Former Singleton sports star Toby Price is now leading the Dakar Rally after finishing third in this morning’s eighth stage.
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He currently leads the general classification with a time of 28:53’08” and enters the final two stages with a marginal 63-second lead over Chilean Pablo Quintanilla.
Price finished eighth in yesterday’s segment of the race and entered this morning’s stage third behind Ricky Brabec (USA) by eight minutes and 25 seconds while Frenchman Adrien van Beveren was ranked second.
He then jumped to second within the opening hour after Brabec’s Honda engine broke down at the 56km mark; the same fate he suffered in last year’s race.
Price, who turns 32 this year, led for a majority of this morning’s stage from San Juan de Marcona up the Peruvian coast to Pisco.
However he would be overtaken by defending champion Matthias Walkner (Austria) who finished with a time of 03:55’25”.
Quintanilla reached the finish line 45 seconds later before Price claimed the final spot on the stage podium five minutes ahead of 2017 champion Sam Sunderland.
Frenchman van Beveren has now slipped from second to fifth.
Leaderboard:
- Toby Price (Australia – Red Bull KTM Factory Team) 28:53’08”.
- Pablo Quintanilla (Chile – Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) +01’03”.
- Matthias Walkner (Austria – Red Bull KTM Factory Team) +06’35”.
- Sam Sunderland (Great Britain – Red Bull KTM Factory Team) +06’38”.
- Adrien Van Beveren (France – Yamalube Yamaha) +09’54”.
Price made history in 2016 when he became the first Australian to claim the Dakar Rally.
That year he held off his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Štefan Svitko and Quintanilla to claim the victory before also taking out the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
However a second Dakar title may still be a challenge due his ongoing wrist injury.
“Today, I knew it had to count,” Price said.
“That was my maximum … I can’t do any more. My wrist is on fire.”
“There’s times when you can rest and when you can’t. You’ve just got to somehow shut (the pain) off. When you throw your helmet on you go and ride and just want to do the best you can, and do it all again.”
Price’s results so far:
STAGE ONE – Finished sixth with a time of 01:00’44” over 331km.
STAGE TWO – Finished fourth with a time of 03:27’03” over 553km.
STAGE THREE – Finished ninth with a time of 04:07’42” over 798km.
STAGE FOUR – Finished third with a time of 03:47’37” over 511km.
STAGE FIVE – Finished ninth with a time of 04:17’33” over 776km.
STAGE SIX – Finished fourth with a time of 03:55’45” over 838km.
STAGE SEVEN – Finished eighth with a time of 04:06’00” over 387km.
STAGE EIGHT – Finished third with a time of 03:56’38” over 575km.