Today was a long day. I set both of my alarms last night for 4:54am this morning. I got up, hopped in the shower, packed my gear, and went downstairs for breakfast at 5:30am. I'm not a coffee drinker, but the hotel makes coffee just like my fiancée Rachel does. So I had three cups before I left with my two driving partners (Sue Mead and John Rettie) for a 30 km drive up the coast of Valparaiso, Chile to meet the three other Volkswagen Touaregs we're traveling with.

While I drove 350 km up the coast of Chile on the Pan-American highway, the Dakar Rally competitors had to drive 88km on the highway (all of the race vehicles have to be street-legal) before they could compete in the 449km off-road stage that was timed. Our plan was to meet up with VW’s off-road race cars at the end of the off-road section, but the local authorities (Chilean police) were confused by our press credentials, so they wouldn't let us drive on the race course.

Realizing that we weren't going to see any racing today, we decided to take our four press Touaregs to the beach for some lunch.

While we were at lunch (yes, I had chicken) we got word that Volkswagen's four cars had finished the day's race in First, Second, Third and Fifth place. They seem like they're going to run away with the victory now that the BMW and Mitsubishi factory-sponsored teams have had so many problems.

The Germans are being very cautions not to celebrate too early as there are still 7 more days of racing.

The Race Touareg cars are still in great shape, todays course was so rocky and twisty that the tires were torn to shreds by the time the cars got back to the pit, but the engines sounded good, the drivers seemed good, and the competition is trailing behind.

Well tomorrow morning I have to get up at 5:00am again, and we'll be camping for the next three nights, so you may not hear from me again till Thursday. It sounds like I might run into Robin Stover tomorrow in Copiapo, Chile- so I'll be in good hands.

- David