Stage Ten of the Dakar Rally

The gap is closing in the car class as Stéphane Peterhansel is chasing down Nani Roma and his twelfth Dakar title.

Nasser Al-Attiyah won stage ten today by three minutes and fifty seconds over his teammate Peterhansel but the 11-time Dakar winner has closed the overall gap to Nani Roma down to two minutes and fifteen seconds as Roma finished the stage in third position, thirteen minutes and forty-five seconds off Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah is forty-six minutes and one seconds off Roma in third position with Giniel de Villiers and Orlando Terranova both over an hour back rounding the top five with only ten seconds separating them.

Robby Gordon finished twentieth on the day, one hour twenty-six minutes and thirty-two seconds back. He is twenty-third overall, nearly twelve hours back.

Joan Barreda Bort won his fourth stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally today by eight minutes over Portuguese rider Hélder Rodrgiues. Cyril Despres finished nine minutes and forty seconds back in third. Olivier Pain was fourth, eleven minutes and eleven seconds back with Marc Coma finishing fifteen seconds behind Pain.

Coma retains his lead in the class with three stages to go. He leads Barreda Bort by forty-four minutes and ten seconds. Jordi Viladoms remains third after an eleventh place finish today. He is two hours two minutes and three seconds back with a fourteen minutes and nine second gap separating him and Pain in fourth. Rodrigues and Despres are fifth and sixth respectively.

Mike Johnson finished sixty-sixth on the day, two hours seventeen minutes and sixteen seconds off Barreda Bort. He is seventy-fourth overall, over thirty-five and three quarter hours back of Coma.

There appears to be a surprise in the quad class as Russian Sergey Karyakin has defeated the class leading Chilean Ignacio Casale by a minute and forty-nine seconds. It is the Russians first career stage victory in his first Dakar Rally. Sergio Lafuente finished a minute and fifty-seven seconds back of Casale in third position.

Casale's lead over Lafuente in the overall standings is now twenty-four minutes and thirty-six seconds. Rafał Sonik is an hour and fifteen minutes back in third with Sebastian Husseini falling to nearly five hours back of Casale in fourth position.

Czech driver Aleš Loprais won in the truck class today by thirty-seven seconds over Andrey Karginov. Gérard de Rooy finish third, six minutes and ten seconds back. Eduard Nikolaev finished fourth, thirteen minutes and fifty-seven back. De Rooy's lead in class has been cut down to seven minutes and fifty-five seconds over Karginov. Nikolaev is third overall, just under an hour and a half back with Loprais just over two hours back.

Oklahoma-Native Qualifies For Chili Bowl Championship Feature

In a night that featured NASCAR drivers, USAC champion and a Indianapolis 500 starter, it was a driver from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma that took night one of Chili Bowl qualifying and it might not be the Oklahoman you are thinking of.

Jonathan Beason won Tuesday's A-Main and has qualified for the championship feature Saturday night. Beason started fifth in both his heat and A-Main qualifier and came home with a victory and a second place in them respectively and started on pole for Tuesday's A-Main. He never looked back taking victory.

Zach Daum won his heat and finish third in his A-Main qualifier and started third for Tuesday's A-Main. He would end up finishing second with Alex Bright, who won his heat and finished second ahead of Daum in their A-Main qualifier taking the final transfer spot to Saturday's main event.

Kyle Larson had a good night winning the sixth Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions but will have work to do Saturday night if he would like to take home the Golden Driller Saturday night. After winning his heat from pole, he finish where he started in his A-Main qualifier in fourth position and had to start sixteenth in Tuesday's A-Main. He worked his way through the field but fell two positions short in fifth position behind Gary Taylor.

Another Broken Arrow-native, Brady Bacon had to transfer from the B-Main Tuesday night to even have a shot at qualifying for Saturday. After winning his B-Main, Bacon started eighteenth but could only manage a tenth place finish and will have to try and qualify on Saturday.

