Janus van Kasteren has lost the lead in the truck classification of the Dakar Rally. In the first part of the marathon stage in the Empty Quarter, he finished more than 41 minutes behind the provisional leader. The other Brabant trucks were even several hours behind on Thursday.
The half hour that Van Kasteren is behind provisional leader Martin Macik is not a disaster, because the first part of the marathon stage was only completed on Thursday. The second part will follow on Friday. The Veldhoven native has so far proven that he is the fastest, provided he does not make any mistakes or have technical problems. The Iveco driver will now have to chase during the second part of the marathon test.
Only Vick Versteijnen has managed to limit the damage during the 48-hour test in the Empty Quarter. He clocked a fifth position, only 55 minutes behind, and has thus managed to maintain himself in the top 10 of the truck rankings for the time being.
Hours behind
There have been big blows and hours have been thrown around. Van Kasteren’s teammate Michel Becx was neatly in the top 10 of the rankings, but is more than three hours behind the leader. The same applies to Ben de Groot. These are provisional results because there is still a whole day of riding to be done, but you can’t just walk away for hours.
It is even worse for Anja van Loon and William de Groot. They even fell more than four hours behind leader Macik during the marathon stage. However, they both helped with the overturned truck of fellow countryman Gert Huzink. In theory, they could get that time back.
Top 10
Paul Spierings was in the top 10 of the buggy rankings all day and seems to be in a very good eighth position in the marathon stage.
The other Brabanders in the buggies also had no major problems. Both Jeffrey Otten and Martijn van de Broek were within an hour of the leader during this tough test.
Very heavy
For the first time in Dakar history, there is a stage that lasts two days. The route also goes through the impressive Empty Quarter. That is a desert as large as France with only sand and extremely high sand dunes that can also be very treacherous.
At half past five Saudi time, participants had to drive to the nearest bivouac. There are eight on the route. There the participants have some food and drinks and camping equipment. They sleep in a tent in the desert. The drive will not resume until Friday morning at seven o’clock. And the results of the marathon stage will be drawn up on Friday evening.
Because all drivers are spread across different bivouacs and also in the Empty Quarter, where communication is difficult, it is unclear what exactly the Brabant buggy and truck teams experienced.