Martin Lands Eighth in Stage Six
14.7.2016
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Alhough cut short prematurely, stage six of the Silk Way Rally was dominated by the Russian Mardeev. Martin van den Brink piloting the truck built by the Czech MKR Technology team finished eighth after technical issues hindered his performance and continues to occupy second rank overall.
“Martin started out great. He passed the first two checkpoints as the leader, but when he got into deeper sand, the suspension strut got damaged. As a result, the truck didn‘t keep track and was kind of floating on the road, and he was forced to slow down,“ explained Mario Kress, boss of the MKR Adventure project which focuses on building racing specials for the Dakar.
Stage six from Balkhash to Almaty was supposed be one of the longest in this year‘s rally. The organizers planned to challenge the crews with over four hundred racing kilometers but the route was cut short due to a storm in the final destination. The trucks tackled the first hundred-and-eleven kilometer section and then seventy kilometers of the second one only to find out the rest of the special section had been cancelled for safety reasons. Consequently, the race was officially stopped after the first section, in which the Russian Mardeev ranked first. Martin van den Brink came eighth, losing to the winner by eight minutes. The Czech pilot Tomáš Vrátný followed him closely and van den Brink‘s Mammoet Rallyspot team mate Pascal de Baar ranked eleventh. “Martin‘s truck is going really fast and we‘re absolutely thrillled by that. After all, he was the second fastest pilot of all in the previous stage, with just one car beating him in the overall ranking. Naturally, this puts even greater strain on the technology. We take this rally as a test race that will help us check all parts to the highest possible degree and allow us to render them even more reliable. All in all, I‘m very happy with how things have been turning out here,“ comments Mario Kress with content.
In terms of the overall results, the currently second van den Brink slightly improved his position, now losing by nine minutes to the leader Nikolaev. Right after him come five Kamaz trucks, while his team mate de Baar occupies ninth place.
Stage six concluded the first racing week for the crews and they are about to enjoy a well-deserved day off in Almaty, Kazakhstan. “The technology has been through a lot. Actually, the day off will be for the pilots only, mechanics will be working round the clock. We must do thorough servicing and adjust things that have been bothering us. Second part of the rally will be characterized by conducting various analyses. We know there are many things to improve and make the technology as reliable as possible for the Dakar,“ emphasized Kress.
The rally is set to continue on Saturday with a stage from Almaty to Bortala, as the crews will take on the shortest measured section of this year (77km). However, this will be located in the mountains in an extremely tough rocky terrain. In total, the trucks will have to complete nearly six hundred kilometers in stage seven.
