Kolomý “Saddles” a MAZ with his Tatra in Stage Nine!
The pilot of the Tatra Buggyra Racing team crashed into the pilot of Belarus, Vishneuski, standing with his MAZ in the way. He arrived in the finish with the fourth rank. After subsequent result adjustment he dropped down to rank six, though.
The start was preceded by dramatic moments. “On Tuesday we waited late into the night to see whether Martin would be permitted to start at all, for we thought that a penalisation might come for the uncovered waypoints up to termination. Finally, at midnight, the starting list was issued and Martin was there, so we calmed down. We know the surroundings of Pisco very well, as a fifth stage or so is situated here. The boys enjoyed the stage, unfortunately, they had a small accident on the way, but luckily all turned out well in the end. Nobody was hurt and the truck is all right. So tomorrow we may close this Dakar edition,“ stated Jan Kalivoda after the last but one stage.
“The truck is ok, with only a couple of cosmetic defects, for in one valley, where we jumped from one river basin to another, we hit a stuck MAZ. We could not see it at all. Its warning lights were not on. I jumped up, saw it at the last moment, began to brake, but there was nothing much to be done left. We jumped on its superstructure, lid down and stopped inclined, luckily not lying on the side. We lost some time, but otherwise today´s stage was wonderful, with many dunes. We had to ride up some of them for five times to manage them. Our Tatra worked without a slightest problem. Pity for the little accident,“ described Martin Kolomý stage nine, which brought him the sixth rank after adjustment of the results. “For tomorrow we will throw everything away from the truck, make it as light as it can be and try to fight for a stage victory. We will drive up to our best.“
The navigator Rostislav Plný described the traps of yesterday´s navigation. “Today was far from easy for me. I had to do a lot of hard work to manage. The navigation was difficult for the routes of the previous days crossed in many places. The ruts were very deep. The last stage is quite short but I believe the organizer will torture us even through the last 100 kilometres. Well, never mind. We will continue to struggle till the very end.“
