Team Toyo's Ramses Perez Takes us Through Dakar's Scrutineering in Buenos Aires

Scrutineering is a process that all race, assistance and media vehicles have to go through. Officials make sure that all technical and safety regulations are met. All persons that are riding in these vehicles need to go through an “administrative” scrutineering. The ASO checks all your paper work, medical records and one also receives a tracking module and a rally style GPS called the “Tripy”. Assistance and media vehicles have to follow strict speed limits and these devices help the ASO to look over teams that need to be penalized. All the vehicles went through smoothly, we only had one small snag. The second Hummer’s intake had to be changed to a smaller diameter. Vigouroux is a seeded driver and to keep the playing field leveled, the ASO imposes this rule. All decals were placed and we were ready to go. It seems like everywhere we go people are very curious. They just yell out “monsters-monsters” and proceed to ask for pictures and autographs. So far the Argentines have been very warm and welcoming.

The Dakar Rally officially starts tomorrow here in Buenos Aires and finishes in Santa Rosa. The stage consists of a Liaison of 196km, a special that runs for 371km and a second liaison after the race of 166km. The first stage will provide the opportunity to discover the length of these vast plains. Dakar competitors have never faced such a long special. With over 400km of rolling routes, perhaps the fastest on the program, this will constitute a real warm-up. It will be the occasion for everyone to affront a long day that will get rid of all problems in adapting to jet lag.