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2023 Dakar Rally

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American Skyler Howes, riding the factory Husky, said today was the best day he ever had on a dirt bike. Looks like almost perfect wet sand, and the scenery is amazing. Sooooo jealous.

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Texas T said:
After 4 stages Mason is in 6th place, but that's only 10 minutes out of the lead.
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Klein had a fuel issue, most likely water in fuel. He had to take the tank off, and replace a fuel pump. He only lost 10 minutes and got going again. The more I listen to MK talk about his race craft and approach to the race (his riding does all the talking on that side) the more I think he can win this thing. Here is a MK pic for you Texas T.
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Howes now up to 2nd overall after a strong Stage Four result.. Not many talk about him as a potential winner but he has enough experience now and his actual riding has been really good. He had a crash today in Stage Four but got lucky and was able to keep going, just beat up some.
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Over in Saudi the riders are up and ready to take off on stage six in the next couple hours. Still not to the halfway point but American Skyler Howes is looking good in first. Looking at Sander's list he posted above, I would say the winner comes out of one of those seven. Daniel Sanders was sick today (yesterday in Saudi time) in stage 5 and fell way back. JBB had a major crash and knocked himself out, and then Toby Price crashed into him too. All the leaders that were riding together stopped to assist. The air bag system inside their riding gear must really work good. It has been tested out now by pretty much all the fastest riders as several of them have had big crashes and still continued.

Your Overall Leader:
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Thanks for the update.
 
Speaking of Skyler, this older came up in my feed today and covers some of his backstory for anyone interested. It really does seem like the Skyler is the limit if you apply yourself to seeing a dream fulfilled. I winced watching the parts where he was whipping the rally bike off of gravel hills in this Husky video.

 
Stage 7 tomorrow has been canceled due to weather and the general condition of the riders overall to this point. Stage 6 is finished. From the mouth of young Mason Klein himself, the last two stages, 5 and 6, have been really hard on him. He admits he does not have the speed of the other top riders in the dunes. Both of the last two stages were very long and almost 100% sand and sand dunes, some so large we would have to see them in person to realize the scope of what these riders face. MK has fallen a bit behind the last two days but still doing good overall.

So, a different bike winner in every single stage so far. Stage 6 winner was the rider from Argentina Luciano Benevides on the Factory Husky. However, there is a 2X winner right in prime position so we will talk a bit about Toby Price. TP is near and dear to me because his mentor was Kurt Caselli, who I have mentioned often is my favorite all time off road motorcycle racer. Here is TP during the Stage 6 leg:
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Here are the overall standings. Howes still running a really good race.
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You have the talent to race Dakar? If you are not a factory rider, you better be rich or really good at fundraising, lol.

 
veriest1 said:
Sounds like Klein knows what he needs to work on but he's still smoking fast to be less than 13 minutes off the leader.
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Of the six riders in front of Mason, the next closest one to his age is Skyler at 30 years old. Mason turns 22 next week. To have that kind of talent at that young age is commendable. I hope he gets a factory ride.

The other five riders range in age from 32 to 39.
 
Texas T said:
Of the six riders in front of Mason, the next closest one to his age is Skyler at 30 years old. Mason turns 22 next week. To have that kind of talent at that young age is commendable. I hope he gets a factory ride.

The other five riders range in age from 32 to 39.
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Exactly. I fully expect him to have a factory ride soon at this rate. I wouldn't be surprised if he was bleeding time because of not having the experience of "reading the dunes" that the older riders have. I'd be shocked if there was a big gap in bike handling skills as fast as he was on the other stages.
 
The new KTMs do not have the trellis frame they have used forever. MK is riding last year's bike with the old frame. And while he is not a factory rider, he has KTM's full support otherwise without question--parts, suspension, etc.
 
Ah, interesting. I knew he was running a yellow number but I wasn't sure what kind of support he had. I'd assumed it was a private team of some sort.
 
He is on a private team, BAS World KTM Racing. Factory KTM though is likely supporting behind the scene. The yellow number plate denotes that he is entered is RallyGP. Highest class.
 
Johnf3 said:
He is on a private team, BAS World KTM Racing. Factory KTM though is likely supporting behind the scene. The yellow number plate denotes that he is entered is RallyGP. Highest class.
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Thanks for this clarification. I've watched Dakar for over twenty years but never delved into the rule book to fully understand it. One of the truck navigators out of the Netherlands used to be on GlockTalk under the name of Charly (Gotlib) and we messaged back and forth years ago but that was the closest I've ever gotten to the race.

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At some point over the years he moved to Cars and crashed out five miles from the end last year. I don't see his name listed for this year but he hasn't posted on FB since December so possibly he's there as an observer this year.

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Johnf3 said:
He is on a private team, BAS World KTM Racing. Factory KTM though is likely supporting behind the scene. The yellow number plate denotes that he is entered is RallyGP. Highest class.
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I'm pretty sure the yellow number plate classifies him as an Elite rider not a moto GP competitor. Elite, as I recall, means at least one previous stage win or a class win. Most riders have a white number. White and yellow number plates all have some form of support crew.

And Original by Motul (aka Molle Moto) riders, no support, have the maroon number plates.

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Edited a bunch because my phone is being really funny after its update.
 
There has to be something better than the official highlight videos. They are horrible. I can barely stand to watch them because of the announcer and they are so short they barely show any riding or driving at all. It seems like it just gets worse every year. My son loves this stuff and he has just about lost all interest in it because it is so boring to watch now. We've actually been going back through my old Dakar videos from the mid 2000s and watching them. The coverage was sooo much better. In this day and age of GoPros and media everywhere, this is pathetic. Are there any independent media sources that have video or does the organization have it locked down tight?

I sure wish they would get back to their roots and get to Africa again... For variety of terrain, South America was actually pretty good. Not so wild about it all being in Saudi Arabia :shrug:
 
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