Scrutineering: The Longest Day! - the morning in Lisboa

The second day of technical scrutineering and administrative checks is starting at the Cultural Center in Belem and it will certainly be a busy one. Only about 10 vehicles that were not able to get to Lisbon on time yesterday delayed their round of checks by a day.

In the morning the highlight will be around 10:00 AM with the arrival on site of the Mitsubishi armada with title and record holder of the Dakar, Stéphane Peterhansel, Luc Alphand, Hiroshi Masuoka as well as Joan « Nani » Roma.

In the bikes category, the heavyweights of the race will show up in the afternoon: Cyril Despres, Marc Coma and David Casteu, amongst others. 

Scrutineering is also the time to check all the safety devices on board vehicles and to install the Iritrack box in the process. For the third year running, the system is available on board all vehicles enrolled in the rally.

Thanks to its real time data transmission via satellite the system is an information and safety tool. The organizers can locate competitors at all times and get information on speed or on the tilt of the bikes to send a rescue team in case of an accident.

Moreover, speeding is automatically detected. It’s impossible to escape this slightly special radar system.

Hard not to spot them in the maze of administrative checkpoints. Biker jackets, biker boots but sporting their kilts, Iain Shankie and John Whiteford are proud to wear the traditional outfit of their native Scotland; they are impressed by the size of the event.

"It’s huge. It’s the ultimate challenge. It’s agonizing", says Shankie time and time again. He will be one of the 5 members of a 100% Scottish team together with Whiteford, McKenzie, and brothers Neil and Ewan Buchan. The project was launched by a 60 year-old highlander called Robbie Allan who had tried his luck last year on the Dakar but had to quit just before the rest day.

"He is our inspiration. He brings us together, he encouraged us, insists Whiteford. No Scot has ever reached Dakar. With a little bit of luck we might have a way of writing a new page of history." To this end, however, they will have to trade their kilts for trousers that better match the tough desert lying ahead.

They are there - discrete and patient - during the long days of checks; the spouses, the girlfriends and sometimes even the children of the competitors hold an important place in the pre-rally landscape. "For us amateurs, for a full year, life revolves around preparation for the Dakar, the financial preparation mainly", explains Isabelle Lepan whose husband Frédéric will race his seventh Dakar on a bike this year.

Owner of a hair salon, Isabelle follows the wave of ’conferences and presentations’ of her husband who works in a waste management company. "Frédéric has been active in the world of motocross for 20 years now; this is an environment I know well and I like... if I didn’t we would not have been together for the last 20 years!", she says while her husband is keeping an eye on the bike.

At the same time, Dominique Raud and Valérie Lefebvre are waiting with their children in the administrative checks tent. Their husbands are in the same car. Dominique’s husband in participating for the seventh time and for Valérie’s husband it’s a first. None of the ladies seems to worry... much to the contrary: "The Dakar allows us to follow them and visit nice places!"

A former biker, Jun Mitsuhashi is now a well-known face of a Dakar he is racing for the eigth time this year. In 2007, the Japanese pilot won in the Production category which corresponds to vehicles only slightly modified compared to standard ones.

"My aim is - of course - to win again in my category. This season, I took part in the Dubai Rally where I was able to test the car in good conditions. It is really competitive: the model has been around for 10 years and with each Dakar slight improvements are added. It’s the last run for this one, next year we’ll move on to something else."

A twisted iron thread is put around the main parts of the car and closed by a so-called "lead seal" embossed with the number of the crew and vehicle. This is probably the most time-consuming operation for the mechanics involved in the scrutineering round. But it is the only way of making sure that once homologated the vehicles will not be fraudulently tampered with and altered during the race.

In the T1 series, it is the engine block, the chassis, the cylinder head and the inlet valve that are ringed. But it is in the T2 series that work is more fastidious. About 10 of these little seal rings are set on the front and rear axles, on the body and on the gearbox, in addition to the ones already installed in the T1 series.

This is an "almost full-proff" ringing system says Daniel Ribeiro, chief technical steward. The influence of these "leads" on the weight of the vehicle is negligeable as they are actually made of... aluminum.

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photos, reports, and results will be on automobilsport.com from Dakar 2008 under OFF ROAD