Dakar: In face of tragedy, Duclos wins in Stage 6 (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

Forging ahead after the heart-breaking deaths of competitor Eric Palante and two others on Thursday, the 2014 Dakar Rally hit its sixth stage with a run from Tucuman to Salta, Argentina.

Motorcyclist Alain Duclos (pictured) ended an eight-year stage win drought in the Dakar, out-hustling overall category leader Marc Coma by a margin of 1:15. Duclos now sits third big-picture wise, one hour back of Coma, who holds a 42:17 lead over second-place Joan Barreda (fourth on Friday).

“Today, it was my type of terrain,” Duclos said after his run. “We’ve got over the worst over the last few days and the rest day has arrived at the right time – it couldn’t be better timed.”

Car racer Stephane Peterhansel bolstered his bid for a 12th Dakar championship with the 63rd stage win of his career in the famous rally. He is now tied with seven-time Dakar truck champ Vladimir Chagin for the most Dakar stage wins across all categories.

Following today’s events, Peterhansel is now third in the overall car standings and is less than three minutes behind second-place Orlando Terranova, who himself is off the pace of leader Nani Roma by half an hour.

“Today, it was a really nice stage,” said Peterhansel. “The first part was like a [World Rally Championship] track, but in very nice landscape. It was close to the National Park and was really beautiful. On the second, there was a little bit more vegetation, but also like a [WRC track], so today, navigation was really easy.”

The battle for quad supremacy between Rafal Sonik, Sergio Lafuente, and Ignacio Casale continues, as they finished first, second and fourth respectively in Stage 6. Sonik was a big winner in particular, as he peeled off a whopping 54 minutes from Lafuente.

However, the Uruguayan remains on top of the overall by 22:18 over Sonik and 24:04 over third-place Casale.

While the cars, bikes and quads all had special stages of at least 400 kilometers, the trucks took on a shorter, 156-kilometer version Friday. Peter Versluis of the Netherlands earned top honors in the stage, while fellow Dutchman Gerard de Rooy still leads the overall by 29:05.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”