The Renault crews are looking forward to start of the Dakar

30.12.2022

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The 45th edition of the Dakar Rally will start this Saturday. Three North Bohemian trucks from the MKR Technology team workshop of designer Mario Kress will also be at the start of the legendary long-distance competition. This year's rally will be different in many ways and the organizers promise that it will definitely be one of the most difficult rallys of the Saudi Arabian era.

The trio of Renault Trucks is already fully prepared for Saturday's start. The special trucks from the MKR Technology workshop will be led by the Dutch pilots of the Riwald Dakar team. The hybrid version of the Renault C 460 truck will traditionally be driven by Gert Huzink (#520), the second truck will be driven by Pascal de Baar (#507) and the third vehicle K 520 will be piloted by Adwin Hoondert (#538) in the competition. Riders have already enjoyed their first rides and the popular shakedown at Sea Camp. “We've made a lot of adjustments since last year, but we've also done a lot more testing. We were in Poland and Morocco and spent more time there. It was very nice to watch and feel the progress and all the improvements. Currently, everything is working well and I have good feeling about the truck," commented pilot Gert Huzink after the first drives in Arabia.

The Dakar will start on the Arabian Peninsula for the fourth time. It moved here from Asia in 2020. This time the competition starts on New Year's Eve with a festive prologue, and on New Year's Day the race will start with the first sharp stage. Fourteen stages in total are waiting for the crews. They start at Sea Camp on the shores of the Red Sea and end on the opposite side of the peninsula on the coast of the Arabian Gulf. The competitors have two demanding weeks ahead of them with only one day off. There will also be a marathon part, during which they will have to do without the help of team technicians. If everything goes as planned, the competitors will reach the finish line in Dammam in mid-January (January 15), with a total of over eight and a half thousand kilometers to cover, of which more than four and a half thousand are timed sections. Thanks to the three-day journey through the ocean of dunes in the Empty Quarter, the fourth largest sand desert in the world, the organizers promise an extremely difficult year. But it will be extremely specific for truck crews thanks to the non-participation of a Russian Kamaz and MAZ powerhouses. In all likelihood, the test of extreme endurance will be much more balanced. "I think the race will be much fairer because of this," believes pilot Pascal De Baar, as he immediately asks himself: "How often do you have a chance to do the Dakar without any Kamaz? We were always happy to ride among the Russians, but now we can focus more on ourselves. The truck is good and the field will be more balanced. I think there will be a lot of fighting at the front, that it will be a tactical game, so it will be important not to go crazy," smiled Pascal de Baar, who wants to be in the elite ten right from the start with his colleague Gert Huzink. "We start from the twentieth position, so if we succeed in the prologue itself, we can really go full gas in the race right from the New Year," winked Gert Huzink, who is aware of the fact that the main tricks will come in the second week, when the program enters a number of challenging and tricky dunes. "There, it's all about driving skills. But every day will be challenging. We are looking forward to it," Huzink looks forward to the start of the 45^th Dakar.

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