• Roma works his way up, following his night-shift repair
The Monster Energy Rally Raid Team had to cope with another day of mixed emotions. Just as on day one, the Polish-French pairing Krzysztof Holowczyc / Xavier Panseri in the blue and black MINI ALL4 Racing finished fourth – to also hold fourth place in the overall standings. For a long time, Orlando Terranova (ARG) and Bernardo „Ronnie“ Graue (ARG) seemed to be on the way to winning the stage or securing a top result, at least – but then they rolled the MINI ALL4 Racing as stage leaders and dropped back to 10th. Meanwhile, the unlucky fellows of the first stage, Nani Roma (ESP) and Michel Périn (FRA), crossed the finish line in 34th position.
When Holowczyc arrived at the finish, he already had got out of his fireproof racing overall to complete the liaison section in short trousers. No wonder, with temperatures of more than 40°C. In addition, the Pole suffered from seasickness, during the final kilometres. “It was a very tough special stage. We had a good pace over the first 450 kilometres. We pushed, but not too hard,” Holowczyc revealed. “But the final 50 kilometres were horrible for me. It was up and down all the time and I got seasick. Over the final 30 kilometres I only dreamed about finally crossing the finish line.”
Today’s unlucky fellows were ‘Orly’ and ‘Ronnie’. Having won stage one, the two were the first to go out today and consequently had to act as pathfinders. Nonetheless, they succeeded in defending their lead nearly throughout the special stage. But then, with just 10 more special-stage kilometres to go, their dream of the second consecutive stage win came to a sudden end. “We rolled four times,” revealed Terranova. During a jump, the car turned sideways, two tyres burst when hitting the ground and the car began a multi-time rollover. Fortunately, driver and navigator survived the incident unhurt. “Afterwards, we lost quite a lot of time as we had to repair the tyres and the fuel pump. But we made it to the finish and now we have to battle on.”
Due to the long work on the car of Roma and Périn because of a broken oil pump, they started into the stage with a 50-minute delay and consequently, they held only 88th position, with the first kilometres covered. But then, they worked their way up step by step to finish in the very fine 34th position. From there, they also will start into tomorrow’s third stage. “At first I have to thank the team that did a fantastic job, tonight,” Roma said. “They revised the entire engine – just crazy. But the special stage was tough. Over the first 300 kilometres I only was driving in the dust of many other competitors. I have to admit that it’s anything but easy to cope with such a setback at the very beginning of the Dakar but we will keep on fighting and try to achieve the maximum.”
Tomorrow’s stage from San Juan to Chilecito won’t be that tough for the crews. On the one hand, the 284-kilometee special stage will be significantly shorter than today’s and on the other, there will be no sand but solely harder terrain.
Stage 2 - 05.01.2015
4. HOLOWCZYC/ PANSERI - MINI ALL4 Racing - 05h 16m 02s
10. TERRANOVA / GRAUE - MINI ALL4 Racing – 05h 28m 51s
34. ROMA / PÉRIN - MINI ALL4 Racing – 06h 53m 51s
Overall - 05.01.2015
4. HOLOWCZYC/ PANSERI - MINI ALL4 Racing - 06h 30m 08s
10. TERRANOVA / GRAUE - MINI ALL4 Racing – 06h 42m 03s
tba. ROMA / PÉRIN - MINI ALL4 Racing – 15h 32m 48s
