Ardavichus Catches Up, Van Den Brink Gets a Burst Tyre
7.1.2015
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The crews racing in this year’s Dakar concluded another extremely difficult stage. It almost seems as if the organizers were trying to separate the wheat from the chaff at the very beginning. However, the pilots supported by our technology team fought bravely in the third episode.
„This one was really hard and the last fifty kilometres seemed endless to me. As a newbie I’m still getting used to the broken tracks. On one hand, there are these wonderful views from the steep peaks that let you admire the most beautiful regions of Argentina, on the other hand you pass through riverbeds with millions of stones. They made today’s stage even tougher,“ confessed our mechanic Daniel Kozlovský, whose truck piloted by Ardavichus started from the unfavourable thirtieth position today as a result of yesterday’s accident.
The truck crews had to negotiate 542 km of track from San Juan to Chilecito including almost three hundred kilometres of the timed section. Ardavichus’s Jamal kept pushing forward after the start, making it to a solid nineteenth place with a loss of three quarters of an hour to the winning Mardev from Russia. Somewhat better result was achieved by Tomáš Vrátný, who was the most successful member of the Bonver Dakar Project, coming to the finish line on thirteenth place despite having interrupted the race to help his colleague from the partner French Mammoet Rallysport team Pascal de Baar, whose ventilators stopped due to electronics failure. This time, difficulties befell also de Baar’s fellow Dutch Martin van den Brink, whose truck’s tyre burst on the stony road. After replacing it, he arrived at the finish two ranks behind Ardavichus. Eventually, de Baar lost two hours with the technical issues, which reflected in forty-first place in the overall ranking. Third of the „Bonver“ group, Poland’s Szustkowski, finished on twenty-sixth place. “The tough stage showed us exactly the space for improvement our technology has and what we need to work on. Actually, it only confirmed the things we had known about, but also gave us impulses which we can only appreciate. Otherwise, there’s nothing serious bothering us. We’re able to fix everything. The team’s spirits are good, that matters the most, and the technology squad does everything they can to get the trucks completely ready before morning,“ added our team’s chief constructor Mario Kress.
Currently, the ranking is led by the Russian Mardev, with van den Brink dropping to fourteenth, Vrátný occupying sixteenth and Ardavichus with Kozlovský twenty-first place.
Racing day number four will lead the crews out of Argentina for a while to spend some time in Chile. Without much exaggeration there is a mountain stage ahead of them, as the racers will climb over three thousand metres above sea level. While 768 km in total make the route from Chilecito to Copiapa the fourth longest in this year‘s rally, the timed section (174km) will be the shortest of all. “This will be the first time for us to try out some proper sand dunes. I believe Artur is about to show his skills there,“ added the twenty-three-year old Dandy.
Results - Trucks – Stage 3: 1. Mardeev (RUS) Kamaz 3:19:06, 2. Karginov (RUS) Kamaz +1:51, 3. de Rooy (NED) Iveco +4:30, 4. Loprais (CZE) MAN +7:00, 5. Sotnikov (RUS) Kamaz +7:32, 6. Kolomý (CZE) Tatra +7:56, 13. Vrátný (CZE) Tatra +31:51, 14. Macík (CZE) Liaz +31:52, 19. Ardavichus/Kozlovský (KAZ/CZE) Tatra +43:46, 21. van den Brink (NED) Renault Trucks +46:21, 26. Szustkowski (POL) Tatra +1:10:00, 41. De Baar (NED) Renault Trucks +2:04:34.
Overall: 1. Mardeev (RUS) Kamaz 8:26:22, 2. Loprais (CZE) MAN +7:55, 3. Karginov (RUS) Kamaz +7:58, 4. Nikolaev (RUS) Kamaz +8:07, 5. Kolomý (CZE) Tatra +8:22, 13. Macík (CZE) Liaz +42:58, 14. van den Brink (NED) Renault Trucks +49:24, 16. Vrátný (CZE) Tatra +1:06:07, 21. Ardavichus/Kozlovský (KAZ/CZE) Tatra +1:43:05, 29. de Baar (NED) Renault Trucks +2:29:37, 34. Szustkowski (POL) Tatra +3:03:10.
