The Dutch Dakar Team Holland, driving the only Tatra Phoenix in the Dakar, finished 33rd in the first stage, but is still missing in the rankings of the 2nd stage.  Their website http://www.dakarteamholland.nl/ hasn’t said anything about their fate until now, so the wondering has started. The team suffered from large problems the last year. Two years ago they retired, last year, driver Marcel Schoo flipped his Tatra and could not continue. This year Marcel Schoo’s goal was simple: Get the Phoenix to the finish. Bad luck again struck the team last december, when Marcel Schoo encountered medical problems and had to replaced by Pierre Blom. When one sees their professional approach, their Phoenix service truck etc, they deserve more.

UPDATE: Today we experienced that the Phoenix is still in! The crew however missed three waypoints and to avoid disqualification, turned back with the consequence of loosing three hours. The Phoenix finished last of all trucks, after midnight at 2-30 a.m local time today. Crossing the dunes in the dark was hard, especially as the sand was dark as well, forcing the crew to be cautious.

Tomas Vratny on his way to 36th place in the 2nd stage

Aleš Loprais continued the Dakar Rally encouraged by the success in the first stage, which he finished with the Queen 69 on the second place.

Aleš Loprais continued the Dakar Rally encouraged by the success in the first stage, which he finished with the Queen 69 on the second place. And a really hard work waited for him and the others racers too. After the start from San Luis brought the connection section of 304 km racers to the Sierra Nevada, which then all circled in the 400 km long bypass. So they can see the Payún volcano with a height of over three and a half kilometre or the lake Laguna se Llancanelo with a natural reserve from all sides. But there was no time to watching. Organizers prepared one of the fastest stages of the rally, which however proved as tricky. Measured section started on the clay base, which was after 40 km replaced by stones. Aleš Loprais with the winner of the first stage Mardeev went first and after about two hours it looked very promising for the Czech crew – the results showed them on the first place, five second before Mardeev. But then stopped luck for the leading duo. Firstly arrived news about the accident of Mardeev. Kamaz crew could not get out of the cab, but was blessing in disguise. Dutchman De Rooy helped more than fifteen minutes the crew to get out. Help rivals in need is a gesture that is appreciated.

Grey and unusually harsh sand dunes in Nihuilu made it hot even for Aleš Loprais. He reached the finish destination in San Rafael with a broken windscreen and on the 14th place. Finally the official web site of the race said that it was more than 45 minutes loss of the winning De Rooy, exactly 45 minutes and 5 second. In the overall ranking it means that Aleš is on the seventh place. His loss to the first De Rooy is 43 minutes and 46 seconds.

“Hello to all in the Czech Republic. Though it perhaps sounds strange, I would call this day a happy stage. Unfortunately, shortly after the start we lost the 4×4 dust. The whole time I was thinking how we will go through the last 80 km of dunes that awaited us. With the 9,5-ton truck it is really a lottery, which we finally won, even though we lost a lot of time in sand. Another adrenaline moment came about 30 km after the start, when the wind pushed windscreen into the cabin and broke it. We had to stop, kick the glass and continue in the dust gruelling 370 km! Only in glasses. During the day we overtook dozens of cars at full speed. With one hand you hold the steering wheel, with the other you cover the exes from stones flying from vehicles ahead. Today we endured a lot of powder, but we reached the stage in good health. 4×4 dust will be fixed tomorrow, so today was a really happy day,” describes our pilot Aleš Loprais what actually happened on the track.

Today is the third stage from San Rafael to San Juan. And today should fear those who do not like heights. View will be on almost the whole South America. Cars and trucks will during the third stage climb four times to altitude of three kilometre and motorbikes and quads to a height of 4300 meters above sea level. Mountain terrain bellow the Aconcagua volcano will test the readiness and technical capability of all participants. And after a day of scratching up the hill waits at the end of measured section the steep descent. During the last few kilometres descend trucks and cars from two and half kilometres to approximately eight hundred meters, motorcyclist will fall from more and four kilometres to 1700 metres. Different target altitude shows that the bivouac will split for the first time this year. Depo of the motorcyclist will be isolated.

Dutchman Gerard de Rooy is now the winner of yesterday’s stage and overall leader in the truck class. By helping the crashed Mardeev yesterday, he lost 23 minutes and his appeal to be compensayed, was granted by the organisation. Kolomy finished 5th, 23 min adrift, Loprais 14th, 45 min adrift due to his cracked front scree, the Loprais crew having to fight the sand. Tomanek came home 1hr10 sec after thge stage winner, Ardavichus 26th and Vratny 36th, more than two hours after de Rooy.

