Bronz Medal in 14th Stage Brings Podium Result

23.7.2016

We‘ve made it! The north of Bohemia has a reason to celebrate as the truck built by MKR Technology achieved an overall podium result in the world‘s longest and toughest rally, the Silk Way. In Saturday‘s leg 14 the team‘s pilot Martin van den Brink seized a bronz ranking, which he also occupies in the general classification.

            “Everything we‘ve dreamt of has come true. We came to the Silk Way to put the new technology to a thorough test for our main goal, the Dakar. We‘ve discovered many deficiencies that we‘ve been working on meanwhile. At the same time, we were not completely void of emotions in the race. We were hoping for a podium result and succeeded. The whole team are really excited, we‘ve got a lot to celebrate,“ said the glowing boss of the MKR Adventure project and chief constructor of the racing specials Mario Kress.

            The last-but-one stage could have brought some serious trouble though. The treacherous dunes can shuffle the ranking at any time. The crews had to tackle a total of seven hundred and fifty kilometers, out of which two hundred and sixty formed the special stage. In the course of the stage Martin van den Brink on the Renault Sherpa successfully fought his way up to the front of the field. He was leading the race for a long time but at the very end he slowed down and this resulted in a final third place. Eventually, the order in which the three pilots finished the stage is the same as the general classification. The rally was dominated by the Russian Mardeev on a Kamaz followed by his team mate Sotnikov. Van den Brink only lost by a five-minute margin to the leader. His colleague Pascal de Baar crossed the finishing line in the eleventh fastest time. “We did not take any unnecessary risks and wanted to hold on to the podium. We‘ve got everything we came for and I‘m really happy. Now it‘s time to focus on the Dakar,“ concluded the crew mechanic Daniel Kozlovský.

            In the general classification third rank goes to the newly constructed Renault Sherpa with Kozlovský on board. The team lost half an hour on the leader Mardeev and fifteen minutes on  Sotnikov on the second. The Dutch-Czech formation was leading the race for several stages but then a tyre defect caused a drop in the ranking. His fellow countryman de Baar occupies seventh place in the overall ranking.

            This year‘s Silk Way Rally will come to its end on Sunday. The teams only have the non-racing section from Hohhot to Beijing to complete in order for the race to officially end. Therefore, only an unfortunate accident might change this year‘s results.