Sherpa dominates the prologue at Silk Way Rally

10.7.2016

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A win for a start! What better way to open this year’s Silk Way Rally? Both trucks from the North Bohemia based MKR Technology seized a spot at the winners’ podium. The Dutch pilot Martin van den Brink was the fastest one in the field and his fellow countryman Pascal de Baar occupied third place.

“We’re really enjoying the start here. We’ve had an amazing start podium on Moscow’s Red Square followed by a very successful prologue. Indeed, it was only a short one and was mainly supposed to establish the starting order for the actually difficult stages. Anyway, we’re now in the best of positions to start the rally. What else could we wish for? We’ve got two extremely exhausting weeks ahead of us and everyone hopes that fortune continues to favour us,“ commented MKR Technology’s chief constructor Mario Kress with a smile.

Apart from being the longest, the Silk Way Rally has earned the reputation of the toughest race of the year. The crews are about to tackle fifteen legs stretching across Russia, Kazakhstan and China. After the gala start in Moscow the racing specials moved eight hundred and fifty kilometers to Kazan for the two-kilometer prologue. The Dutch pilot Martin van den Brink of Mammoet Rally Sport with his crew, including the Roudnice based mechanic Daniel Kozlovský, needed only 1:51min to finish the opening section. His colleague Pascal de Baar on third place and the Belarusian pilot Viazovitch arrived at the finish only three seconds later. Members of the befriended Bonver Dakar Project team on their Tatras, driven by the powertrains from Židovice, reached the finishing line on sixth (Ardavichus) and eleventh place (Vrátný), respectively. These results secured excellent starting positions for the rally’s first leg scheduled for Sunday. Unfortunately, this had to be cancelled due to severe weather. Special section on the route from Kazan to Ufa was planned for one hundred and thirty-five kilometers. In total the trucks were supposed to travel over six hundred kilometers. However, there was a rapid change in climatic conditions in the Kazan region which prevented helicopters from taking off, and so the organizers had to cancel the leg due to safety reasons. As a result, Martin van den Brink has to wait until Monday before he can go full throttle from position one. This time the crews will have to beat the eight hundred and fifteen kilometres from Ufa to Kostanay.

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