The crew experienced a 7G overload

17.4.2019

The North-Bohemian truck from MKR Technology's workshop made into top five in Morocco Desert Challenge. The crew with pilot Martin van den Brink and technician Daniel Kozlovsky from Roudnice had to slow down at the end of the stage because of dropping pressure in one of the front wheels, so she they lost valuable minutes. Stage 4 was very extreme.

            “The stage was on a very hard surface and there was a plethora of leaps. How difficult it was today was confirmed by on-board instruments, which measured 7G overload in the cabin. Of course, this is a short-term load due to impact, but Gert had only four and a half G today and we had seven G. Fortunately, I am quite well, but the machinery is suffering, so we try to drive reasonably, ”Daniel Kozlovský, on-board mechanic of the Renault from Židovice, described the extremes of stage four.       

            Crews had to fight with the second longest leg of this year. The track from Assa to Foum Zguid was exactly four hundred and twenty-five kilometres. The Dutchman van Genugten took the fastest time. Truck with Kozlovský on-board lost 27 minutes and took fifth position. “The truck is going well. Again, we used a half-hour pause after two hundred kilometres and replaced the rear tires preventively, which get a hell of a load here. But for the last seventy kilometres we had problems with the right front tyre and had almost no pressure at all. That is where we lost most of the time,”  said Kozlovský.

            While van den Brink went without major problems, Gert Huzink from Riwald Dakar had to change the tires on the track. Eventually he passed the finished line on thirteenth position, three quarters of an hour after the winner. 

            There was a change in the lead in the middle of this year's edition. The leader of Voerman fell back to third place and Peter Versluis took over his position,  closely followed by stage winner van Genugten. The differences are within minutes. Martin van den Brink jumped into the elite five with a loss of half an hour. Gert Huzink is still ninth. "There is another half ahead of us and now there will be heavy dunes in which everything can turn around,"believes Kozlovsky with van den Brink. 

            5th stage is taking place on Wednesday, goes from Foum Zguid to Zagora and is 308 km long. The rally is getting into its second half and the patient will now be rewarded. There will

be sand, sand and nothing more than sand. After the crossing Lac Iriki the crews will cross the entire Erg Chebbi from east to west and north to south. After a few kilometres on the sandy slopes they will dive into another sea of dunes.