After a liaison of over 400km and a quick stop at the customs of the Morocan and Mauritanian borders, this second week of racing in the AFRICA ECO RACE started off with a leg of 174km, with no major difficulties, just one element to take into account was the air temperature well into the 30 degrees. The main drivers of the event had a lot of fun by showing off their driving skills and also their race strategies, this mix gave us a very tight finishing ranking.
The days are starting to be look familiar in the bike category, as Pal Anders ULLEVALSETER won his 5th stage in a row. The Norwegian is clearly untouchable behind the bars of his KTM 450. Luckily his rivals are not abandoning so easily, as we saw with the Frenchman Norbert DUBOIS finishing 2nd of the stage and at the end of stage admitting he would have preferred to have his KTM 690 for today’s stage which was very quick and we know he likes speed.
Just behind we have the two Russians of Dmitry AGOSHOV followed by Anastasiya NIFONTOVA and she is still 2nd in the overall ranking behind ULLEVALSETER. On the other hand, today was a very bad day for the Belgium rider Jean Louis BLANPAIN who broke his KTM motor just a few km after the start of the stage. If he has enough spare parts in his assistance vehicle, he will be able to fix it as soon in the bivouac and he will be able to start again.Same situation for the German Thomas SCHATTAT also with an engine failure on his YAMAHA.
Since the start of this 2016 AFRICA ECO RACE, we must point out that Dominique HOUSIEAUX has not been very good with his OPTIMUS, with even the first two days some pretty bad results, the French driver is now 17th of the overall ranking, with a gap of just over 4 hours until the leader. Then again, this driver very well known in the off road rally scene has not given up, he is no longer going for the top step of the podium in Dakar but he does hope to shine throughout this Mauritanian week.
Today, with an average speed of 145 km/h, Dominique HOUSIEAUX ate the 174km with lots of speed and skills in order to place himself in front of the TOYOTA of Kanat SHAGRIGOV, who is still the leader of the race, and his team mate in the Team MD Rallye Pascal THOMASSE who manages to set a good time and insure his 3rd position in the overall ranking. A very good day for the Hungarian of Balazs SZALAY who with a V8 Opel finished 4th in front of the Portugese NISSAN of Ricardo LEAL DOS SANTOS.
Another fact to point out is Mathieu SERRADORI who will start tomorrow very far down the field and will have a lot of work to do to catch up during this stage from Chami to Atar. This is the perfect opportunity to show the field what he is capable of and to gain some time on his main rivals, who will all be starting in front of him.
A truck war fighting with seconds
The truck race, is mainly in between the two KAMAZ trucks who are both settled in the top 2 positions of the overall ranking, was won today by Sergey KUPRIANOV with just 40 seconds in front of Anton SHIBALOV. Just behind we find the Czech TATRA driver Tomas TOMECEK with the 3rd time only 3 minutes in front of the Portuguese MAN of Elisabeth JACINTO.
Tuesday January 5th, the competitors of the 2016 AFRICA ECO RACE will start the serious stuff with a leg of 413 km from Chami to Amodjar. A very sandy stage, with the first real dunes of the rally where because of the current high temperatures will make the sand very soft and hard to pass.