Feryn (Toyota Hilux) finished eighth and first car in the open category of cars, trucks and SSVs on Monday evening after a long day. It is a provisional result that will be adjusted by Tuesday morning because Feryn stopped when another participant crashed.

The participants of the Africa Eco Race left the Dakhla bivouac on Monday morning for a trip of 360 km to the border crossing with Mauritania. After the necessary checks, a connecting stage of 50 km awaited them until the start of the sixth stage. Given the long connecting ride, it was rather a short ride of 205 competitive kilometers.

After waiting several hours, it took a while before everyone had passed the border control, the sixth stage could start. Koen Wauters was already on the plane to Belgium. He left the competition to take part in a concert series of De Vrienden van Amstel in the Netherlands.

And so all eyes in the team are now focused on Pascal Feryn, the leader in the standings among the cars. And Feryn did more than adequately with eighth place. He finished eighth at 11:01 behind stage winner Loubet (Apache). The result will be adjusted during the evening or night because Feryn stopped when he saw the Hungarian Imre roll over. Only after it turned out that the latter was not injured did the Belgian continue driving. Upon arrival at the bivouac, Feryn presented himself to the race management where he was told that he would get back the lost time, approximately three minutes.

“It was a short but fast ride with two small and rather sloping dunes,” Pascal Feryn begins his story. “Everything went well until we saw the Toyota Hilux of the Hungarian Imre roll over in front of us. The moment we stopped, the pilot and co-pilot already crawled out of their car. They were a little dizzy but otherwise they were fine. We waited with them for a while before leaving. Upon arrival we went to the race management in the hope of regaining the time we lost there. We lost a few minutes there. How much remains to be seen. I hear unofficially that there are three. We will know how many there are by Tuesday morning.”

The Africa Eco Race is half way on Monday evening. “We've had six stages and there are six more to come. I am not going to change my approach and am building in the necessary reserve,” says Pascal Feryn. “I have only one goal and that is to finish at Lac Rose on Sunday. At the moment we are fourth overall and first car. If we don't do anything crazy and continue the trend of the past few days, everything will be fine.”

Tom De Leeuw, Cedric Feryn and Bjorn Burgelman (Ginaf) finished in eleventh place. They move up to eighth place in the standings.

Source Feryn Dakar Sport.