44 hours of racing with almost no pause… Having to climb up from the very last place in the overall classification…Getting stuck on a dune with the starter dead… Racing for half day with no spare tyres left… Tomas Ourednicek could never imagine that his fifth Dakar would be more “adventurous” than the previous four together. Together with his co-driver, David Kripal, for whom it was the first participation in Dakar, they experienced all the highs and lows the marathon race could offer, many times dancing on the edge of withdrawal, but they never surrendered, never admitted the thought of giving up the race – not even when it seemed to be the only logical decision. Today finally they managed to reach the finish line in Cordoba, after completing the 119 km long final special of the rally.
David Kripal was all smiles after finishing his first Dakar: “It’s a fantastic feeling to be in the finish! Today we started very well, passed many cars, but then we were stuck for 30 kilometres in the dust of one of the CanAms, so our time could have been much better, but we reached the finish line, and this is the most important. We’d like to say thank you to everyone who supported us along this long way!”
“We are very happy, because we finished the hardest Dakar ever! For us it was particularly difficult because for most of the race, we had engine problem and it turned out only in the last days that it was caused by a lambda sensor. Until then, we only survived, and we were able to start real racing only in the last three days. These two weeks, these tracks tested man and machine to the absolute limit or beyond, but now we are in the finish. I can’t really describe the feeling!” Tomas Ourednicek said at the finish of the 2018 Dakar Rally.
