The third stage is over. Nothing pleasant really. We started from the 12th position, so we could expect a lot of dust and overtaking. We were quite successful in the first part of the measured section, and we finished in fourth place. We suffered through the connecting stretch of the stage approximately 500 km long. I do not like it, as one drops out of the race rhythm, but nothing can be done about it. We succeeded in the second part of the measured trial, we were achieving stable times, and it seemed that we would improve our tomorrow’s starting position. We were in fifth place at the last WP, with the loss of around 4 minutes to the first truck. But in the last part, about 20 km before the finish, we encountered a technical problem. Servo pump. It was exchanged recently. What can I say. We lost half an hour, dropped down to 17th place in the stage and overall, we are in 13th place. We go on!
Tomorrow the stage will take us from SAN SALVADOR DE JUJUY to TUPIZA. This fourth stage measuring 521 km, of which 416 km will be a speed trial, will be the same for all categories and includes crossing the border from Argentina to Bolivia. We will drive in the mountains and the organizer promises dune fields in the end. The first truck will depart at 14.54 CET.
I am glad that the today’s stage is already behind us. It was agony. Crazy heat, almost 50°C outdoors and almost 80°C in the cabin. I am still fighting with an illness, so I turn up the heating a little bit. Pretty harsh! However, the heat is with all of us. Our loss is 5.09 minutes to the winner, which is not much and the crunch will come somewhere else. This just shows how equal the competitors are this year and the differences are minimal. I am still getting to know the truck and I believe that we will be friends.
What awaits us tomorrow? The stage from SAN MIGUEL DE TUCAMAN to SAN SALVADOR DE JUJUY that measures a total of 757 km where the speed trial for the trucks will be 199 km long. We will rise up to the mountains, but the temperatures will pester us quite a lot.
The third stage is supposed to be absolutely off-road. There will be several crossings over river and each of them can bring about potential problems, especially in the estimate of depth and hidden traps in the form of stones. Simply Dakar …
Your support helps us. Greetings from Ales Loprais
“Talking too much brings bad luck”
Ales Loprais raced his first seven Dakars in a Tatra before switching to a MAN in 2015 when he realised that his Tatra wasn’t going to be able to meet FIA regulations. He finished in 4th place that year but in 2016 raced an IVECO with the De Rooy team after getting chatting to De Rooy Junior while they were both getting a massage. Apparently De Rooy told Ales’ physio to give him a good massage because his back must be hurting! Unfortunately Ales went out early with mechanical problems but for 2017 he is back to his first love, the Tatra. It is the brand with which he has achieved his ‘only’ Dakar podium to date (3rd place in 2007) and with which he’d very much like to take his first Dakar win, something his uncle Karel Loprais achieved a staggering 6 times during his career.
“It is great to be back with the Tatra team, they made me a good offer but I was also persuaded by the Czech fans who really pushed me to go back to the brand. I don’t like to talk too much about what might happen on the Dakar -I think it brings bad luck- but obviously, after winning the Silk Way and finishing on the podium on the Dakar, I’m not entering just to make up the numbers. This year I have an excellent team behind me, a good truck and some very experienced co-drivers in the form of Jiri Stross and Martin Prokop’s WRC navigator, Jan Tomanek. Let’s just say that all the ingredients are there to be able to achieve a good result.”
Just three Tatras are entered in the 2017 Dakar, mainly because the Bonver Dakar Team experienced health problems last year after the Silk Way Rally. They will head for the Africa Eco race instead. The disabled Albert Llovera will therefore be the only BonverDakar Project Tatra representative in South America.
With Marin Kolomy and Ales Loprais as drivers, the Buggyra Team can present the strongest Tatra team for years.
