Missing a waypoint brings penalty time
18.4.2016
Martin van den Brink, pilot of the Dutch-Czech truck in the Libya Rally, had a stroke of bad luck again. In the third stage his crew worked their way through to the lead when suddenly they had a hard time finding the right waypoint. Because the crew did not succeed in locating it, they were penalized. As a result, they are occupying sixth place in the overall ranking.
“We had an absolutely fantastic start. Gradually, we overtook most of the motorbikes as well as all cars and trucks. After more than three hundred kilometres we got into dunes, where there were only three sets of tyre prints. Nothing else,“ gave us the crew mechanic Daniel Kozlovský a summary of the stage .
The crew lost more than one hour looking for the above mentioned waypoint. “When everyone started overtaking us, we decided to move forward and accept the consequent penalty time,“ admitted the crew mechanic.
However, even other crews did not find the waypoints easily. Eventually, Portugal's Jacinto negotiated the track as the best one, taking up the top rank after the third stage from Icht to Mahmid. Martin van den Brink on his Renault Trucks built by the North Bohemia based MKR Technology was sixth following the 50-minute penalty and occupies the same rank in the overall ranking, too.
In total, stage four from Mhamid to Zagora is going to open the rally's second half and is three hundred and twenty kilometres long.
