Both Buggyra Racing crews made it to the end of 42nd Dakar Rally
The first-ever Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia went perfectly, with the competition going back to its roots. Martin Šoltys with Tatra Phoenix finished in the 11th place overall, while Josef Macháček successfully fulfilled his mission to bring the brand-new Can-Am Buggyra MK50 XRS to the end.
Both crews have agreed that it was a long and tough Dakar. It had fast pistas, rocks, sandy plains and even fields of dunes. A big step from what drivers faced in the past years in South America. Martin Šoltys, David Schovánek and Tomáš Šikola put together a very consistent performance throughout the whole competition and they lost the TOP 10 result only in the very end of the race.“It definitely wasn’t slow today. We had only one goal – to keep one of the MAZ drivers behind us. And we’ve managed to do that. We hoped to finish higher, but I have no regrets. We came here to enjoy it. As a crew, we worked with ease, without any disputes. All went well and we happily take the 11th place overall,” said Martin Šoltys, who finished the final stage in the 9th position.
Josef Macháček and his navigator Vlastimil Tošenovský faced a different challenge at Dakar, with very special roles for this year’s race. They were given a brand-new Can-Am special made by Buggyra Racing team but instead of going testing, they went directly to Dakar to race it.“I wanted to give the team a TOP 10 result today. It looked well at the beginning, but then I and Vlastimil agreed to focus on finishing it instead. We had a moment when we almost turned upside down again and that’s when we humbly decided to do that. Considering what happened in the first 3 kilometres of the competition, it’s great to be here. I think that we’ve gathered a lot of valuable experience and I can’t wait to see the next development of this car,” said Josef Macháček.
“We’re definitely happy. We expected problems with the new SSV category vehicle, but it’s important that we’ve done the whole Dakar. Now the guys know what to improve or what to do differently, and that’s going to be our topic for the next few days. Martin Šoltys stayed around the 8th or 9th position for the whole Dakar. Unfortunately, then they hit some technical problems yesterday that put them to the 11th place. But the crew was consistent and didn’t risk too much. The whole team deserves a big thank you because we’ve worked great together,” added team manager Jan Kalivoda after Dakar Rally 2020.
