Despite A Collision with A Car Kolomý Ranks Fourth and Šoltys Fourteenth in Stage Two
Martin Kolomý finished stage two with the fourth quickest time, despite a collision on the route. In overall ranking he thus moved up from the eighth to the fourth rank. Martin Šoltys, the second pilot of the team, ranked fourteenth in the demanding second stage.
Martin Kolomý achieved the fourth best time in the second stage, despite a collision with a car at abut kilometre 150. “This stage was really demanding today, many dunes. The sand was very powdery. We enjoyed an excellent drive. We got stuck in two craters, kind of dune as well, and could not get out. So I had to do some “tobogganing” for a while. There we lost a couple of precious minutes. And all ended by a collision with a passenger car. We turned to the right to pass it and drove nearly on a rock edge but the car turned to the right too until it drove under our truck. So we lost a little there too. But we are still only at the beginning, our Tatra is complete and all right and flew over the stage again. We can continue tomorrow,” said Kolomý in the finish of the demanding stage.
The second pilot of the TATRA Buggyra Racing team, Martin Šoltys, surprised himself by the fourteenth stage rank. “Unlike the prologue, this was demanding indeed, and long as well. We finally ranked fourteenth with an hour and a half loss. Good for a newcomer, I think, we were overtaking rally stars like Ardavichus, and Kamazs, which had some problems. We have so far avoided technology issues, thank God, so I am satisfied at the end of today,” was the evaluation of the second stage by Martin Šoltys.
“It was really enjoyable, I was shocked what they dared to prepare for us in the first big stage. I quite ache for the newcomers. I must raise my hat to Martin Šoltys, for to drive into such a massacre is really horrible and he managed it excellently,” this is how the Dakar matador praised the newcomer in his crew. “At one moment we had a little problem with navigation, the boys even climbed to the roof to look into the distance, but they could see as far as the nearest dune only, so I told them not to climb there, that it was no use. We got out of it in the end and here we are in the finish, and all right,“ said Josef Kalina at the end of the day.
