Dakar will kick off on Sunday with four Renaults from Židovice

3.1.2020

The legendary Dakar Rally will start this weekend. For the first time, the crews will race in Saudi Arabia, where the most prestigious long distance race after nine years in South America is moving. The MKR Technology team also moved to the venue on Friday night. The North Bohemian team of technicians around Mario Kress has prepared a race quartet for the rally, including the world's first hybrid to start in the famous competition.

            “We went to Saudi Arabia in two groups. The first one flew on the New Year and took over the racing gear, the second one went a day later, so the guys met on Friday morning in the bivouac,” said team manager Klára Kress.

            And the schedule before real start on Sunday will be very full. Shakedown on Friday morning, then the machinery moves to parc fermé. In Jeddah, where this year's race will start, presentation of new technologies will takes place, including a hybrid from Židovice. “The organizers are enthusiastic about our courageous step. They like the direction we decided to go because it is in line with their path,” Klára Kress mentioned.

            Then it will be very difficult two weeks. 12 stages is on the menu. In total, the crew of trucks will have to cover nearly eight thousand kilometres, more than five thousand of them are timed. The crews will spend 75% of the route in sand and dunes. Five stages are longer than four hundred and fifty kilometres. It's supposed to be one of the toughest Dakars in history. “Of course we would like to be successful, but the most important thing for us is to reach the finish line, ideally in a complete line-up. It is essential that no one would get hurt,” said Mario Kress, MKR Technology's designer, who was shocked to hear a report just before his departure from Prague, that the Czech pilot Martin Kolomý had suffered a nasty accident in the shakedown.

            The North Bohemian team is sending a quartet of its trucks piloted by Dutch drivers to compete for this year's Bedouin. The Renault C460 hybrid will be driven by Gert Huzink from Riwald Dakar. His team-mate Pascal de Baar will ride a Renault K520 cab-over-engine special track. Richard de Groot of Firemen Dakar Team will drive the same car as in his Dakar debut. And Martin van den Brink, a Mammoet Rallysport star, will drive a truck with typical red front nicknamed  Sherpa. “Everyone has equal chances of success. No one will be preferred,” Mario Kress said.

            Moving from South America to Saudi Arabia will bring a lot of novelties. A European fan may be pleased with a smaller time zone difference than he was used to in previous years. The venue is just two hours ahead. “This is certainly a big advantage for the audience. It's nice for us to look at some other places than before. In addition, it started to freeze in the Czech Republic, but I have seen that the average daily temperature in Saudi Arabia is around 45 degrees, so we should not be cold,”says Daniel Kozlovský, technician from Roudnice from MKR Technology team.

            Dakar will start on Sunday with full force. In recent years the initial stage was rather symbolic, this year the crews will have to cope with a total of more than seven hundred and fifty kilometres from Jeddah to Al Wayha, of which almost three hundred and twenty are timed. “It's quite unusual. The first stage is far from walk in the park. Stage has everything that it makes proper Dakar stage - fast and winding stretches, dunes and stones. Nothing should be underestimated. Certainly it is fair for every crew to get a detailed roadbook just before the start of the stage. This erases the advantage of the richer teams that have included other navigators in the navigation,” Kozlovský noted.  

            So, Dakar starts on Sunday on the Red Sea coast at Jeddah, which is considered the richest city in the Middle East and all West Asia. The luckiest ones will reach their destination in Al Qiddiya on Friday 17th January.