Rest day marks the midway point on the rally. Teams will do a complete tear down of their vehicle minus the motor to basically have a brand new car for the second half. While the crew hammers away at rebuilding the car, drivers are busy doing press and getting their suits and helmets prepped.
Sean and Casey go over changes with their mechanic. 
The American drivers sit down to talk about the first half of racing. From left to right, Austin Jones, Casey Currie, Mitch Guthrie, Blade Hildebrand.
After a week of racing, these driving suits are overdue for a cleaning. 
Meeting of the minds, talking about what’s to come in the second half of racing. Pictured left to right, Ricky Brabec, Casey Currie, Aaron Quesada, Andrew Short. 
The merchandise truck was packed with people trying to get souvenirs.
“We’re here at rest day, rest day being obviously being a day where we don’t have any racing going on. So it’s a day for the mechanics to go over the car, they’re changing a lot of stuff. New gear boxes, steering… everything they’re looking over they’re putting new parts into. So for the second half we have a fresh car to go. For Casey and myself, we just go through our stuff, do a little bit of laundry and make sure our gear is ready to go. It’s time to start the race all over again and we’ll see how it goes.” – Sean Berriman
Dinner in the bivouac for tonight. Who’s hungry? 
Pop up tents for days.
Sleeping arrangements at the Dakar 2020
Being that it is rest day, let’s talk about it for a second. You get a lot of things on Dakar, a lot of long days, a lot of dirt, a lot of kilometers covered but one thing that you’ll never get enough of is sleep. So when it becomes time to get some shut eye, there’s a various ways people go about it on Dakar. Some lucky competitors will get hotel rooms in towns near the bivouac for max comfort and a hot shower but it comes at a cost of the time traveling to and from the bivouac. Most top racers have RV’s in the bivouac for good comfort and the most rest possible without. Some racers and most crews go the cheaper tent route, by the time they get to sleep it’s mostly late into the night and a place to lay their head is all they need. Then you have the few that love the feeling of floating in the air and will go with the hammock setup. Wherever they can find a place to string their hammock you’ll find them swaying back and forth. Then there are the opportunists, wherever and whenever you can sleep do it! Whichever way you go about it, sleep is the most precious thing on the Dakar Rally and will always seem like you didn’t get enough of it.
Hammocks will hang from most of the service trucks as a quick way to get to sleep with little setup time. 
The floors of the service trucks also make for a nice bed. Photo provided by Shelby Ingrilli 
Shelby Ingrilli naps on the work bench waiting for the cars to arrive. Photo provided by Shelby Ingrilli 
Even sitting upright is the perfect place to catch a couple Zzz’s. Photo provided by Shelby Ingrilli
Tomorrow the race continues with the longest special of the rally at 546km. So hopefully the racers got enough rest because it won’t be a walk in the park.
Story and photos courtesy of CaseyCurrie.com