	AUTO/CAMION
Etape 5 AS SAKN / DAKHLA
Classement Général – 04/01/2014		36 concurrent(s) classé(s)

Pos	pgr	N°	Nat.	Pilotes	Marque	Grp/Pos	Cl/Pos	Scratch	Diff 1er	Péna
1	0	200		SCHLESSER Jean louis MAGNALDI Thierry	SCHLESSER	T1 / 1	1.3 / 1	17:00:36
2	0	201		LOOMANS Jacques DRIESMANS Frits	TOYOTA	T1 / 2	1.1 / 1	17:40:35	00:39:59
3	0	214		SABATIER Jean antoine ROZAND Denis	BUGG AFRIQUE	T1 / 3	1.3 / 2	17:57:53	00:57:17	00h03
4	0	211		TURON BARRERE Michel MARTINEAU Guillaume	BUGGY	T1 / 4	1.4 / 1	18:02:47	01:02:11
5	0	206		SHAGIROV Kanat MOROZ Alexandr	H3	T1 / 5	1.1 / 2	18:21:12	01:20:36
6	0	204		SZALAY Balazs BUNKOCZI Laszlo	OPEL	T1 / 6	1.1 / 3	19:00:58	02:00:22
7	+1	253		HENRARD Stephane BARBIER Bruno	BUGGY	O / 1	/ 1	19:42:06	02:41:30
8	-1	207		FLORIN Gilles COTEL Herve	COTEL	T1 / 7	1.3 / 3	19:52:29	02:51:53	00h65
9	0	400		TOMECEK Tomas MORAVEK Vojtech	TATRA	T4 / 1	/ 1	20:03:45	03:03:09
10	0	401		JACINTO Elisabete TEIXEIRA MARQUES Jose COCHINHO Marco	MAN	T4 / 2	/ 2	20:17:42	03:17:06
11	0	402		KOVACS Miklos CZEGLEDI Peter ACS Laszlo	SCANIA	T4 / 3	/ 3	20:49:32	03:48:56

He is closely followed by his rival

Tomas Tomecek leads the Africa Eco race in the truck class. He is followed closely by his rival of the last years, Elisabete Jacint (MAN) and Mildos Kovacs (Scania). Tomecek finished 1st in Stage 1 and 2 and was runner-up in stage 3,4 and 5.

http://www.africarace-live.com/en/cla-etp5.html

In the 1st stage of this year’s Dakar, Martin Kolomy suffered from a puncture, after his brake got too hot, causing a burned tyre. Further, he had a radiator problem caused by the continuous jumping. In the end, he finished 32nd, 36 secodns behind stage winner Mardeev.

Loprais during the first stage. Much of the time he was in the lead, but in the end he had to hand over victory to Mardeev by just 10 seconds.

More news? stay tuned…

6.1.2014

NEWSLETTER INSTAFOREX LOPRAIS TEAM
The first silver stage for the son Alex

The opening ceremony of this year’s Dakar Rally was spectacular. There was a large event with the representatives of the Argentine Government held in Rosario on Friday. Yesterday, on Saturday, then held ceremonial parade of all participants on the podium, which lasted approximately six hours. Aerobatic aircraft embroidered ornaments above the town, helicopters circled and each of the competitors could enjoy his moment of glory. Interest of the Argentinean fans was huge. Three million of them should gather for the preshow to Rosario.  But that’s nothing compared to the expected ratings in the world. More than 70 television stations in 190 countries will broadcast the race!
Aleš commented it: ”Beautiful atmosphere, Argentines were amazing as usual. We also had a short meeting with the winners of the competition by Budvar and Sherlog. We had dinner together and also talked about the Dakar. But now we are going to the start of the first stage. Suerte – as locals say – good luck!”

The first stage ran from Rosario to San Luis (liaison section 629 km, special stage 180 km). After the start in Rosarion the racers went along the Rio Tercero. They drove 405 km through Caňada de Gomez, Villa Maria and Rio Tercero towns. About 50 km after the Rio Tercero started the 180 km long first special stage. It coiled like a snake in the form of the letter S in the foothills of the Sierra de Córdoba with Champui peak, which rises to a height of 2790 metres above sea level. Dirt-stony measured section started at 500 meters above sea level, the end was already located at an altitude of approximately 2100 meters above sea level. Right at the 29th kilometre waited the first control point for the racers. After passing the special stage travelled the racers 224 km to the southwest to San Luis.

504 crew may be satisfied with the gained second place and our pilot Aleš added a personal message: “The first Dakar silver this year. It could be gold, but there was a small navigation mistake. But it is a very nice result compared to the Kamaz team and other major competitors. The stage measured nearly 200 km and the spacing between the first and second place is only ten seconds! This shows the current difficulty and evenness of the category. After a long and busy day with almost 900 km on the road we have finally arrived to the bivouac. The working on the Queen 69, which today went well, started again. Both Tatra now receive the necessary service and the mechanics will not stop until the morning. Dakar has already started. And I, respectively we have started up in a personal life. My son Alex was born a few days before the race. This symbolic stage silver I would like to dedicate to him and his wonderful mother. Although I wanted gold for him (and it was damn close), I believe he can wait a while and we will succeed with the Queen… Thank you all for your good wishes and support that we receive during the race from fans.”

We add our congratulations not only to the team for a great start, but especially Alex. Lot of health, happiness and success in many races that the life will bring to him!