Dakar Going to the Finish with de Baar on Sixth
16.1.2016
San Juan – The famous Dakar is coming to its end. The crews just finished the penultimate stage, in which Pascal de Baar, on a truck constructed by MKR Technology, landed a great sixth place, a position he occupies also in the overall ranking. The Dutch pilot is thus close to a result of a lifetime. There is only the last, thirteenth, stage to Rosario, which will conclude the 38th Dakar Rally on Saturday.
„We’re very happy about how Dakar has turned out for us at the end. Pascal gave an excellent performance in today’s stage. He could have made it to the podium, but at this point our strategy is different. He was racing on 85%, because we didn’t want to take any risks. We still vividly remember what happened to Martin’s truck ten days ago, so we were trying to spare the brakes a little and didn’t push them to the absolute limit. We could have gained a little, but lost even more, and we simply can’t afford that in our position,“ explained the MKR Adventure project’s boss Mario Kress.
The last but one episode from San Juan to Villa Carlos Paz was the longest in this year’s competition. The truck crews had to overcome eight hundred and sixty-six kilometres in total. The special section consisted of two hundred and sixty-seven kilometres. Pascal de Baar gradually worked his way through from position ten to the final position six, losing by only a six-minute margin to his fellow countryman Versluis. Differences in the lead were only minimal, and so the overall ranking did not change after stage twelve. Netherlands’ Gérard de Rooy continues as a leader, reaching for his second Dakar title after four years with more than two hours on the Russian Mardeev. Apparently, it will be the best result ever also for Pascal de Baar, who, if everything ends well, is to be the best racer directly connected to the Czech Republic. MKR Technology would thus become the most successful Czech team to have constructed a racing special for the world’s toughest rally. De Baar looses half an hour on fifth place and beats the seventh position by forty-five minutes. “Both the pilot and the whole team keep up great work here. We were working hard until the midnight to get the truck ready for the last stage. We didn’t want to underestimate anything, so I believe in a happy ending,“ added Mario Kress.
Crews of the 38th Dakar will have to deal with the concluding stage from Villa Carlos Paz to Rosario on Saturday. In the last seven hundred kilometres exactly one hundred and eighty will consist the last special section, a winding, undulating track with faster sandy and stony portions.
Present in the last episode will be also the crews to whom MKR provides technical support and had prepared racing powertrains for, including Arthur Ardavichus of the Bonver Dakar Project, his team mate Tomáš Dakar and the handicapped pilot Llovera. These racers occupy tenth, sixteenth and thirty-sixth position in the overall ranking, respectively. However, the penultimate stage was a fatal one for Gert Huzink, whom befell the same misfortune as Martin van den Brink and several other pilots. With Dakar showing its extreme nature once again, his racing special ended up in flames.
