BFGoodrich Tires Captures Ninth Dakar Victory
January 26th, 2009Competing with new BFGoodrich® All-Terrain tires, Volkswagen Race Touareg driver Giniel De Villiers scored the first Dakar win of his career last weekend in Buenos Aires. The South African’s American teammate Mark Miller followed him across the line to hand the Volkswagen team a resounding one-two finish at the first Dakar to take place in South America. For cross-country rally racing’s benchmark tire brand – BFGoodrich Tires – this year’s result takes its total score to nine Dakar wins.
Giniel de Villiers, Dr. Horst Neumann, Dr. Viktor Klima, Kris Nissen, Dirk von Zitzewitz (Image: Volkswagen Motorsport)
After taking command two stages from home, Giniel de Villiers claimed the 14th and final stage of the 2009 Dakar to put the seal on his first win on the world’s most punishing cross-country rally event, which was hosted for the first time in Argentina and Chile. The South African completed the distance with a lead of 8 minutes 59 seconds over his USA-based teammate Mark Miller, and 1 hour 46 minutes 15 seconds clear of another American stalwart, Robby Gordon (Hummer), who joined the Volkswagen/BFGoodrich Tires pair on the podium.
The German squad, which fielded a line-up of four race Touaregs, all competing on BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires dominated the 2009 Dakar from nearly start to finish, winning 10 of the 13 stages. The team’s Carlos Sainz (VW/BFGoodrich Tires) topped the leader board for the week but his hopes were all but lost when he crashed out on SS12.
The All-Terrain tire – which BFGoodrich Tires developed for its partner teams VW, BMW and Mitsubishi – proved extremely competitive over the event’s exceptionally varied terrain, which ranged from smooth, fast-flowing tracks to towering dunes. While making its Dakar debut in the hands of BMW’s and Volkswagen’s factory crews, the new tire won every stage but one. The only exception was yesterday’s penultimate test which saw victory go to the BFGoodrich Tires Rock T/A tire.
The new All-Terrain tire was used competitively for the first time in 2008 and has been designed to deliver improved dune-crossing ability, plus enhanced resistance to wear. Volkswagen and BMW both nominated the newcomer for the Dakar, while front-running privateers Tollefsen from Norway and Poland’s Holowczyc were given the chance to use the All-Terrain tire during the second half of the event, which notably featured the awesome dunes of the Atacama Desert. Both drivers went on to finish the rally inside the top-five overall.
