Don’s post-Dakar report, courtesy of RallyRadio

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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]]> http://www.destinationdakar.com/2010/01/06/don-hatton-out-of-2010-dakar-race/feed/ 2 http://www.destinationdakar.com/2010/01/04/dakar-2010-stage-3-don-spends-the-day-stuck-in-the-dunes/ http://www.destinationdakar.com/2010/01/04/dakar-2010-stage-3-don-spends-the-day-stuck-in-the-dunes/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:59:42 +0000 admin http://www.destinationdakar.com/?p=470 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.

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”.

Don was up all night with bad stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. “He said you cannot imagine what it is like to have to vomit in the bivouac toilets!” I say TMI Don!

Even so Don left this morning but his Iritrack (tracking system) was not working. He told the organizers who said not to worry it would work. It was clear that it wasn’t working, it would turn on but then kept turning itself off. Don wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t working so at EVERY check point he told the organizers it wasn’t working. He is concerned that not having Iritrack could result in a disqualification from the race so he needed to make sure they understood it wasn’t working.

Don had 2 big crashes today and says his 690 is well worn in. At around kilometer 20 he had a huge crash and was down for about 1/2 hours (he thinks). Ripped his pants wide open. He didn’t realize how heavy the 690 was to pick up. Then just before the end of the special his front end went out from under him as he was crossing water. Apparently there was a lot of algae in the water and his bike literally slipped out from his hands. This picture, from Reuters, was among many of bikes going down in the same spot.

Don has also been at the organization tent fighting his time penalties that have already added up to more than 1 1/2 hours.

Don’s final comment was “Just remember I am riding this for a finish not a win”

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.

• Liaison : 259 km
• Spéciale : 182 km
• Liaison : 0 km
• Total : 441 km

The white pit

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.

Early this morning, Don left the start area without his time card, which he didn’t realize until he was flagged down by another competitor after about 80km. He had to race back to the start to get his card, but it wasn’t that simple.

When organizers indicated they were not going to give him the start card, much back and forth discussion ensued. Don asked “what does this mean” and the organizer told him that he was out; the rally was finished for him. Don refused to give up, so more discussion, then they phoned the head of the FIM and after a lengthy phone conversation he ruled that Don could start.

The Dakar organizers’ argument was that it was too dangerous, as the cars were now leaving and Don would not make his start time at the special stage. Don told them that it was their member of the organization that had directed him to start, and that he was a fast rider and could make it to the special section for his start time.

So, off he went, arriving at the special just in time to start. At this time the officials give him two papers. Only moments from his start, Don only has time to read the first one. Unfortunately, the notice don didn’t have time to read indicated that due to the heavy rains, they had to reroute the course. They verbally told everyone else, but as he was just in time to start they didn’t actually tell him. Don knew something wasn’t right, but soldiered on. It turned out that he was supposed to change his road book by 50kms! At about 100kms into the special, he did finally get himself straight and he finished the stage. However, not before he had to ride through water on his bike, causing it to quit! He arrived at the finish and along with the Desert Rose team, waited in dirty, sweaty gear for the support truck to show up.

Later in the afternoon, they are all sitting around doing their road road books and in strides the head of the FIM (apparently he was in Buenos Aires and came out to speak with Don). Seeing the FIM boss walk in, the Desert Rose guys were very worried because they thought he had come to tell Don he was out of the rally. Thankfully, he was only bringing a warning; Speaking very strongly to Don about starting without his time card, he explained that this must not happen again, and doing so would result in an immediate disqualification.

Don actually rode the course very well today but we think that he was assessed some pretty hefty time penalties over the time card fiasco as he is currently listed in 133rd place but earlier reports had him finishing in the middle of the pack. Hopefully tomorrow is a better race day for Don. However Don is actually quite happy with the penalties, compared with being kicked out of the rally, its not so bad.

Don continues to be unimpressed with the food in the Bivouacs. There was no breakfast today, so he had to resort to his emergency instant porridge rations that he carries to every rally. For dinner they had lovely Argentinean Pepperoni Sausage, which Don simply described as disgusting.

Unfortunately Don’s troubles were minor compared with an unfortunate accident involving one of the cars running off the course and plowing into a group of spectators. One spectator was killed and 4 injured. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the families of the victims.

After a very early start, Don realized after riding 89km that he’d forgotten to pick up a time card. He rode back to retrieve it, where he was told he wasn’t going to be able to continue. Arguing he could still get to the special for his alloted start time, he plead his case, eventually getting the officials to make a call to their superiors. Eventually, Don was allowed to continue and head back out on the liaison.

Arriving just in time to start the special, Don didn’t have a chance to get the instructions on setting his road book 50km ahead. Obviously, this lead to some confusion, essentially having to ride without the road book, but at the first checkpoint, he was able to get it sorted and continue on the rest of the stage.

As with today’s special, tomorrow’s run will put the bikes and cars on a separate, parallel course, allowing bikes to race without the ever-looming threat of overtaking cars. This removes a huge source of stress to the riders. From the stage description, the beginning of the rally is going to have some blind jumps early in the stage, and more open, but rocky sections in the latter half.

Good luck Don!