Two-times Dakar Rally winner Sam Sunderland has been forced to retire on stage three of the 2024 race due to a mechanical failure of his GASGAS Factory Racing machine just 11 kilometres after the start.

It’s all just a case of history repeating for Same Sunderland who will not see the finishers flag at the Dakar for another year.

2024 has started in the same manner as last year for the GASGAS Factory Racing rider whose bike  appears to have lost all its oil shortly after the start of todays, stage three special.

Sam spent over three hours trying to resolve the problem but was eventually forced to throw in the towel, unable to fix his stricken bike. The race organisers say Sam was looking for oil to replace in his engine.

Stage 3 complete results are here: 2024 Dakar results: KTM’s Kevin Benavides steals stage 3 victory from the speeders

No oil in Saudi Arabia?

The factory teams are meticulous in their work at the end of each stage, as Enduro21 documented in 2023 when we ran through the entire service in the KTM/Husqvarna and GASGAS pit (read that here).

So it seems unlikely to be a mechanical error but if he was looking for oil to replace, 11km into the stage, it would suggest someting came loose. Surely not?

It was either that or a rock or similar has put a hole in an engine case but (update as of 6pm tonight) rumour in the bivouac is the oil drain plug came loose. This is unconfirmed and unlikely to to be, but...

Back in the day, when the Dakar ran through Africa, finding a bit of oil, any oil, to replace what was lost was a lot easier than it perhaps is in Saudi. Sure, engine specs were different back then, but it was a genuine thing to basically ask the nearest person for some engine oil, fix the problem and carry on. It's ironic perhaps in a country with such vast wealth built upon oil that he couldn’t find any.

Either way it is bad luck for the two-times winner of the race who is no stranger to the lows of this tough sport. Having exited the ’23 Dakar early doors due to a crash, the British rider went on to record a series of retirements, often through bad luck, in last year’s World Rally-Raid Championship.

More if we get it.

Photo Credit: Rally Zone