Other drivers who will need to qualify on Saturday night include Joey Saldana who finished thirteen in Tuesday's A-Main and PJ Jones who retired from Tuesday's A-Main and finished twenty-third. Two drivers who didn't even make it to Tuesday's A-Main were defending back-to-back USAC Silver Crown champion Bobby East and Hunter Schuerenberg.

Wednesday night qualifying will feature five-time Chili Bowl winner Sammy Swindell, USAC Silver Crown winner J. J. Yeley, five-time USAC champion Jerry Coons, Jr., Chris Windom, Caleb Armstrong, Brad Kuhn and Rico Abreu.

Stage Nine of the Dakar Rally

Stage nine of the 2014 Dakar Rally has seen two competitors extend their class lead while two had their leads significantly.

Marc Coma won stage nine by a minute and forty-one seconds over Joan Barreda Bort with Cyril Despres rounding out the podium five minutes and twenty-eight seconds back. Coma leads Barreda Bort by forty minutes and nineteen seconds in the overall standings with Jordi Viladoms making it an all-Spainish podium, a hour thirty-eight minutes and forty-five seconds back. Despres moved up to eighth into the standings just under two and a half hours back of Coma.

American Mike Johnson finished two hours eleven minutes and nineteen seconds back of Coma on stage nine it fifty-eighth place. Johnson is seventy-eighth, over thirty-three seconds back.

Sebastian Husseini ended Ignacio Casale's three stage winning streak by defeating the Chilean in his home country by twenty-four minutes and fifty-eight seconds. Rafał Sonik finished third, thirty-two seconds back of Casale with Sergio Lafuente twenty-seven seconds back of the Pole in fourth.

Casale remains the leader in the quad class, twenty-two minutes and thirty-nine seconds ahead of Lafuente. Sonik is forty-six minutes and twenty-eight seconds back in third with Husseini fourth, still over three hours back of Casale.

Stéphane Peterhansel won his third stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally by two minutes and seventeen seconds over Mini teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah. Nani Roma finished eleven minutes and thirty-six seconds back in third with Orlando Terranova and Giniel de Villiers rounding out the top five.

Roma's lead over Peterhansel is down to twelve minutes and ten seconds with four stages to go. Terranova is third, fifty-four minutes and thirty-three seconds back with Al-Attiyah and de Villiers tied for fourth at fifty-nine minutes and forty-six minutes back.

Carlos Sainz had a dreadful stage finishing in twenty-sixth nearly two hours back of Peterhansel. He has fallen back to eighth nearly three and a half hours back of Roma.

BJ Baldwin finished nineteenth, an hour thirteen minutes and twenty-eights seconds back of Peterhansel. Robby Gordon came home in twenty-eighth, nearly two hours back. Gordon is twenty-third, nine hours and forty minutes back. Baldwin is thirty-first, over fourteen hours behind Roma.

Andrey Karginov won his second consecutive stage today by nineteen minutes and seven seconds over Gérard de Rooy, cutting the Dutchman's lead in class down to thirteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Eduard Nikolaev finished twenty-eight minutes and forty-seven seconds back. He is an hour twenty-one minutes and forty-one seconds of de Rooy in the overall truck standings.

Chili Bowl Begins Tonight

Tulsa, Oklahoma in the middle of January has been the home for one of the kickoff events of the United States motorsports schedule for twenty-eight years now and tomorrow kicks off the highlight event of the year for midget car racing: The Chili Bowl.

The Tulsa Expo Center has once again been transformed into quarter-mile dirt oval with a plethora of names entered for a chance at the Golden Driller. Kevin Swindell became the first driver to win the event back-to-back years in 2011 but back-to-back wasn't enough. The Tennessee-native has won four consecutive Chili Bowls and a win this weekend would not only be an unprecedented five consecutive but would tie his father Sammy for the most Chili Bowl victories at five, something that took Sammy over twenty years to accomplish.

The Swindell family has held Tulsa hostage for the last five years with Sammy winning in 2009, a year prior to Kevin going on his four-year binge but that hasn't stop the best drivers from showing up and giving it their all to perform a coup.