Ales Loprais: “Talking too much brings bad luck”
Ales Loprais raced his first seven Dakars in a Tatra before switching to a MAN in 2015 when he realised that his Tatra wasn’t going to be able to meet FIA regulations. He finished in 4th place that year but in 2016 raced an IVECO with the De Rooy team after getting chatting to De Rooy Junior while they were both getting a massage. Apparently De Rooy told Ales’ physio to give him a good massage because his back must be hurting! Unfortunately Ales went out early with mechanical problems but for 2017 he is back to his first love, the Tatra. It is the brand with which he has achieved his ‘only’ Dakar podium to date (3rd place in 2007) and with which he’d very much like to take his first Dakar win, something his uncle Karel Loprais achieved a staggering 6 times during his career.
“It is great to be back with the Tatra team, they made me a good offer but I was also persuaded by the Czech fans who really pushed me to go back to the brand. I don’t like to talk too much about what might happen on the Dakar -I think it brings bad luck- but obviously, after winning the Silk Way and finishing on the podium on the Dakar, I’m not entering just to make up the numbers. This year I have an excellent team behind me, a good truck and some very experienced co-drivers in the form of Jiri Stross and Martin Prokop’s WRC navigator, Jan Tomanek. Let’s just say that all the ingredients are there to be able to achieve a good result.”
Martin Kolomy: “The signing of Ales (Loprais) is a major advance for us”
Back with a new truck, the Tatra Phoenix, Martin Kolomy is hoping for a better result than in 2016, when he finished in 17th place overall, after having knocked on the door of the Top 5 earlier on in the race. To take on the might of the De Rooy and Kamaz teams he will be once again counting on his faithful crew members, the Kilian brothers, David and Rene. He will also be able to count on the support of the Tatra Buggyra Racing team’s latest recruit, none other than Ales Loprais.
M.K. “The signing of Ales is, in my opinion, a major advance for us. Team success comes from having more quick drivers. In addition, in the past two years Ales has been learning new things in foreign teams and I believe that his experience could be very interesting and inspiring for us.”
Albert Llovera
participated in the Dakar 2016 to the controls of a truck. A couple of months before the appointment, a pilot was injured and had to resign. They proposed to occupy his place. He showed up without ever having brought a truck. He thought that it would serve him to make miles and get experience for future editions. Despite the riskiness of the decision, it did not go wrong. It finished in the position 35.
This will be his fifth participation in the Dakar. In 2015 I managed to finish the test in a buggy after two years trying it – 2007 and 2014. He managed to fulfil a personal challenge: to complete the world’s toughest raid wheelchair rally. His desire for improvement is incontestable since at 18 years of suffering a ski accident that caused a spinal cord injury and loss of motor skills. Her life has always been closely linked to sport, before and after the accident. With 17 participated in the Olympic Games of Winter of Sarajevo. He then competed in Paralympic basketball, played adventure sports and developed a long career as a rally driver, showing his versatility to drive in snow, dirt or sand, to the controls of cars and trucks. He returns to the Dakar with the same truck as last year, after two tests in the Czech Republic and Morocco, and with the same spirit of struggle and improvement he has always demonstrated.
A.LL: “Last year I lived a very rewarding experience, despite being my first time in a truck. The first few days I had problems with the adjustment to the controls. We lost 7 or 8 hours. Another day we broke a transmission on the sand, we arrived very late and did not give us time other than to change monkeys and come out again. This year I would like to do better than last year and be among the top 20. The Dakar is an adventure that is getting faster and faster and I really like it. It looks more like a rally. People have to know how to go for sand but also for roads. I am very versatile. I like to do everything and try new things. With the wheelchair is something more difficult and tired, especially in the bivouac, since we can not move well through the sand or go to the toilet. However I go in store and sleep very at ease. Despite the limitations, I try to be one more. The chair is under my ass, not in the head. “
“The route of the 2017 Dakar preserves rally-raid traditions, with a physical challenge that will push the competitors into the world of extreme endurance: 7 selective sections will be over 400 kilometres with one of more than 500 kilometres. The rally will be spent 6 days at more than 3,000 metres above sea level. The balance of difficulties can be illustrated by a double upward trend: the level of difficulty will increase just until the rest day, then a second increase in power will be necessary, to reach one’s ideal level for the “Super Belén”. Nothing will be decided until the very last special stage at Río Cuarto”.
Route details: http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2017/us/route.html
