Blog da Valvoline

Stage 9 was the longest special stage of the Dakar 2012. Stage 9 was also famous for the big sand dune at the end of the stage in Iquique, where you can go full speed downhill from a huge dune, speeds are reached of up to 200km/h! Again it was a problem free day and it hopefully the first days of suffering and problems are now being rewarded with a good push forward. Martin in Dakar truck #510 finished in 11th position and climbing in the overall standing to the 14th position. Fingers crossed Martin can push forward a little bit more and match the 2011 result. A shock for the trucks competition was of course the crash of number 2 Ales Loprais, the truck was upside down and the whole front axle was missing after the crash, it was on a normal road not during the special stage. There are rumours that say that Ales didn't drive the truck himself during the connection part and that the driver fell asleep behind the wheel.

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Vd Brink began the third stage of the Dakar Rally in sixteenth position - giving them the opportunity to challenge the top competitors. As the stage progressed, the team quickly moved into and held twelfth position until a problem arose in the fuel system, preventing fuel from moving from the tank in the back to the tank in the front. This technical setback resulted in a delay of 18 minutes that, when combined with the rough terrain, caused them to finish the day in seventeenth position.

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Day 2 of Dakar started of as a dream, Martin was very quick and passed waypoint1 in second position! The second day of Dakar started of amazing, passing Waypoint 1 in second position. Martin hit a rock and a tire blew. Normally not much of a problem, but the ring holding the tire in place was bend and so they couldn't drive on and had to wait for the quick assistant Martien to come with spare parts It had put them back in 24th position :-(. Lets hope for a better day on day 3.

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It was a battlefield on the first day of the Dakar race. Several strong Dutch trucks crashed in the first stage including: Wuf van Ginkel and a little later Hans Bekx both trucks were to damaged to continue. Another big loss is Gerard de Rooy he had to stop the rage because of an injury to his back, suffered after a hard jump.

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