Press Release

Honda’s Quinn Cody moves into top 10 as Laia Sanz takes lead in women’s category‏

ocscottie
1/11/2011 7:01am

As
the Dakar rally moves into its second half, Quinn Cody of Team Honda
Europe is riding top ten times and has moved into 8th position overall.
Flying through the stages, the American competing aboard the Honda CRF
450 Dakar X is enjoying every moment of what is his first Dakar Rally.
Quinn is no stranger to the sharp end of Rally Raid competition. Riding
for the JCR Honda squad in the US, Quinn has won the Baja 500, the
Vegas 2 Reno and most recently took the victory in the Baja 1000 last
November. The 6,000 mile Dakar is however a very different challenge
but one that Quinn seems to be relishing.

Honda’s 10-time FIM
Trial World Champion, Laia Sanz has also taken the lead in the women’s
category, and sits in 42nd position overall, 9 places ahead of her
nearest rival Annie Seel. Riding for Team Arcarons, Laia has proved
that her trials skills are directly transferable to the discipline of
rally raid and also seems to have grasped the spirit of the Dakar
Rally. One day before the rest day, Laia Sanz courageously stopped to
help a fellow rider who had broken his collarbone in an accident. Laia
activated the emergency beacon and stayed with the injured rider until
the helicopter came for him. This cost her some 20 minutes, but the
stewards only took off 3 minutes when she reached the bivouac. The rest
day, at the halfway point of the rally, clearly benefitted Laia, as
since then she has pushed hard on the two following stages and
leap-frogged Seel to move ahead of her KTM rival by over 1 hour, 10mins.

Laia
Sanz’s team mate, Jordi Arcarons, is also having a successful rally,
currently sitting in 44th place, just a few places behind Laia. Team
Honda Europe riders Alexey Naumo, Mirjam Pol, Vadim Pritulyak and team
mates to Quinn Cody have all had an eventful time of things but up
until yesterday were all still in the rally. However Vadim Pritulyak
chose to withdraw at around midday.

Things are really hotting up
as the rally begins to enter its final stages. Two further tough sand
stages are to follow so really anything could happen in the coming days.

Quinn Cody, Team Honda Europe
“Gnarly
stage today508k special 776k total pretty fun got completely lost in
the desert thought I was going to run out of gas it was great!!” 

Laia Sanz, Team Arcarons
“Naturally,
the first thing you do in when there has been an accident is come to
the aid of the injured party. They come before the race itself and the
time you lose. Today In the navigation zone I did very well and made no
mistakes, so I’m very happy, because it wasn’t an easy day. I also felt
very comfortable on the sand. All in all, it’s been a perfect day.”

January 10, Antofagasta Stage 8
Road section, 268 km - Special, 508 km

Results of Stage 8

10th position for Quinn Cody 
Total time 06:48:29 Variation 00:43:27
42nd position for Laia Sanz 
Total time 07:41:14 Variation 01:36:12
43rd position for Jordin Aracons
Total time7:43:13 Variation 01:38:11
81st position for Alexey Naumov 
Total time 010:11:21 Variation 04:06:19
71st position for Mirjam Pol 
Total time 09:09:57 Variation 03:04:55
96th position for Vadim Pritulyak 
Total time 11:52:43 Variation 05:47:41

Overall 

8th position for Quinn Cody 
Total time 34:50:28 Variation 02:31:36
41st position for Laia Sanz
Total time 41:46:11 Variation 09:27:19
44th position for Jordi Aracons
Total time 41:56:23 Variation 09:37:31
57th position for Alexey Naumov 
Total time 44:26:29 Variation 12:07:37
733rd position for Mirjam Pol 
Total time 49:41:16 Variation 17:22:24
92th position for Vadim Pritulyak 
Total time 00:00:00 Variation 00:00:00
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