Van den Brink took silver on Silk Way for his birthday

23.7.2018

The driver of the North Bohemian truck from the MKR Technology team Martin van den Brink is finally delighted. In the 3rd stage of the Russian Silk Way Rally he jumped to the podium. This time he took silver position, which he took as a present for 48th birthday after all the bad luck.

            For the Mammoet Rallysport team and the MKR Technology team, the second racing day meant a completely different fight against time. While other crews went to stage 2 as usual, MKR technicians had to replace the entire front axle so Martin van den Brink could rejoin on the second part of the marathon Stage in Elista. "We were able to replace the axle at three in the morning, so then Martin went on to the start of the 3rd stage. He has made it and is going with a penalty, "said mechanic Daniel Kozlovsky from Roudnice.

            The 3rd Stage from Elista to Astrakhan was almost five hundred kilometres long, with 332 kilometres of timed sections. Van den Brink was doing well and was overtaking one Kamaz after another. He even helped to release one stuck truck with the leading Russian driver Sotnikov. "However, the organizers decided to shorten the stage from the first check point due to bad weather. So Martin took second place today. He wanted to have better present, but eventually he said that silver for birthdays was also not bad. The mood in the team is still good,"Kozlovsky described the situation in Russia.

            The stage was eventually won by Rus Sotnikov, who is also first in the leaderboard. The forthcoming 4th stage, with start and finish both in Astrakhan, there is nearly three hundred and seventy kilometres of timed sections full of malice and pitfalls in the Astrakhan steppe.