Four other past Chili Bowl winners are entered along with the Swindells. Damion Gardner is the most recent driver not named Swindell event and he returns looking for his second. Gardner won the USAC/CRA Sprint Car title last year. Tim McCreadie won in 2006 but then suffered a massive accident in 2009 that left him with a broken vertebra. He finished fourth last year. Gardner and McCreadie will be teammates with Gardner driving the #47 and McCreadie in the #47X for Andy Bondio. The other past winners are Cory Kruseman and Tracy Hines. Kruseman is a two-time winner of the event.

The list of other potential suitors to knock the Swindell's off their throne include Kyle Larson, Chad Boat and Brady Bacon, three drivers who were running up front before mechanical failures ended their attempts to dethrone the Swindells. Boat looks to join his father Billy as a Chili Bowl winner and join the Swindells as the only father-son pairing to win the event. Billy Boat won in 1997.

Dave Darland has accomplished a lot over his career but winning the Chili Bowl is one thing left on his to-do list. Christopher Bell is coming off winning the USAC National Midget championship in his rookie season in 2013. Bell's 2013 Chili Bowl saw him advance from the C-Main but fall shot in the B-Main. Bryan Clauson had to advance from the B-Main to get any crack at the Swindells last year. This year the defending Sprint Car champion Clauson returns as well as Jerry Coons, Jr.

Kasey Kahne will drive the #71, a car that the late-Jason Leffler had been working on at the time of his death last June. Leffler was the winning car owner when Damion Gardner won in 2008. The 2013 World of Outlaws champion and Darryn Pittman returns to Tulsa to compete against his WoO car owner Kahne.

Other drivers entered for this year's Chili Bowl include two-time USAC Silver Crown champion Bobby East, USAC Triple Crown winner JJ Yeley, 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 2013 USAC National Midget Pavement champion Darren Hagen, PJ Jones, Chris Windom, Rico Abreu, Kyle O'Gara, AJ Fike, Dillon Welch and Jon Stanbrough.

The top three finishers of each nights A-Main will qualify automatically for Saturday night's feature event with the remaining drivers filling out Saturday night qualifiers to race their way into the 55-lap. Last year, enough drivers were entered that the qualifying races had to start with a K-Main. The top six drivers from each B-Main on Saturday will fill out the A-Main.

Stay tuned to find out who qualifies directly for the Chili Bowl final and who will have to work to do come Saturday.

Stage Eight of the Dakar Rally

The eighth stage of the Dakar Rally saw two past Dakar winners winning their first stages in this year's race.

Nasser Al-Attiyah won his first stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally today by a minute and twelve seconds over his Mini teammate Stéphane Peterhansel. Carlos Sainz finished two minutes and thirty-six seconds back in third. Orlando Terranova finished fourth, six minutes and forty-seconds back with Krzysztof Holowczyc another a minute and nine seconds back. Nani Roma finished sixth, nine minutes and nineteen seconds back with Giniel de Villiers two seconds behind him.

BJ Baldwin had his best stage of this year's Dakar by finishing eighteen minutes and forty-nine seconds back of Al-Attiyah in fourteenth place. Baldwin is over twelve hours back in the overall standings in thirty-third place. Robby Gordon finished fifty-seventh on the day, an hour fifteen minutes and fifty-four seconds back. Gordon has dropped to twenty-sixth place overall, eight hours forty-nine minutes and fifty seconds back.

Roma holds a twenty-three minutes and forty-six lead over Peterhansel with de Villiers third, forty-eight minutes and twenty-five seconds back. Terranova is fourth, fifty-one minutes and fifty-five seconds back after a fifteen minute penalty. Al-Attiyah and Sainz remain fourth and fifth, both over an hour back of Roma.

Cyril Despres won his first stage by two minutes and nine seconds over three-time stage winner in this year's race Joan Barreda Bort. Six seconds back of Barreda Bort was the class leader Marc Coma. Coma has a thirty-eight minute and eight second lead over Barreda Bort. Jordi Viladoms is third in class, making it all-Spanish top three. Viladoms is an hour twenty-seven minutes and twenty-two minutes. Despres moves up to ninth but is still two hours twenty-three minutes and fifty-eight seconds off Coma.

