Mario Kress praises the team after Dakar
27.1.2021
Elite five, that was the original plan of the MKR Technology team for this year's 43rd Dakar Rally. The best truck from Mario Kress' workshop was classified as eighth after two weeks of demanding competition, but as the best North Bohemian special truck in its category. Although the bold goal was not achieved and the race offered several challenging moments, there is a reason for satisfaction in the team. Out of the three Renault trucks sent to the most prestigious long-distance rally in the world, two reached the finish line. One in the elite ten, with on-board technician from Roudnice, and the other truck just behind the top ten.
"Actually, it was an amazing Dakar overall, despite what our hybrid special went through. We had the chance to see, that if had not encountered technical problems, it would be realistic to turn our ideas into reality. The hybrid truck was competing between third and sixth place, Gert praised him a lot and was satisfied with its performance and behavior. Unfortunately, ifs don’t count, and we have to focus even more on the engine itself, because there is a huge potential in it and the truck as such," said Mario Kress, chief designer of the MKR Technology team.
The North Bohemian design workshop has prepared three Renault Trucks for this year's Dakar for a pair of Dutch teams. Two were for Riwald Dakar Team, where the only hybrid truck in the competition built on the C 460 model was driven by pilot Gert Huzink, the second K520 truck was driven by his fellow partner Pascal de Baar. The third special truck from the new workshop in Chvalín in North Bohemia, where the team had moved last year, was driven by the experienced Martin van den Brink from the Mammoet Rallysport team.
This year's 43rd edition took place in Saudi Arabia for the second time. After the initial prologue, the crews had twelve stages and a total of almost eight thousand kilometers, of which over four thousand were seven hundred timed. More than forty trucks took off at the start in Jeddah. After two weeks, twenty returned to the same city, where the finish was also located. "Statistics are clear. This year's Dakar was again very challenging. Even though we said we wanted to be in the top five, we can take our result as a great success. After all, the whole first sixteen is very competitive and the field is very deep," said Mario Kress.
It was the hybrid truck with Gert Huzink who started the best. In the introductory eleven-kilometer prologue, he secured a good position for the start in the 1st stage with seventh place. However, Martin van den Brink did with the on-board technician Daniel Kozlovský did better in the first stage and with their eighth place laid the foundation for their historical success. In the 2nd stage, however, came a major blow to the entire team. Huzink's hybrid was stopped by a cracked cylinder liner. It seemed for a while, that the Dutch crew would not be able to start in other stages in the so-called Dakar Experience, where they can return to the race within two days and then continue with a quarter of an hour penalty without the possibility to be in the overall classification. The team of technicians around Mario Kress did magic and even in those tough conditions were able to repair the damaged engine. Huzink was again in the leading positions, but the penalties twice pushed him down to tenth place. Then came the real end, when the repaired engine did not manage the heavy payload and after a free day stopped for good. "Sadly, six cylinders have not made it. Over the last two years, we have focused even more on the engine, especially after some historical difficulties, and have paid more attention to it in order to avoid problems. And then this happened. We have to disassemble everything and figure out where this failure comes from, as this mistake simply must not happen," Mario Kress shook his head after returning to the Czech Republic.
The hybrid with Gert Huzink was thus missing in the final classification of the 43rd year. But the unspoken leader of the team was perfectly substituted by his fellow colleague Pascal de Baar, who fought for the overall elite ten from the very beginning. Although he finished the prologue at tenth place, in the first rocky stage he was unbelievably unfortunate in terms of the number of defects. They pushed him down to fifteenth place. Only once he finished one position lower - in the 7th marathon stage, where a flat tire tore off the main switch. De Baar's crew otherwise attacked the Top ten all the time. In the sixth and eleventh stage, he finished ninth, which was the maximum this year. However, stable performance of the crew enabled him to maintain his current eleventh position from the fifth special section. On this position Pascal stayed until the end of the Dakar."Pascal did a fantastic job, but he was unlucky with the tires. He punctured more often than anyone else. In several stages, he had to change more tires than he actually was carrying in the truck, so he waited for someone to pass by to lend him one that would also fit him. It was very unfortunate, because otherwise his "K" had no problems. Only small things always held him back," the Mario Kress reminded this fact.
In the end, the best of the three North Bohemian Renault trucks was Martin van den Brink, who had Daniel Kozlovský, a technician from Roudnice, in the cockpit. The crew of the Mammoet Rallysport team entered Dakar with a completely new truck. After years in the "Sherpa", i.e. a truck with a nose, the crew jumped into the cab-over-engine version of the C460 model, i.e. into the same machine as Gert Huzink, but without hybrid technology. "Martin got used to the car, at first he was always searching for the nose, so he chose a more careful driving style. In the end, this turned out strategically as a good move, because we drove reliably, and at the same time we were gradually accelerating," described the on-board technician Daniel Kozlovský.
The Dutch-Czech crew fought their way to the eighth place right after the 1st stage, which they were able to improve in two cases. This year's stage maximum was twice the seventh position - first in the 7th marathon stage and then in the ninth section. In the 8th stage, however, came a moment that fundamentally changed the following course of action. During one jump, navigator Wouter de Graaff unfortunately hit his head and suffered a slight concussion. The headaches resonated strongly with each subsequent impact. "Wouter was suffering like an animal ever since. Thanks to the intercom, we virtually experienced his pain with him. Martin therefore chose a completely different style of driving; we had to slow down, because otherwise Wouter would have had a hard time going through it. But we were a team, the result was no longer what we were after. We just wanted to finish in complete line-up, but solidly. So Martin drove fast, but he did not take any risks. But I say that everything bad is good for something else. Martin can send it. The fact that he has not done it this time, I say, otherwise something else could have happen. It just should have been that way," Daniel Kozlovský summed up the performance of the red truck with the number 506.
Pilot Martin van den Brink and his on-board technician finally recorded their historic result in the Dakar. Kozlovský finished 22ndin 2015 with Kazakh pilot Arthur Ardavičus. Van den Brink’s best placing was eleventh place so far. Both have now reached the coveted Top Ten. "Congratulations to Mammoet because the boys did an excellent job. They kept up the pace from the beginning, they were not distracted by anything else. At the same time, they drove a brand new car, which they had not tested enough before. I'm happy with the bar they set," Mario Kress praised the Mammoet Rallysport. Martin van den Brink was a role model for his son, who celebrated his nineteenth birthday during the competition and subsequently successfully completed his first Dakar. He managed his debut as a pilot in his Volvo very well, when he closed the race in nineteenth place.
Despite a number of complications for all crews, the 43rd year of the famous long-distance rally for the MKR Technology design team ended successfully. Until the start of the race itself, anything could have happened due to the current pandemic situation. "Hats off to the entire organizing team. I have never experienced such an organization and such management anywhere else. Everything worked absolutely fantastic and everything was well thought out - testing, flight, quarantine, other tests. Thanks to that, we were all in a covid-free bubble all the time. I think that other organizers could take an example," praised the organizing agency A.S.O. Mario Kress, at the same time not forgetting his own crew. "I am pleased with the atmosphere in our team. The boys enjoyed it, it was fun. They all lived with the Dakar and tried to make everything they could. I hope that the same group of people who were there this year will meet in other races as well," Mario Kress is looking forward to further challenges. Now, he has three months of work with his team on trucks and wants to focus more on electromobility in the future.
