• Nani Roma hampered by technical problems
The pleasant anticipation of the 2015 Dakar rally was huge and the first special stage with its distance of 170 kilometres comparably short. Argentinean pairing Orlando Terranova / Ronnie Graue won the first special stage, with their red and black MINI ALL4 Racing. Fourth place was secured by Poland’s Krzysztof Holowczyc. He races the blue and black MINI ALL4 Racing together with his French navigator Xavier Panseri who is contesting his first Dakar. Meanwhile, the team had to cope with bad news regarding its reigning Dakar champion Nani Roma (ESP) and his co-driver Michel Périn (FRA) who were hampered by technical problems and are still working on finishing the stage.
But this bad luck didn’t belittle the joy about the win of ‘Orly’. “A strange situation,” Orlando said about his belated win he inherited due to time penalties for several competitors. “To be the first to go out tomorrow will represent a major challenge.” Tomorrow, the competitors will have to contest the longest special stage of this year’s Dakar. “We now have to have a rest and the car must be in a perfect condition,” continued the Argentinean. “But it certainly will be a great special stage.”
By finishing fourth, ‘Holek’ also secured a promising initial position for tomorrow’s long stage. “We had a good pace and didn’t take any risks – really smooth and without any problems,” said Holowczyc. “If you think of tomorrow’s 500-kilometre special stage, today was a rather easy day anyway. In a long stage, you have to take care of your tyres and cover the distance at a good speed.”
Meanwhile, Roma and Périn had to stop due to technical problems with just a few kilometres covered. Later, they were towed by the race truck through the stage and currently are on their way to completing the liaison section to the bivouac.
Tomorrow’s stage will take the competitors from Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan. A 26-kilometre liaison section is followed by a 518-kilometre special stage. Having completed the special stage, the teams will have to cover another 86 kilometres to the bivouac. This means that the 2015 Dakar’s second special stage already is its longest, meaning a special test for the entire range of driving skills. The first sections of the special stage features hard track surfaces but later, the drivers will have to cope with dusty tracks leading into the sand.
