Dakar 2014 Won by Karginov, Kolomý Not Overcome
Valparaíso - The Dakar Rally of this year has entered history! The truck category was again controlled by Kamazs. Although the finish was more than thrilling, the overall lead was maintained by the Russian pilot Andrej Karginov, who has thus entered the historic tables as a Dakar winner. After the end of this 36th year last year ´s fifth rank of Martin Kolomý has remained unbeaten by this Czech pilot this time.
"Although we did not manage to reach the finish of the race for technical issues this year, we have learned a big lesson as newcomers to Dakar. We launched the joint project as long-term cooperation and although all of us did the absolute maximum for the result to be as good as possible, we realized the risks. When the BUGGYRA project started the very first season was a catastrophe but only a year later we won our first champion title in the European Championship. Let us see what the next sequel of the Dakar project will be like," noted the manager of Buggyra Jan Kalivoda.
For a while it looked like Kolomý ´s last year final rank might be improved by the nephew of the famous Monsieur Dakar Aleš Loprais. But he finally lost his interim fourth rank due to a broken compressor hose in the last but one stage of the race, which caused his drop to the final sixth rank that virtually could not be improved on the last day of the rally. But he eventually at least won the very last Dakar act and maintained the final overall sixth rank.
Who might think that the final 13th stage of the Dakar Rally with its 157 kilometres would be just a symbolic ride for the pilots to enjoy the stony track of South America, he was terribly mistaken. The overall victory was not decided yet. The second raking De Rooy wanted to repeat his victory of 2012 and thus fought as a lion. His loss behind the interim leader was mere seven and a half minutes, a difference which he wanted to wipe off at any cost. For most of the stage his plan seemed to be heading towards materialisation in the end. His advantage over Karginov in the course of the stage was more than nine minutes, which made him the interim leader again. But as the hares are only counted after the hunt, the Russian pilot accelerated and did not let anybody deprive him of the overall victory. The final stage of the rally was won by Aleš Loprais, De Rooy ranked second and the sixth Karginov´s final loss was less than seven minutes. Thanks to that he can celebrate the highest triumph for the first time in his career at the hardest long-distance race of the world. The final second rank of De Rooy remained true and the podium for the winners was completed by the third ranking Russian Nikolaev. The top five only includes Kamazs, with the only wedge between them represented by the Iveco of De Rooy. "The results were as expected, although the pressure on the leading Karginov was very strong. Today it started raining and De Rooy tried to reduce his loss to zero, for the track was rather of the WRC style. A nice time was achieved by Aleš Loprais, to whom the stage victory belonged. I would like to congratulate to everybody and wish them a lot of future success. The most important thing is that all finished the race in good health and I hope all of us will meet again next year in full strength to struggle together for the laurels again," was the message of the pilot Martin Kolomý of the Tatra Buggyra Racing team.
Of the Czech crews with Gyrtech support Arthur Ardavichus ranked twelfth in the final stage. The thirteenth overall rank of Vlastimil Vildman, whose performance was well balanced throughout the race, was a surprise. Ardavichus´s final rank was right behind him and Tomáš Vrátný ranked seventeenth. Great was also the ambition of Jaroslav Valtr, who eventually did not finish the rally like Martin Kolomý. However, both of them managed to attract the local audiences with their tours de force. Certainly nobody will forget Kolomý ´s finish on three wheels, which won him the nickname "Three-Wheel" and made him writ large in the history of Dakar 2014.
Results - Stage 13 (157 km): 1. Loprais (CZE) Tatra 2:17:37, 2. De Rooy (NED) Iveco +2:25, 3. Nikolaev (RUS) Kamaz +2:53, 4. Stacey (NED) Iveco +4:22, 5. Adua (FRA) Iveco +4:25, 12. Ardavichus (KAZ) Tatra +9:04, 28. Vrátný (CZE) Tatra +23:47, 31. Vildman (CZE) Liaz +28:19, 36. Tománek (CZE) Tatra +34:03.
Overall: 1. Karginov (RUS) Kamaz 55:00:28, 2. De Rooy (NED) Iveco +3:11, 3. Nikolaev (RUS) Kamaz +1:34:52, 4. Sotnikov (RUS) Kamaz +3:22:10, 5. Shibalov (RUS) Kamaz +4:37:25, 6. Loprais (CZE) Tatra +5:04:01, 13. Vildman (CZE) Liaz +13:20:46, 14. Ardavichus (KAZ) Tatra +15:36:11, 17. Vrátný (CZE) Tatra +17:38:43, 18. Tománek (CZE) Tatra +18:20:48.
