Don and the Rally Raid Canada Team will be at the 2010 Vancouver Motorcycle Show Saturday January 23 and Sunday January 24 at the Tradex – Trade and Exhibition Center – in Abbotsford. Look for them at the “Kimpex” booth #510.
Following his Dakar experience, Don provided the following audio update:
Buenos Aires, Argentina – Tuesday January 5, 2010 – Don Hatton has been forced to retire from Stage 3 of the 2010 Dakar race upon advice of race medical staff.
For hours, Don had been struggling in axle deep in the white sand dunes east of La Rioja, Argentina in 45 degree Celsius temperatures. The combination of poor engine performance brought on by bad fuel, fatigue from the heat and the lingering affects of the food poisoning meant that riding the steep dunes was almost impossible. Riding with fellow Dakar racer Duncan Tweedy, they were both overcome with heat issues. They were provided water from passing participants in cars and trucks to help them cope with their situation.
Passing race medical officials advised them both not to proceed; “You will die in the dunes”, they urged, adding that there were no helicopters available as they were all busy trying to evacuate other competitors from the dunes. Not encouraging news considering their location and physical condition.
Still suffering from the dehydration due to food poisoning that he endured on stage two of the rally, Don took the advice of race officials and withdrew from the rally. He was one of 20 motorcyclists, nearly 15% of the entrants, to retire from the race Monday.
We know at this time Don was safe at the Bivouac Tuesday night and will make his way back to Buenos Aires Wednesday to meet up with his wife and support team.
We will advise further once we have been able to interview Don.
On behalf of Don, Natalie and the whole Rally Raid Canada – Destination Dakar team we would like to give our utmost thanks to our fans, sponsors and especially our media supporters!
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Don is back at the Bivouac, after another difficult day.
In the first sector of the Rally, Don began having engine problems. I have seen numerous mentions of fuel problems today, and Don was unfortunately one rider who was affected. Riding in the dunes requires speed and momentum to carry the bike and rider to the top of each dune, and even a hiccup out of the motor can sap that momentum and leave the rider stuck and turning the bike around to retreat down the dune and far enough back to take another run at it.
Dave will likely be bringing us another update later this evening, and I will post an update here as soon as more information becomes available.
Official video of todays stage.
Don called in to Natalie from the Bivouac hospital hooked up to an IV for dehydration and anti nausea medication. He got food poisoning last night from the bivouac food – Don says a whole bunch of guys got sick. The food is absolutely disgusting! Don has had nothing to eat all day, he has been trying to get water down, but faster than he was drinking it, he was losing it one way or another!.
Doctors who remembered Don from last years Dakar were coming up to him and asking him how he was doing, and how was his wife. Natalie told Don he should have said “EL LOCO (crazy!!!) to let me do the Dakar again”.
No word from the front lines yet, but Don has successfully completed Stage 2 of the rally.
Don, this was undoubtedly an eventful day, and your flair for the dramatic is certainly garnering lots of fans (and bandwidth!) over at ADVRider.
In the picture at right, Don runs to retrieve his KTM, with Mark Miller bearing down on him in his Team Red Bull Volkswagen. This spot was a shallow water crossing over a weir, where many riders were caught out by the extremely slippery surface.
As for the specific results, Don finished the stage ranked 141, and was assessed 1:34 of penalities. Today was a bit of a nail biter for Hatton fans; according to the tracking on the dakar.com website, Don didn’t appear to pass the second checkpoint.
Obviously, something went awry today. Perhaps the situation with the second checkpoint had something to do with the penalities, or they may have been assessed due to Don’s time card incident. Stay tuned for more details.
It’ll be on the third real day of racing that the competitors will have to deal with a first test. The change of context will be radical: with a switch from earth to sand and especially a dune portion of close to 30 kilometres. Other than their dimension that suits perfectly a first part of rally, these dunes are noticeable thanks to their white colour. In this new landscape, the crews will enjoy off-piste. They will also have to adapt to a change of climate and especially sand storms that are frequent in the area.
