Day 5

Across the Andes into Chile
Car 2 smoothly finishes SS in the Atacama Desert. Comes in at 20th overall.
Car 1 is also in great shape en route to the finish line.
On January 7, Dakar Rally 2015 took the contestants across the Andes Mountains into Chile, for the year’s first SS in the Atacama Desert. The racing vehicles left the bivouac in Chilecito early in the morning and headed for the Andes on a long 594km liaison route. After making their border crossing at Paso de San Francisco (San Francisco Pass), which was situated in 4,800m highlands, contestants drove down to an elevation of 2,500m, still well in the mountain range, where they began their 174km SS. The Trucks category’s route branched off from that of other categories at the 26km point for a 140km shortcut, and merged again 100km before the finish line, meeting contestants with a succession of dunes in the last 40 kilometers. This route, which has become one of the staples of the Dakar Rally, takes contestants over numerous sand hills to the finish line near the bivouac in Copiapo. And again, the course proved to be as challenging as in previous years, if not more so.