10 January 2003 - 20:29 Roma Crashes Out, Peterhansel Increases Command Dakar 2003 : Stage 9 - 567 km

In the bike race, Nani Roma's bad luck on the Dakar continued with a fall forcing him to pull out of the race during the stage goig from Sabha to Zilla in Lybia. Meanwhile Sainct grabbed stage win and moved up to the overall lead. On four wheels the day went a lot better for the Nissan team on the Telefonica Dakar rally with the news concerning Kenjiro Shinozuka's better state of health, followed by Ari Vatanen's best time of the special. In the car overall Peterhansel increased his leadership afer the five punctures of his Mitsubishi team mate Masuoka. The Frenchman now has over 16min on the Japanese pilot. In the truck category, Gerardus De Rooy reconquered overall leadership ahead of Tchaguine.

The bike event saw the sad withdrawal of Nani Roma (KTM - n.4). At km 131, the Catalan suffered a serious crash and was taken to a medical center in Sabha by helicopter. Roma appears to have back trauma with no major worries. The first man on the scene of the crash was Fabrizio Meoni (KTM - n.1) who immediatley launched a destress signal.
"I was really scared for Nani (Roma). We were at around 140 km/h. It was a very flat portion but at a moment there were big rocks. Nani who was in the dust probably didn't see them. He was 20m in front of the bike on the floor. The bike was destroyed. For 2 minutes, he was unconscious. He then started moving without saying a word. I started thinking how unlucky Nani was on the Dakar. The problem is that he has a lot of pressure. Maybe it's also destiny."

After such an accident, "the race is secondary" admitted Meoni. "I have to say 'bravo' to the other guys and Richard (Sainct) because they slowed down the pace and didn't take advantage of the fact i had stopped for Nani."
For the record book, on the finish line in Zilla, Richard Sainct (KTM - n.3) had clocked the best time ahead of Meoni and De Azevedo (KTM - n.25) overtaking the Italian in the overall with a 1min10 lead. "The overall doesn't mean anything yet", said the Frenchman.

After yesterday's very worrying accident putting Kenjiro Shinozuka's life in danger, better news came from the Tunis hospital where the Japenese driver and Thierry Delli Zotti are recovering. After going through surgery during he night, 'Shino' appears to be out of danger while his co-pilot's state is considered 'not a problem'.
"The best news of the day is that Shinozuka is no longer in danger. When I had the news this morning it was fantastic. During the night, I woke up at 4h and kept on thinking about him and it hurt," insisted team mate Ari Vatanen (n.204).

A few hours later, the Nissan team was informed of Ari's (n.204) victory on the stage. Taking off in 68th position, the 'Flying Finn' flew to the best time on the 567kms of the special in 5h38min37. Vatanen beat Frenchman Jean-Pierre Fontenay (Mitsubishi - n.202) by 7seconds while Peterhansel (Mitsubishi - n.206) was third, a minute behind. Belgian Gregoire De Mevius took fourth spot while his team mate Luc Alphand could well have been the man of the day, with the leading times at all three CPs, if it hadn't been for two punctures in the last kilometres.
On a 'very difficult stage' according to all, punctures proved to be a key factor. Five of them were for Masuoka (Mitsubishi - n.200) who finished the stage... only thanks to the assistance of team mate Fontenay giving him two spare wheels. "Good timing!" admitted the Japanese on the bivouac. At the end of the day, the 2002 Dakar winner finished in 8th position, over 11min adrift.
"It wasn't a difficult day, I just had bad luck.," insisted the ever-smiling Japanese.

In the overall, Peterhansel adds ten minutes to his leading time and is now over 16minutes ahead of Masuoka. Stage 9 was also the scene of quite a few mechanical upsets with Giniel De Villiers (Nissan - n.217) losing well over an hour after destroying his back wheel.

The truck race proved yet again to be fascinating. This time it was Junior De Rooy's (n.414) turn to claim victory. On very fast tracks, the Dutchman made the best of his powerful DAF truck to beat Kabirov (Kamaz - n.412) by 6 minutes and De Azevedo (Tatra - n.210) by over 14 minutes. And adding to young De Rooy's excellent day, his main rival overall, Tchaguine (Kamaz - n.407), lost precious minutes repairing his truck. In the new overall, De Rooy leads by 21min32 on the Russian. Quite a performance for the young Dutchman who had admitted back in Castellon that his "only goal was to finish in Sharm El Sheikh". Father Jan (DAF - n.409) had to settle with 5th spot, 37min32 behind.

raid-live.com, 10/01/2003