Dakar: Joan Barreda leads 1-2 finish for Honda, takes overall bike lead (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

Joan “Bang Bang” Barreda has once again announced himself as a contender in the Dakar Rally.

Barreda, who won five stages in the 2014 event, charged to the top of the overall leaderboard in the bikes with a Stage 2 win on Monday.

The Spaniard conquered the long route from Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan, Argentina, out-hustling fellow Honda rider Paulo Goncalves by more than six minutes.

As a result, Barreda now assumes the overall edge over Goncalves by 4 minutes, 37 seconds.

“In the end, we set off with a game-plan to not make any mistakes and arrive safely at the finish-line,” Barreda said in a Honda release. “The result has been amazing. In the first part, [Stage 1 winner Sam] Sunderland and [defending Dakar champ Marc] Coma pushed really hard and I overtook Paulo to try and stop them running away with the stage.

“In the end, it was more about survival than anything else. We had to measure the pace and keep focused on the navigation as there were some extremely tricky spots, plus another stretch towards the end, that really put a strain on the body.”

Speaking of Sunderland and Coma, both KTM factory riders ran into problems on Monday.

Sunderland had started the Dakar as good as hoped for on Sunday with a victory, but a navigational error at 70 kilometers to go caused him to lose more than two hours Monday as he tried to return to the proper route.

He did, but the damage was done: A 72nd-place stage finish and a massive tumble to 67th in the overall.

Coma avoided a calamity of that magnitude, but perhaps not by much. Tire problems in the final stretch of terrain forced him to slow down and settle for an 8th-place stage finish at 12 and a half minutes behind Barreda, his title rival from one year ago.

Said Coma in a KTM release: “The (tire) mousse disintegrated in the last 60 kilometers. A little earlier, I knew it was happening. I had to slow down a lot. For the last 60 kilometers, I could not go faster than 40 km/h.

“But after having reached the finish, I consider myself lucky because we could have lost much more time. Obviously it’s not the result we wanted, but it is still salvageable.”

Their fellow KTM factory riders, Ruben Faria and Jordi Viladoms, picked up third and fourth-place finishes respectively. Two more KTM-supported riders also turned in nice runs: Australia’s Toby Price in fifth and Austria’s Matthias Walkner in sixth.

NBCSN’s daily coverage of the Dakar Rally is underway. For a full Dakar TV schedule, CLICK HERE.

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2015 Dakar Rally – Overall Standings, Motorcycles
(After Stage Two – Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan)

1. Joan Barreda (Honda), 7 hours, 6 minutes, 44 seconds
2. Paulo Goncalves (Honda), + 4:37
3. Ruben Faria (KTM), + 10:37
4. Jordi Viladoms (KTM), + 11:24
5. Toby Price (KTM), + 11:32
6. Marc Coma (KTM), + 12:03
7. Matthias Walkner (KTM), + 12:26
8. Helder Rodrigues (Honda), + 13:26
9. Jeremias Israel (Honda), + 16:24
10. Juan Pedrero (Yamaha), + 19:34

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Ryan Hunter-Reay was named to replace Conor Daly in Ed Carpenter Racing’s No. 20 Dallara-Chevrolet, starting in the NTT IndyCar Series event next week at Road America.

Hunter-Reay is the 2012 series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner. He finished 11th for Dreyer & Reinbold last month in the 107th Indy 500, his first start since the 2021 season finale. He drove full time for Andretti Autosport from 2010-21.

“We need to improve our competitiveness and I wanted to add a fresh perspective from a driver like Ryan who has a massive amount of experience and success as well as a reputation as a team leader. I am excited to welcome Ryan to the team,” team owner Ed Carpenter said in a team release. “We have worked together in the past as teammates and he tested for ECR at Barber Motorsports Park in October 2021, where he made an immediate impact as we were able to qualify one of our cars on the pole following that test. I am confident that his experience and technical abilities will be an asset to ECR as we move forward toward our goals as a team.”

Hunter-Reay has 18 IndyCar victories, most recently in 2018. He also is a winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, having been a part of winning entries in the 2020 Twelve Hours of Sebring and 2018 Petit Le Mans. Last year, he was an endurance driver for Cadillac Racing while being on standby for Chip Ganassi Racing.

He replaces Daly, whose departure was announced a day earlier in what the driver and team said was a mutual decision.

“I was surprised when I got the call from Ed,” Hunter-Reay said in a team release. “He described how frustrated he was that his team has not been able to realize its potential despite their efforts, investments, as well as technical and personnel changes over the past few years and asked for my help. Ed and I are very close friends and have been for a long time. I’ve worked with the team in the past and they are a very talented group with high expectations and a committed partner in BITNILE.COM.

“This will certainly be a challenge for me as well. It’s a tough situation jumping in a car in the middle of the season without any testing in what I believe to be the most competitive series in the world. Certainly, part of my motivation in saying ‘yes’ to Ed is the great challenge ahead. The last time I turned right driving an NTT IndyCar Series car was in October of 2021 with this team at Barber. However, I remain very confident in both my driving and technical abilities and believe by working with the talented people at ECR and Team Chevy, while representing BITNILE.COM, we will make progress. I am going to do everything I can do to help the team achieve its long-term objectives.”

Said Milton “Todd” Ault, the chairman of sponsor BitNile.com: “It is great for BitNile.com to be aligned with an Indy 500 Winner and an NTT IndyCar Series champion. I have followed Ryan’s career for years and I am confident he will challenge the entire ECR team to perform at higher levels. I wish everyone luck at Road America.”