sábado, 20 de janeiro de 2018

The long way to Cordoba

Stage 13, penultimate day of the Dakar Rally was very long for the teams. They had to drive 927 kilometres from San Juan to the last bivouac of the rally, Cordoba, completing a 368 km long special, divided into two parts, during the journey. For Tomas Ourednicek and David Kripal the first part of the timed section was really successful: they clocked the 17th time. In the second part they managed the keep a similar pace so in the end the finished the day in 19th position. In the overall classification they are 30th before the last stage.

“Luckily enough, today was quite uneventful for us. The first part of the stage was very tricky, many drivers got stuck in the feshfesh, and it was very easy to destroy the car. Once we caught the Peugeot of Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi. The second part was WRC-like, and I was very happy because the car was working well. The track was slippery but nice, with many spectators. Towards the end, we lost some time because we had to drive in the dark, but David did an excellent job with navigation again and this made my task also a bit easier. Altogether, today we managed to drive fast without any mistake, while quite many crews, even very good and experienced drivers, had problems. We are really happy to arrive in Cordoba, but for sure our mechanics will have a long night again, because although tomorrow’s stage is quite short, the car has to be checked thoroughly,” Tomas Ourednicek said about the penultimate stage. 

Saturday is the last day of the 40th anniversary Dakar Rally: the competitors say goodbye to Argentina with a short, 284 km stage, with 119 kilometres against the clock in a loop around Cordoba. Although it’s the last day, don’t expect a walk in the park, all crews have to keep their focus if they want to reach the end of the adventure, the final podium…