

later in the special. It meant that Mitsubishi were now totally dependent on Roma and Senra reaching the finish in Buenos Aires.

The pair had reached the rest day in Valparaiso in fourth position in the overall standings and maintained

their place with a similar stage finish. 

Navigation problems cost them precious time on the special between La Serena and Copiapó in Chile

and they reached the finish in seventh place, although overheating worries forced them to slow towards the end.

The daunting Copiapó loop stage through the Atacama desert was shortened  significantly on safety grounds,

but Roma managed to set the fifth fastest time to maintain fourth overall after the ventilator fan had been repaired

the previous evening at the bivouac.

Dakar Rally officials took the decision to cancel the 11th special stage between Copiapó and Fiambalá because of the

threat of fog and Roma reached Argentina in fourth overall. 

But the short stage between Fiambalá and La Rioja was much harder than many had anticipated and Roma stopped in

some sand dunes after 165km with an electrical wiring  problem.

Event officials actually halted the stage at the 175km point and Roma was able to reach La Rioja with assistance from the race truck.

The car was repaired overnight, but he continued with a two-hour penalty and the threat of further penalties to follow. 

The initial penalty had dropped the surviving ‘Racing Lancer’ to sixth position, but it failed to stop Roma surging through the

field from a start position of 21 to record a first stage win for Mitsubishi in this year’s Dakar Rally on the special between

La Rioja and Córdoba. 

The jubilation of Roma’s first stage win in the Dakar Rally for the Mitsubishi team and the first for the ‘Racing Lancer’

was dampened somewhat by the news that race officials had imposed a further 10 hours’ of time penalties on teams

that had missed the final section of the 12th stage and Roma duly slipped to 10th overall. 

He set the fourth quickest time on the final stage into Buenos Aires, but was unable to improve on 10th position overall,

when teams reached the ceremonial finish at La Rural in Buenos Aires on Sunday.

What they said?