After retroactively being named the winner of stage six after a time deduction, Ignacio Casale has won three consecutive stages after defeating Sebastian Husseini by eight minutes and thirty-eight seconds. Sergio Lafuente was third, fifteen minutes and twenty-five seconds back with Rafal Sonik thirty-nine seconds off the Uruguayan. Casale extends his overall lead in class to twenty-one minutes and forty-seconds over Lafuente with Sonik forty-five minutes and fifty-six seconds back. Husseini is over three and a half hours back in fourth.

Andrey Karginov picked up his second stage victory of this Dakar Rally by five minutes and fifteen seconds over Gérard de Rooy. Dmitry Sotnikov finished third six minutes and fifty-five seconds back. De Rooy maintains the lead in the truck class by thirty-two minutes and thirty-five seconds over Karginov. Ednuard Nikolaev is third, over an hour back with Sotnikov just over eleven minutes back of him in fourth.

Stage Seven of the Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally resumed today after a rest day and saw two Spaniards pick up stage victories.

Carlos Sainz won his second stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally and he did so by four minutes and forty-five seconds over Nasser Al-Attiyah. Stéphane Peterhansel rounded out the podium, seven minutes and twenty-six seconds back. Nani Roma finished eight minutes and fifty-seconds back of Sainz in fourth but remains in the overall lead of the car class.

Roma leads Peterhansel in the overall standings by thirty-one minutes and fifty-three seconds. Giniel de Villiers is third, forty-eight minutes and twenty-three seconds back with Orlando Terranova fifty-four minutes and thirty-four seconds back in fourth. Al-Attiyah and Sainz are fifth and sixth, both over an hour back of Roma.

The day did not go well for Robby Gordon. He was stopped on course and finished fifty-sixth on the day, nearly two hours back of Sainz. He finds himself twenty-seventh, nearly seven and three-quarter hours back of Roma. American BJ Baldwin finished twenty-eighth on stage seven, fifty minutes and fifty-two seconds back of Sainz. Baldwin trails Roma in the overall standings by eleven hours fifty-eight minutes and thirteen seconds in thirty-first place.

Joan Barreda Bort won his third stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally today by four minutes and three seconds over the leader of the bike class Marc Coma. Cyril Despres finished third five minutes and thirty-five seconds back. Coma leads Barreda Bort by thirty-eight minutes and fourteen seconds in the overall standings with the next closest rider, Jordi Viladoms, an hour sixteen minutes and and three seconds back. Despres is nearly two and a half hours back of Coma in tenth position.

American Mike Johnson finished stage seventh in fifty-ninth place, fifty-one minutes and fifteen seconds off Barreda Bort. Johnson is eighty-first in class, thirty hours back of Coma.

Ignacio Casale won his second stage of this Dakar Rally and first since the opening stage. By winning today, the Chilean was able to retake the overall lead in the quad class. Casale defeated Dutchman Sebastian Husseini by seven minutes and forty seconds with previous class leader Sergio Lafuente finishing eight minutes and thirty-eight seconds back in third. Rafał Sonik finished fourth, nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds back.

Casale leads Lafuente by six minutes and fifteen seconds with Sonik twenty-nine minutes and fifty-two seconds back in third. Husseini is fourth, nearly three and a half hours back.

Eduard Nikolaev won his first stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally by three minutes and forty-five seconds over fellow Kamaz driver Dmitry Sotnikov. Gérard de Rooy retains the truck class lead by finishing third, four minutes and thirty-four seconds back. De Rooy leads by thirty-seven minutes and fifty seconds over Andrey Karginov who finished seven on stage seven. Nikolaev is over an hour back in third position.

Stadler Motorsport Wins Dubai

The streak continues for German manufactures as the #20 Porsche 997 GT3 R of Stadler Motorsport won the 2014 Dubai 24 Hours by three laps over the #38 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Münnich Motorsport and six laps over the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes. A German manufacture has won all nine editions of the Persian Gulf endurance race.

