Huzink was stopped by a broken pipe, De Baar just behind the top ten
3.1.2022
Dakar is showing right from the very beginning that this year's 44th edition will be no walk in a park. While the hybrid special in the 1B stage was slowed down by a broken pipe to intercooler, the second North Bohemian Renault got 15-minute penalty and dropped out of top ten. However, both special trucks from MKR Technology will continue to fight all the pitfalls.
This year's Dakar has started with full force. After Saturday's qualifying sprint stage, the actual first race test came on Sunday. And this stage really tested the navigators. The 500-kilometer loop from the Ha'il bivouac included a special timed section of 334 kilometers. With lots of sand and dunes, big descents and difficult navigation, it was true Dakar. Both trucks punctured their tires on the track with a lot of stones and had to replace them, but until a break in the middle of the race everything went very well. "About ten kilometers after the break, Gert's crew had to deal with a crack in the aluminum pipe between the turbo and the intercooler. The engine lost power and the boys had to adapt their driving to the situation, so the overall loss increased. At the beginning, of course, it is very unfortunate, but overnight we will repair it and the fight will continue," said Mario Kress, lead designer of both racing trucks of the Dutch team Riwald Dakar. They all agreed on the fact that they were saved by the hybrid system. "Without it, they would not have reached through all the sand with this damage. The system has proved its worth twice already, because in addition to extra power at racing speed, it was now a kind of emergency system that helped us in a situation where the diesel engine was having problems," explained Mario Kress that the crew was lucky in a way.
Gert Huzink's crew was classified as 29th with a loss of four hours, which included the loss due to a puncture. His colleague Pascal de Baar crossed the finish line at the end of the elite ten, but a quarter-hour penalty for not finding a waypoint pushed him down to the eleventh place.
The Russian Kamaz trucks dominated the stage. The order was Sotnikov, Nikolaev, Shibalov and Karginov. Only the Czech Aleš Loprais manage to squeeze into the third position between them, but he also got a penalty was pushed behind the Russian quartet. So the truck competition is therefore lead by today’s winner Sotnikov.
The marathon section from Ha’il to Al Artawiyah was to wait for the crews on Monday, but the bivouac at the finish line does not manage current heavy rains, so the teams and crews will move straight to the next bivouac in Al Quaisumah. On Monday, after 230 kilometers, the teams will race on 338 kilometers of timed section and then they will cruise to Al Quaisumah.
