Toby Price has been pushed down the overall standings of the 2018 Merzouga Rally from second to sixth after organisers gave in to complaints from lead riders who made major navigational errors.
Price took to Instagram to express his disappointment in the rally organisers after they gave special treatment to race leaders who got lost on Stage 4, costing them big time, but chose to blame the roadbook.
The KTM rider is particularly bitter because he was given no special treatment on Stage 1 after getting lost due to a mistake in the logbook.
Here is Toby’s post from Instagram:
SORRY FOR THE LONG POST BUT NOW NEED TO SOMEHOW EXPLAIN WHATS GOING ON AFTER TODAYS RESULTS!!
So as of 12pm today I had made a half decent race and got lost a few times along the way which is very dammed normal in rally racing! The last part was super tricky and the notes were hard to understand but starting 4th today and making the finish line first and moving up from 5th overall into 2nd overall and because around 12 people got lost in this section and people complained about the roadbook they have now cut the stage from waypoint #90!!!
So just had a meeting with them and the exact same thing happened to me and lots others on Day 1 because the roadbook was not correct and hard to understand (which they just sat there and said this straight to my face that day one had an incorrect note where many got lost) but my time and others where not given back!!
So how is this fair?? Seriously such a joke, we all had the same roadbook, nobody was at an advantage or disadvantage just like we all had on Day 1, plus in rally racing it’s impossible to make a roadbook 100% accurate so why can stuff like this get changed because a few getting lost?? Racing will now have protests everyday because there is always one wrong note in a roadbook!! So I asked for my time back on Day 1 now.
Seriously is so bad for the sport and makes me look like a clown posting to my followers and sponsors that I got to 2nd and now I’m back to 6th overall!! Merzouga Dakar challenge, I’m sorry but this isn’t right and you guys know it!! Sorry everyone, I thought I had made a good day but it’s a room of 8 people that can change the result at a snap of their fingers by the looks of it!!
I’m sure you’re all going to look at this with weird faces being pulled!! The organisation will see this and not be happy that I posted this but I’ve gotta explain the situation and the results because I’m sure the results won’t be changed back to the correct way because of this post but that’s how and why the results changed in 8hrs time!!