Dakar Rally

The last stage is a short one, "only" 165 kilometers. It's still a punishing challenge to a well-worn Rebellion Racing buggy and team. Alex and Stephan cross the finish line in a sandblast and celebrate the true joy of a major auto sport accomplishment.

Nerves get frazzled as the nearly never-ending Dakar enters its penultimate stage. This one is one of the roughest, more rocky than dunes, and after all these hard-driving kilometers, every rock that bangs the DXX chassis brings worries of breakage.

We grab Rebellion team engineer Andre Costa (and his surprising American accent) to learn about the race "buggy," the sophisticated Rebellion DXX. Next, we'll catch up with Alex and Stephan for the latest reports from their fast and raucous Dakar stages.

Here, we had the terrific opportunity to go out onto the stage on a Dakar media ride, ending up on course through a whole valley, waving race cars by and banging over some extreme rock crawling -- a real taste of the pounding Dakar can dish out.

It's the longest day of Dakar: a 435 km liaison plus a 395 km special equals 830 punishing kilometers, including over 200 km of riding the sand surf in the dunes. After the big tow in Stage 5, Alex and Stephan are working their way back up the standings.

Another 500+ miles of stage and liaison are coming up (again!) as we watch the Rebellion DXX roar off with its V8 thundering across a very rocky and flat plain. So did those last couple dune attacks seem long? This special includes 200 km of pure sand.

With a new transmission, Alex is so ready for a reliable run. Stephan has to be on top of his route-finding game, because this section starts with a long combination of intersecting desert trail and tracks, then finishes with a long blast through sand.

It's another arduous desert trek, another 423 km, with rocky tracks followed by the first long dune-surfing section. Romain's borrowed Toyota truck is sadly retired, and Alex needs the massive Rebellion team service truck for a long-range rescue.

At 465 km, this is the longest special stage of the Rally. Dakar is like a half-Baja 500 every day. Romain does not run in the Toyota, and Alex and Stephan have to fix a suspension issue, trying to complete the stage and stay in the game.

Alex and Stephan come into this run feeling good, and Romain and Remi are worried about their drivetrain. Both run into trouble on a sandy starting stage and a tricky navigational second half -- 368 km of Saudi wilderness.

The dunes are the best and worst part of this early Dakar stage. The distances are mind blowing -- 200 km of dunes. That’s 120 miles! But Romain Dumas' borrowed Toyota truck starts to show signs of trouble.

While it almost never rains in much of Saudi Arabia, last night it did. This is a massive 200-mile mountainous stage, where navigation is very tricky, challenging the co-drivers/navigators. And don't miss the crazy unintended water feature at the start!

When fire destroys one of Rebellion's cars, the team must come up with a new plan for the first stage, a short, timed special.

Welcome to Rebellion Racing at the Dakar Rally! We introduce this truly epic event, the team and cars, and the classes and competitors with whom we'll share our sandy tracks all over Saudi Arabia for the next two grueling weeks.