Kolomý Adds Third Stage Victory and Returns to Podium!
The pilot of the TATRA Buggyra Racing team Martin Kolomý was the quickest pilot of the eleventh stage of the Silk Way Rally and added the third stage victory to his score. In the interim ranking he overleapt the Russian pilot Mardeev and returned to the third overall rank.
The original plans of the organizers were to schedule the longest speed test of the rally for this stage, divided into two sections. The first section across the local nature reserve had to be cancelled for the reason of missing permits, though, and thus the pilots only covered the second section in the length of 237 kilometres. The pitfalls of the route were best countered by Martin Kolomý, who achieved the quickest stage time today and added the third stage victory to his Silk Way Rally account. “Again a nice stage, ideal for TATRA, so our Phoenix honoured its name and flew it over. But only until we caught up with the Chinese LIU Yangui, who did not want to let give way, stirring clouds of dust in front of us. We could hardly drive at all. In the finish I went to give him a friendly talk about that, I hope he understood,“ described Martin Kolomý the stage after completing it with slight annoyance and a lot of satisfaction. He, together with the Russian pilot Sotnikov, has the highest number of victorious stages in his account. “We originally wanted to finish somewhere around the third rank to start for the demanding dunes tomorrow after somebody else, but now it will be us who will make the way to the rest of the field. Never mind,” was Kolomý´s comment on the fact that he will be the first to start for tomorrow´s stage, which will be the same condition as became fatal for him in stage five where he fell into one of the Kazakh bogs.
Tomorrow the pilots will face a real sand adventure with a 250 kilometre long measured section including really big dunes and ended in the city of Alashan Youqi. Success will depend on the combination of brilliant piloting technique and faultless navigation.