The Porsche driven by German Christian Engelhart and Swiss drivers Mark Ineichen, Rolf Ineichen, Marcel Matter and Adrian Amstutz took the lead on lap 432 from the #4 Fach Auto Tech Porsche with over six hours to go and would never cede the position for the rest of the race, completing 603 laps over the 24 hours.

The #4 Fach Auto Tech Porsche was one of many to suffered mechanical issues while leading. They suffered a driveshaft problem which cost Connor de Phillippi, Sebastian Asch, Martin Ragginger and Otto Klohs a shot at victory. They would complete 565 laps and finish sixteenth.

The Münnich Motorsport and Black Falcon Mercedes had a nice battle for second before the Münnich Mercedes driven by René Münnich, Marc Basseng and Rob Huff pulled away. Black Falcon had won the last two editions of the Dubai 24 Hours with the sister Team Abu Dhabi entry. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi settle for third after entering looking for their third straight victories in the event. Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt and Adam Christodoulou round out the drivers line-up for the #2 Black Falcon entry.

The top non-German car was the #458 GT Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 driven by Pierre Kaffer, Pierre Ehret, Alexander Mattschull, Marco Seefried and Vadium Kogay. The pole-sitting #21 Corvette of V8 Racing driven by Nicky Pastorelli, Wolf Nathan, Danny Werkman, Rick Abresch, Alex van 't Hoff rounded out the top five.

The other class winners are as follows:

A6-Am: #888 Dragon Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 driven by Jordan Grogor, Khaled Al Mudhaf, Mohammed Jawa and Frederic Fatien.

997: #42 Förch Racing by Lukas Motorsport Porsche 997 Cup driven by Robert Lukas, Christofer Berckhan Ramirez, Andrzej Lewandowski and Stefan Bilinski.

A5: #62 JR Motorsport BMW E46 GTR driven by Harry Hilders, Roger Grouwels, Gijs Bessem, Koen Bogaerts and Dziugas Tovilavi.

SP3: #164 Speedworks Motorsport Ginetta G50 driven by Tony Hughes, Christian Dick, Ross Warburton and Will Scully.

SP2: #123 Nissan Academy Team JRN Nissan 370Z driven by Lucas Ordóñez, Miguel Faisca, Florian Strauss, Stanislav and Nickolas McMillen

A2: #106 AD Racing/ K-Rejser Renault Clio Sport driven by Jacob Kristensen, Martin Clausen, Jan Engelbrecht and Jan Seerup.

A3T: #90 Racingdivas Team Schubert BMW 320D driven by Natasja Smit-Sø, Gaby Uljee, Sandra van der Sloot, Paulien Zwat and Shirley van der Lof.

D1: #125 Recy Racing Team BMW 120D driven by Jan De Vocht, Johan Van Loo, Steffen Schlichenmeier, Wim Meuldens and Thomas Piessens.

Other teams who said mechanical issues cost them at shot at victory was the #76 BMW Z4 GT3 of SX Team Schubert. The car driven by Paul Dalla Lana, Bill Auberlen, Dane Cameron, Dirk Werner and Claudia Hürtgen suffered a tire puncture which led to further rear suspension damage. They would recover for a top ten but twenty laps back of the winning Stadler Porsche.

The #30 Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 driven by Jan Magnussen, Johnny Mowlem, Matt Griffin and Cheerag Arya made contact with another car which dropped them for the front. The would settle for seventeenth, one lap back of the #4 Fach Auto Tech Porsche.

The two-time defending race winning #1 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon had a four lap lead early in the race before electrical issues ended any chance of the hat trick for the team, Bleekemolen and Al Qubaisi, a second consecutive win in the race for Bernd Schneider and the first for Andreas Simonsen.

Some of these drivers such as Paul Dalla Lane, Bill Auberlen, Dane Cameron, Jan Magnussen, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Emmanuel Collard, Connor de Phillippi, Patrick Huisman, Christian Engelhart, Rolf Ineichen, Toni Vilander, Marc Basseng, Dirk Werne, Isaac Tutumlu, Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke will be making their way to Daytona for the 24 Hours of Daytona in a fortnight.

The 2015 Dubai 24 Hours has been scheduled for January 8-10th.