Kolomý and Loprais Continue to Be Bothered by Technology. Now They Are Heading Towards Two Free Days
Difficult are times of the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team with the repeated failures of their servo pumps. Aleš Loprais had to change this part again, Martin Kolomý lost his way and had two tyre defects. The sixth stage was cancelled due to bad weather.
The forecast has materialised and Dakar Rally is accompanied by bad weather. Yesterday´s downpours caused shortening of the measured section by a half and the sixth stage was cancelled completely. Thus the crews will only pass without racing from Oruro to La Paz, where the free Sunday is scheduled.
In the fifth stage Aleš Loprais again had problems with steering and could not hide disappointment. “To tell the truth I cannot find anything positive about this. In addition the defect costs us nerves. The progress is that our steering gets stuck and we jump out of the route by eight metres. This is about plain survival and the truck can be completely broken in a second. I do not like this kind of racing. We have to find the cause and resolve it to be able to continue. We have two days for it thanks to the cancelled stage,“ said the twenty-fifth ranking Loprais in the finish.
Both racing special Tatra Phoenix have been bothered by faulty servo pumps or power steering in the past couple of stages. “It looks like the pumps of this series cannot withstand the extreme load or they are from a defective series. All parts are tested of course but it is not possible to completely simulate the extreme stress under these conditions and in these altitudes. We lose one serve after another and there are no more.
On Sunday morning a series with a different specification will arrive to La Paz which we will use immediately. So the cancelled stage will help up a lot. We have lost a lot of time. The most important thing is, though, that we can still continue,“ commented on the whole situation Jan Kalivoda, manager of the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team.
Very good was the Friday start of the crew of Martin Kolomý, who lead the field for the whole first half. “The fifth stage was very demanding for us. We led the first half but in the second half we had problems with navigation, when the points were poorly marked by the organizers. In the end I jumped over an edge of a dune ending with some stones and punctured two tyres. So we lost again but this is racing and it is the same for everybody. So we have to cope and continue,“ said Kolomý in the water soaked bivouac.
“I wonder how we get out of the mud,“ commented Martin Prokop on the flooded bivouac this morning. He keeps the sixteenth rank in the car category. “Yesterday we had problems with navigation twice. However, now it is about survival, due to the weather,“ he added.
Karel Trněný has finished his first Dakar prematurely due to the failure of his MAN. Thus the racing crews will have to do without the quick assistance.
