Peterhansel rises up to top of the cars in 2nd Dakar stage (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

11-time Dakar Rally champion Stephane Peterhansel (pictured) has charged from sixth after the opening stage to first in the car category after today’s Stage 2 from San Luis to San Rafael, Argentina.

While Stage 1 winner Carlos Sousa suffered a broken turbo, Peterhansel took control of the overall car standings after traveling the route in three hours, 52 minutes, five seconds. Carlos Sainz, who finished 46 seconds behind Peterhansel in Stage 2, now sits 28 seconds behind Peterhansel in the overall class standings.

“It was a mix with a lot of fast tracks, then it was [riverbeds] with a lot of rocks and the risk of getting a puncture,” Peterhansel said to the Dakar website.

“At the end there were also very nice dunes, but the navigation was easy in the dunes because there were a lot of people everywhere in the dunes. At the top of each dune, it was necessary to follow the public, so it was easy to do the navigation.”

Joan Barreda continues to hold the overall lead in the bikes after placing third in today’s stage behind winner Sam Sunderland (3:42:10) and runner-up Francisco Lopez.

Overall, Barreda has a lead of two minutes, three seconds over Lopez with Sunderland now third after his inaugural Dakar stage victory.

“It’s great. The bike was awesome,” Sunderland said. “Without all the work that goes on behind the scenes this is nothing, as you know, so I’m really grateful for the opportunity from Honda and all my sponsors. Hopefully, I can carry on in this direction and have a good overall finish.”

Marcos Patronelli grabbed the Stage 2 win in the quads, enabling him to take the top spot overall in that category. Patronelli finished ahead of Lucas Bonetto on Monday, and now has a three minute, 50 second overall lead over the Argentinian. Sunday’s winner, Ignacio Casale, finished sixth Monday and dropped back to fourth overall (+8:26 behind Patronelli).

Finally, Anton Shibalov was victorious today in the trucks with a time of four hours, 11 minutes, 37 seconds. Shibalov now sits second in the overall class standings behind Marcel Van Vliet, who finished second in Monday’s stage.

Follow @estradawriting

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Read more about SuperMotocross