Carlos Sainz leads the Dakar after Stage 4

Carlos Sainz Leads after Grueling Stage Race to Ouarzazate, Morocco

• Dakar USA’s Mark Miller Finishes 10th - Maintains 8th Overall Cars
• KTM’s Andy Grider ends the stage in 25th position – 26th Overall Motos
• Robby Gordon Overcomes Troubles to finish Stage 4 in 119th position.

1-3-2006

Ouarzazate , Morocco – Total: 639 km/383 miles:

Stage four in the 2006 Dakar Rally has been considered a classic Dakar Rally stage and race teams faced their first encounter with the daunting sand dunes of Africa. Beginning in El Rachidia and racing towards Ouarzazate, teams faced 383 miles of what the Dakar Rally is well-respected for – the harsh African desert terrain.

Driving a Volkswagen Touareg, Carlos Sainz ran stage four the fastest of all car competitors finishing the 383 miles course in 3 hours 52 minutes and 48 seconds building his overall lead to 4 minutes and 51 seconds. Sainz has a cumulative overall score of 9 hours 21 minutes and 48 seconds to lead the 2006 Dakar Rally.

The Spaniard logged his third victory in four stages on Tuesday to take the lead in the overall standings after having navigational problems in Stage 3. Sainz beat second-place Thierry Magnaldi of France by 2 minutes, while France's Luc Alphand was 3:10 back in third.

Sainz leads teammate Bruno Saby by 4:51 in the overall standings, with Jutta Kleinschmidt 18 seconds further back. Spain's Joan "Nani" Roma had taken the lead a day earlier, when Sainz suffered navigational problems, but Sainz recovered in this stage to lead all competitors.

Dirk Zitzewitz and Mark Miller 8th overall after Stage 4

Sainz American teammate, Mark Miller, drove his VW Touareg to a 10 th place finish in this stage placing him in 8 th position overall after the completion of four stages. Miller’s co-driver, Dirk Zitzewitz, was the co-driver for Robby Gordon in the 2005 Dakar Rally, and he’s reported the stage went well through Checkpoint 1 until they became disoriented and lost 4-5 minutes before getting back on track.

Miller commented, “It is fantastic to drive into Africa again in the first dunes. We made an error following the Mitsubishi team of Nani Roma which we thought we’d gain some valuable time and an advantage, but then we discovered we had made a mistake and cost us some time.”

Mark Miller and his racing partner, Ryan Arciero, are Baja Racing Champions that were victorious in back-to-back Baja 1000’s in 2003 and 2004.

Miller’s co-driver commented that he did see Robby Gordon/Darren Skilton during Stage 4 and they encountered a problem that slowed them tremendously.

Varied reports provided several different unofficial finishing times and placement for Robby Gordon and his Hummer team. Unofficially, it is reported that Gordon finished in 7 hours 44 minutes and 29 seconds, which was 3 hours 51 minutes and 41 seconds off the pace of stage winner – Spaniard Carlos Sainz. Finishing in 119 th place of the 123 stage finishers, Gordon obviously had to overcome difficulty in his charge for the finish line.

Gordon began the difficult stage in 8 th position hoping to claim his first stage victory in the African terrain that the Hummer H3 would perform so well in. However, his 119 th finishing position puts him in 69 th position overall with 11 stages to go. Simply, losing that amount of time in a close race, such as the Dakar Rally, is difficult to overcome and still win a championship.

Although, it is Robby “Flash” Gordon and anything is certainly possible.

KTM's Marc Coma took the overall lead by finishing the stage in second place behind compatriot and fellow KTM rider Isidre Esteve Pujol.

The Red Bull KTM team continued strong performances in Stage 4 led by Australian Andy Caldecott who crossed the line in 4 hours 30 minutes and 45 seconds in 6 th position to secure his overall spot in 6 th position as well.

American Chris Blais was the top USA rider in this stage finishing in 10 th place overall. The nearest American behind Blais was Jonah Street in 20 th and Andy Grider in 24 spot. Grider obviously encountered troubles in this stage as he was over an hour off the time of the first bike across the line. Other notable Americans were Charlie Ruseo in 66 th position, James Embro in 90 th place, and Mike Krynock in 100 th and Kevin Heath finishing in 113 th spot.

Stage 5 will feature fast speeds along the open desert along the “ Wadi Road,” as competitors tackle the 350km/210 mile special stage finishing in Tan Tan. Teams are camped out in the frigid cold temperatures of the African desert floor as they work on vehicles and prepare for Stage 5, which totals 819km/491.4 miles in length.

The total length of Stage 5 is massive as teams will liaison 187km/112 miles before starting the special liaison. Once there they will race the 350km/210 mile “ Wadi Road” and then once finished they’ll liaison a distance of 282km/169.2 miles before reaching their next camp location.

Only in the Dakar Rally.

Check these American team websites for the latest updates posted by team members.

9 Chris Blais – blaisracing.com
23 Andy Grider - griderracing.com
42 Jonah Street - rallypanam.com
98 Mike Krynock - rallypanam.com
99 Charlie Rauseo - rallypanam.com
180 Kevin Heath - KevinsMidLifeCrisis.com
242 Scott Whitney / Duane McDowell - HogWildRacing.com
309 Mark Miller - Mark Miller – USADakar.com
335 Robby Gordon / Darren Skilton - robbygordon.com
354 Ronn Bailey / Herve Cotel - vanguardracing.com