Grabham continues to shine in Dakar Rally
KTM Australia rider charges to sixth during Stage 2.
Source: KTM Australia.
Australian KTM ace Ben Grabham has logged his best Dakar result to date on the second day of the world’s biggest off-road event, finishing an impressive sixth in today’s trek from San Luis to San Rafael, Argentina.
Today’s competitive stage featured a super-fast opening before delivering riders to the dunes for the first time, and Brit Sam Sunderland won the day ahead of Francesco Lopez and Joan Barreda, who leads the event overall.
Bathurst resident Grabham finished a spectacular 15th in his rookie year in 2013, and now just two stages into the 2014 epic, his KTM Australia 450 Rally already sits ninth in overall.
“Day two was a 724k day with a 359k special,” Grabham reflected. “I had a very dusty ride apart from 40 kilometres of dune section in the middle. I made a few errors in the dunes just getting stuck but other than that I had a pretty clean day finishing sixth, which gives me an even better starting position tomorrow.
“The bike is going good and I’m getting more used to it the more kilometres we do. It’s really hot here again today, in the 40s, so it’s pretty tough going but my Shotz hydration is working well.
“Tomorrow is the first day of the Marathon stage, that is where we have no support crew for two days and only access to what we are carrying. We don’t even get to see the crew at night as they are camping in a location no one knows, so tomorrow it’ll be important to try and save the bike and tyres to last two days.”
Of the other Aussies, Shane Diener was 54th today and now sits 52nd overall, Allan Roberts was 58th for 61st overall, Troy O’Connor 65th for 59th overall, Mark Davidson 106th for 110th overall and Clayton Jacobsen 131st for 130th overall.
2014 Dakar Rally
Argentina-Bolivia-Chile
Stage 2 results:
1. Sam Sunderland 3h42m10
2. Francisco Lopez +39s
3. Joan Barreda +2m00
4. Ruben Faria +4m07
5. Alain Duclos +5m51
6. Ben Grabham +7m15
7. David Casteu +7m27
8. Paulo Goncalves +7m45
9. Marc Coma +8m23
10. Cyril Despres +8m43
Overall standings (after Stage 2):
1. Joan Barreda 6h09m41
2. Francisco Lopez +2m03
3. Sam Sunderland +2m33
4. Alain Duclos +5m47
5. Marc Coma +7m00
6. Ruben Faria +7m18
7. Paulo Goncalves +8m10
8. Cyril Despres +8m23
9. Ben Grabham +10m05
10. David Casteu +10m59
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