This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

A sad story from the two-week Dakar Rally that started Saturday. American off-road racer Bryce Menzies and his co-driver Peter Mortensen received minor injuries apparently in an accident that all but destroyed their Mini.
2018 Dakar Menzies Crash

The Mini factory team said the car was returned to bivouac area, a sign the car is done.
We don’t know what happened yet. But it looks like the car became airborne over a jump of some kind and landed heavily. The suspension was heavily damaged, the wheels ripped from the car.

Now, what I’m about to say won’t be popular but it’s true. Dakar isn’t an off-road race no matter what off-road racers think of the event. It’s a rally requiring finesse and patience. Menzies is a champion off-road racer with experience in the rough-and-tumble world of rallycross.

But his greatest success is in off-road desert racing where you often go as hard as you can until the vehicle breaks or the finish comes, whichever occurs first.

I truly hope Menzies and Mortensen are OK. And, I repeat, I don’t know what happened.

In one report Sunday Menzies was described as a: “…truck jump record-setting badass.” That label fits when you look at the debris from his crash, two weeks before the finish of the rally.

Peace.