Dakar started really hard
6.1.2020
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The 42nd Dakar Rally started with full power. While in the previous years the opening stage was rather symbolic, this year the organizers promised one of the most difficult races in the history of the race and the crews could feel this fact from the first kilometres. The demanding course has taken its toll on many favourites. North Bohemian trucks by MKR Technology were fighting their way with the pitfalls of the course, but it didn't work out to make the podium.
“Our start was not bad at all, but in the end we do our best to get to the finish. The boys had a lot of flat tires and unfortunately we had bigger technical problems right from the beginning, but I believe that we managed to put everything together and tomorrow we will go in full strength. We are at the beginning, there is no point to make any conclusions, because what happens to one today, can happen to another one tomorrow, ” said Mario Kress, lead designer of North Bohemian Renaults.
The crews enjoyed a ceremonial start on Saturday evening, but on Sunday the race started with full force and the initial stage was a real tough test. The first stage from Jeddah to Al Wajh was 752 kilometres long and the timed section had 319 km. The stage offered everything Dakar participants were looking forward to - quick and technical passages, but also rocks, sands and treacherous dunes. Russian pilot Shibalov tackled it in the fastest manner, in three hours forty. The second place was taken by Belarusian Viazovich with MAZ and the Dutch van Kasteren with Iveco took third place, losing slightly over three minutes. Renault trucks by MKR Technology from northern Bohemia also had a big fight. For a long time, all of them were in the forefront and in the first third of the race, Martin van den Brink was holding bronze position. “But then there were defects. Martin had to stop three times, ” said Mario Kress. Finally, the Mammoet Rallysport rider closed the top twenty with a loss of more than an hour on the winning Shibalov. Two other Dutch riders had similar complications. Pascal de Baar of Riwald Dakar rode a very nice race, but due to his share of troubles, and despite finishing as the highest ranked rider from the whole quartet, he took fifteenth position with just over half an hour gap. Just behind, another four minutes back in the ranking, the Dutch "fireman" Richard de Groot finished this stage. The most watched trucks - the first ever hybrid truck to start the race, had the biggest troubles. The crew of the pilot Gert Huzink was held by a damaged simmering on the rear axle in the middle of the race and they lost a lot of oil. The crew had been repairing it for long hours and no one knew what would happen next. According to recent reports, the truck is moving again and is on his way to the bivouac. “We will not have much time for repairs before the start of the next stage, but I believe that we will manage everything and the next day we will be able to go back with full speed,”Mario Kress never gives up.
The second stage from Al Wajh to Neom is exactly four hundred kilometres long and nearly three hundred and seventy are timed. This time it should not be so difficult in terms of terrain, but rather in terms of navigation.
