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In their built-in-KZN Ford Ranger (no 308) Alvarez Lucio and Graue
Bernardo
show just how treacherous the conditions were in Nihuil desert where
Chris Visser and co-driver Japie Badenhorst rolled their Ranger
end-over-end after launching over dune on Monday.
PHOTO: FREDERIC LE FLOCH
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(First published in The Witness)
Three of the 11 teams with a link to South Africa that had entered the 2014 Dakar, had retired by Stage 3.
THE remaining built-in-KZN Ford Ranger in the Dakar yesterday made
the third stage cut-off with minutes to spare after the Team Ford drivers Lucio
Alvarez and Ronnie Graue had to replace half of the front suspension on their
Ranger just 80 km from the finish line.
Racing hard in Ranger number 308, the pair had settled into a
decent pace through the first two-thirds of the 301 km third stage, passing
several cars as the route dipped and climbed between 1 800 and over 3 100 m in
altitude, but their run came to an abrupt halt when they hit a culvert in the
road.
“We passed several cars, but with all the dust we didn’t see the
culvert and we broke the lower suspension arm,” said Alvarez.
The Ranger carried the necessary spare parts and Alvarez and Graue
worked for hours to replace the damaged components in 40-degree heat as cars
screamed past at full tilt, creating clouds of dust.
They managed to get the Ranger back on the road and made it to the
bivouac in San Juan just minutes before the refuelling closed for the
night.
The hours spent replacing the bent arm, however, dropped Team Ford
to 81st overall out of 105 remaining competitors in the car category, and they
will start racing tonight (South African time) in 18th position.
Team Ford was slightly cheered by the good news that team member
Chris Visser had been released from hospital after he and co-driver Japie
Badenhorst had rolled their Ranger heavily end-over-end in the treacherous
Nihuil desert after they had launched the Ranger over a dune on Monday.
Visser was kept in hospital overnight for observation on a
compression injury to his back.
Yesterday’s tough stage three saw 20 racers withdraw. South
Africa’s Dakar rookies Thomas Rundle and Juan Mohr made good time in their
Toyota Hilux, however, improving their overall position by two places to 33rd
despite losing their fifth gear for much of the stage.
In the front, Dakar veteran Giniel de Villiers and his German
co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz are lying sixth overall, while team-mate Leeroy
Poulter, who is competing in his first Dakar Rally with co-driver Rob Howie, was
10th overall after starting 23rd on Sunday.
On the motorbikes, SA’s overall offroad biking champion Riaan van
Niekerk rode a safe day to finish a comfortable 27th overall for the day, 11
minutes off the pace set by Spaniard Juan Barreda on the Honda. It was a long
first day for the riders finishing off with just over 800 km on the KTM’s
odo.
Zimbabwe’s biker David Gregory (No 102) was among the six bikes
that withdrew yesterday.
In the trucks, SA co-drivers Sean Smith-Baillie (No 569 MAN) and
Merc co-drivers Johannes Geel (No 566) are still in contention for top placings,
but the Mercedes-Benz of Charles Rossouw (No 562) did not start the rally.
Russia’s Andrei Karginov now sits third in his Kamaz truck, 39
minutes off overall leader and 2011 champion Gerard de Rooy in an Iveco.
