Pilots From Our Alliance Improve Their Standings
8.1.2015
In stage four, crews of the famed Dakar Rally paid visit to the driest desert on Earth. Fourth day took them to Chile and into the renowned Atacama dunes. These seemed to do good to all the five drivers receiving technical support from our team. Martin van den Brink finished seventh and Tomáš Vrátný lost only two positions on him. The sixteenth truck to finish the stage was Ardavichus’s with our Daniel Kozlovský on board. All of them have moved up the overall ranking.
„We had to pull up the truck because of problems with the tank, but Dandy (Daniel Kozlovský) speedily sorted out the problem and we could continue. Basically, at that moment we just switched positions with Tomáš (Vrátný) who stopped by for a bit,“ expressed the Kazakhstani pilot Artur Ardavichus his praise for the work of our crew mechanic after having dropped from twelfth to sixteenth rank due to an unwanted but necessary stop at the end of the stage. He arrived at the finish three quarters of an hour later than the winning Russian Nikolaev.
Coincidently, it was Tomáš Vrátný who achieved his personal best yesterday. Although he stopped to assist his team colleague, his time was the ninth fastest of all. Until now, his best result had been tenth place. Moreover, Vrátný did not have the luckiest of starts, as he pushed the starter switch on his dash board at on the start. “For the life of me I wouldn’t believe how fast I’m able to crack carbon to get to the switch,“ smiled the Bonver Dakar Project‘s boss, the best Tatra pilot of the day.
Position seven was occupied by the Dutch pilot Martin van den Brink on a Renault from our workshop. His compatriot de Baar arrived as twenty-first in total and third pilot of the Bonver team, Poland’s Szustkowski finished fourteenth.
Stage four gave the crews the opportunity to visit Chile and have a go at the tackling giant sand dunes. First, they had to pass almost a 600km route to the special. With it 174 km, the timed stage was the shortest in this year’s rally. The same distance is prepared for the racers on their final day at the Dakar. The fourth stage stretched over 768 km of the distance from Chilecito to Copiapa. The timed stage was situated three thousand metres above the sea level. However, pilots of Bonver Dakar Project and Mammoet Rallysport teams dealt with the pitfalls of the fabled Atacama desert absolutely great. All the crews recorded significant improvement in the overall ranking. The best of the above mentioned ten drivers is van den Brink on tenth, followed by Vrátný on twelfth place. Ardavichus with Dandy are currently on nineteenth place. De Baar occupies twenty-third place and Szustkowski is right behind him.
The upcoming episode, the distance of almost seven hundred kilometres from Copiapa to Antofagasta, will be extremely rough on the crews, with the timed stage taking up 458 km, which makes it the longest test of this year’s Dakar. On top of that, the racers will have to climb up to the altitude of three thousand metres twice this time.
Results – Trucks – Stage 4: 1. Nikolaev (RUS) Kamaz 2:06:54, 2. Karginov (RUS) Kamaz +57s, 3. Mardeev (RUS) Kamaz +6:10, 4. Loprais (CZE) MAN +10:57, 5. Stacey (NED) Iveco +11:26, 7. van den Brink (NED) Renault Trucks +27:05, 9. Vrátný (CZE) Tatra +33:39, 14. Szustkowski (POL) Tatra +39:08, 15. Kolomý (CZE) Tatra +42:05, 16. Ardavichus/Kozlovský (KAZ/CZE) Tatra +48:01, 21. de Baar (NED) Renault Trucks +1:02:41, 25. Macík (CZE) Liaz +1:45:15.
Overall ranking: 1. Mardeev (RUS) Kamaz 10:39:26, 2. Nikolaev (RUS) Kamaz +1:57, 3. Karginov (RUS) Kamaz +2:45, 4. Loprais (CZE) MAN +12:42, 8. Kolomý (CZE) Tatra +44:17, 10. van den Brink (NED) Renault Trucks +1:10:19, 12. Vrátný (CZE) Tatra +1:33:36, 17. Macík (CZE) Liaz +2:22:03, 19. Ardavichus/Kozlovský (KAZ/CZE) Tatra +2:24:56, 23. de Baar (NED) Renault Trucks +3:26:08, 24. Szustkowski (POL) Tatra +3:36:08.
