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Competing on new BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires, Volkswagen Touareg driver Giniel De Villiers has scored the first Dakar win of his career. The South African’s American teammate, Mark Miller, followed him across the finish line to hand the VW team a resounding one-two finish at the first Dakar to take place in South America.
Goodrich has now achieved nine Dakar wins with its tires.
After taking command two stages from home, 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. He completed the distance with a lead of 8 minutes and 59 seconds over Miller, and 1 hour, 46 minutes and 15 seconds clear of another American stalwart, Robby Gordon, who was driving a Hummer.
“It performed outstandingly in the Atacama Desert and over the sandy northernmost Argentine stages, especially SS12, which will go down as one of the toughest I have ever come across in my entire career,” says de Villiers. “Some of the dunes were just gigantic. Thanks to the BFGoodrich All-Terrain tire, we succeeded in climbing them without being stuck and, in most cases, without having to stop to reduce our tire pressures,” he adds.
“Even on the longest stages, we did not have a single problem with wear and we picked up very few punctures during the event, despite the huge rocks we were occasionally forced to clamber over,” de Villiers continues. “The team’s decision to nominate a slightly ‘re-cut’ version of the All-Terrain tire, with a small change to the tread pattern to improve the car’s handling on those stages which had a loose top-coating of gravel, turned out to be the ideal choice.”
“It’s been a fantastic rally; a real Dakar, and even tougher than Africa,” says Miller. “The terrain was incredibly varied but our All-Terrain tires took everything in their stride. I really only had one puncture, and that was after swiping a rock hard. One puncture after more than 5,000 km of stages is a truly exceptional achievement.”
The German squad, which fielded a lineup of four race-prepared Touaregs, all competing on the Goodrich All-Terrain tires, dominated the 2009 Dakar from nearly start to finish, winning 10 of the 13 stages. The team’s Carlos Sainztopped the leader board for the week, but his hopes were all but lost when he crashed-out on SS12.
Thetire was used competitively for the first time in 2008. It has been designed to deliver improved dune-crossing ability plus enhanced resistance to wear, according to the company.
For more information, visit www.bfgoodrichtires.com.
