First American Class Win in Dakar History

[Scott Brady]

Reported from Expedition Portal member Chris Collard who is currently in South America.

It’s confirmed. America’s own Dakar Ford Raptor Team USA has pulled off the first American Class win in Dakar history. The team of Darren Skilton, Sue Mead, Troy Johnson and Dan Moore were dog-beat tired as Sue and Darren brought the Raptor over the finish line after more than 9500 kilometers in some of South America’s harshest environments. Tomorrow they will have an honored place on the Dakar podium. Congratulation

[Redline]

Outstanding :victory:

I've been enjoying watching the Dakar on http://www.sbs.com.au/dakar/# for the past couple years.

[cruiseroutfit]

Right on, been watching Chris's updates, excited for the team!

[spressomon]

That's terrific and exciting news! It will be interesting to see what/if Ford changes on their Raptor project from this experience!

[CoronaKJ]

Hopefully this will bring a better market for improved tv coverage

[haven]

This is one of those "glass half full" situations. The class that Ford Raptor Team USA ran in had six entries. Five failed to finish the race. Out of 55 teams running at the end, the Ford Raptor team finished second to last.

But they did finish, and their truck was a lot closer to stock than many competitors' vehicles. So congratulations!!

[Correction: The second-to-last place finish was in the final stage. Overall, the Mead/Skilton team placed 40th out of the 55 teams to complete the race. In total time elapsed, the Ford Raptor finished in 102 hours, 57 hours longer than the winning VW team.]

[deadly99]

I don't see how the glass being half full comes into play.

They entered in a category with five other competitors and were the only ones to finish. Prep, maintenance and vehicle choice are just as important in rally raid as driver skill, navigation and speed, their result demonstrates this fact.

Congrats on finishing, many people are saying that was the hardest Dakar in many years!