In 3rd Moroccan stage here comes bronze position

18.4.2018

In third stage of Morocco Desert Challenge the North-Bohemian team had to go without victory. Thanks to Janus van Kasteren the team got bronze, his team-mate Martin van den Brink just narrowly missed the podium.

            “We have gone through one of harder stages. We lost a bit in the dunes, but this time Martin was stopped by a loose wheel. Of course we are sad, because we lost the leading position, but we are not even half-way in the race, so we can still get back to the lead. We will do our best,”said Daniel Kozlovský, technician of the MKR Technology team from Roudnice.

            Racing special from the Renault Trucks from Židovice was stripped of the lead by a Czech pilot Aleš Loprais, who was fighting bravely with Martin van den Brink.  In fact the Dutch pilot was leading for most of the way, but fifty kilometres before the finish he had to stop due to loose front wheel. “The crew managed to stop in time, so we have prevented any further damages, but they lost half an hour, because the guys had to wait for the brakes cool down, and they could not do it earlier,”added Kozlovský and reminded, that they had lost another ten minutes in the dunes, which in total was about the time they lost on the winning truck of Loprais.

            But the North-Bohemian truck still made it to the podium. Thanks to team-mate from Mammoet Rallysport, Janus van Kasteren, the team took bronze position. What is more, the success is coming after problems in previous stage, when technicians had to change his axle overnight. Gert Huzink had no luck today, he placed eighteenth and lost over two hours.

            The third stage from Touzounine to Erg Lihoudi had over three hundred thirty kilometres. After this stage, Loprais is in the lead, van den Brink is nineteen minutes back. Gert Huzink dropped to sixth position and bronze van Kasteren moved up despite previous bad luck to seventeenth position.

            Fourth day will have some interesting parts. On the way to Fezzou, with length slightly over three hundred kilometres, the trucks will go through long stretches of chegaga dunes, then smooth fesh-fesh, ascend to volcanic pass and then fast hundred kilometres through wide sand plains to the finish.